Minako Ito -- Sayonara wa Iwazu ni（さよならは言わずに）

Well, back in mid-February this year, I wrote about Minako Ito's（伊藤美奈子）"Derringer"（デリンジャー）, a pretty snappy City Pop number, and said that I would probably write about her again in the following month.

Ahhh...oops! I'm late by two seasons. Anyways to make amends, I'm introducing a track that shared space with "Derringer" on Ito's 2nd album "Sasoi Gyotou" or "Yuu Gyotou"（誘魚灯...Inviting Fish Lights）that was released back in March 1984.

Titled "Sayonara wa Iwazu ni" (Without Saying Goodbye), to me this is a ballad which has only one of its feet in the City Pop genre. Part of it also occupies the jazz world and perhaps there is yet another part which has stepped into a very contemporary part of the Mood Kayo nation. The combination of genres pretty much meant that it had me at sayonara...or hello, so to speak. More specifically, that slow-burning harmonica at the intro managed to draw me into that bar where Ito may have been singing this torch song. Cocktails at 8 and very softly shaken, I'm sure.

Ito composed "Sayonara wa Iwazu ni" while Shun Taguchi（田口俊）came up with the lyrics. Quite the classy tune for a nice evening out in the big city.