Izumi Yukimura & Motoharu Sano -- Tokyo Chic（トーキョー・シック）

Happy Monday! I guess this article will feature one of the more unusual duets that I have ever come across in kayo kyoku. You have one of the Sannin Musume（三人娘）, the three popular songstresses who also included Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）and Chiemi Eri（江利チエミ）from the early postwar period, paired up with a pop/rock balladeer of the 1980s for a jazz number in 2014.

And yet, this is what happened. Izumi Yukimura and Motoharu Sano（雪村いづみ＆佐野元春）collaborated to make a single together titled "Tokyo Chic" in February of that year. I've been quite impressed with Sano, who composed and wrote this song, since he's gone beyond my initial images of him as that jeans-and-T-shirt type of guy on the same lines of The Boss and The Piano Man from the late 70s and early 80s. Even before his official debut as a singer, he helped with Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）back during the 1970s through some City Pop and then for this decade, he came up with a wonderful tribute to Big Band/Swing jazz.

However I have to admit that Yukimura at the age of 76 back when this was recorded has definitely got the lead role here. I'm not sure if this is so much a duet as it is Sano trying to keep up with his partner. In any case, the duo has come up with a cheer-up song to get folks out of the blues and into painting the town red through one of the largest cities on the planet Earth. Plenty to see and do in Tokyo, to be sure. Just bring lots of yen!