Yuko Shibuya -- Tokai no Ehon（都会の絵本）

Another contribution to the "Light Mellow ~ Highway" CD I purchased over the Holidays, allow me to introduce you to Yuko Shibuya's（渋谷祐子）"Tokai no Ehon" (Picture Book of a City).

Originally from Shibuya's 3rd album "Made in Japan" in 1980, that cover for the album seems to feature the singer-songwriter as the world's most dangerous hotel concierge! Getting back to "Tokai no Ehon", what caught my attention right from Note One was that bass. Initially, I was going to make a snarky joke about Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）calling from the future and asking for his bass player back. However, the fellow on that bass according to the liner notes on "Highway" is none other than Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, who's had his own successful composing career, notably for a number of Shizuka Kudo's（工藤静香）hits, such as "Mugon Iroppoi" (ＭＵＧＯ・ん　色っぽい）. For "Tokai no Ehon", though, he's simply content enough to slap out the beats.

Also, from those liner notes, Shibuya was indeed behind the melody while Mikiyo Tobe（とべみきよ）provided the lyrics about love gained and lost in the metropolis. I've already got one other Shibuya song on KKP, and whereas "Konya dake Koibito" （今夜だけ恋人）has that 1970s European holiday feeling, "Tokai no Ehon" is most definitely Shinjuku-friendly City Pop, despite the two songs only being separated by perhaps just a smattering of months. For both tunes, though, Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）handled the arrangement, and while we're at it, there were quite a few great session musicians in on the act such as Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）on guitar, Jake Concepcion（ジェイクコンセプション）on saxophone and Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）on trumpet.

I finally found out from those same liner notes some information about Shibuya herself. She and Masako Kuriaki（栗秋雅子）had formed a singer-songwriter duo called Do Do around the early or middle 1970s. When Shibuya went solo, she initially followed a New Music/pop path until going into the 1980s, when she apparently started following the urban contemporary muse.