Yuka Kamebuchi -- Whiskey Night（ウィスキーナイト）

One of the more architecturally distinctive structures that I had seen in my years in Tokyo was the Akasaka Prince Hotel. Though I had never viewed it during my 1981 trip to the megalopolis, I saw a photograph that my brother had taken of the hotel during his own Japanese language school graduation trip the following year. At the time, I didn't know what it was but that serrated acute angle was very fascinating to me. It would take a few years before I realized that it was a hotel belonging to the Prince chain...ironic, considering that both my brother and I had stayed at the original Tokyo Prince.

But as with most buildings in Tokyo, they eventually have to be taken down...even the more interesting-looking establishments, and so about 7 years ago, the Akasaka Prince was demolished in a way that garnered a whole lot more attention than it should have.

I was reminded of the site of the old Akasaka Prince last week when I was teaching my student, and he told me about this place near the site called the Akasaka Prince Classic House. This is an event hall that is rented out for various parties, and it even offers afternoon tea. From what I've seen on its website, it looks primo and it reminds me of a similar place over here in Toronto, the venerable Old Mill.

As I was marveling at the house's Bar Napoleon which has separate rooms of different themes, I ended up listening to the late gospel singer Yuka Kamebuchi's（亀渕友香）earlier songs. "Whiskey Night" is as smooth as a tumbler of the titular good stuff and is a track on her 1978 album "Back Stage" which has been selected as one of the "Light Mellow's Picks x Tower to the People" series of AOR/City Pop albums. The song indeed made for a good melodic companion as I was looking through what Bar Napoleon had to offer. In fact, I do wonder whether it was even used as a commercial song for Old Parr or anything by Suntory.

Kamebuchi was born in Sapporo and raised in Kyoto. She came from a family that had connections to the music industry with a brother as a radio DJ and an aunt who was a jazz singer. As an elementary school student, she was deeply moved by the songs of Mahalia Jackson, and in 1968, Kamebuchi made her debut as a vocalist in the R&B group Ricky & 960 Pounds（リッキー&960ポンド）with her debut album "Touch Me, Yuka" coming out in March 1974. In 1993, she created a chorus group focused mainly on gospel called Yuka Kamebuchi & The Voices of Japan, and it was a group that I had seen on television a few times when I was living in the Tokyo area. She also became a voice trainer for a number of musicians including Anri（杏里）, Misia and Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. 

Kamebuchi would pass away in October 2017 at the age of 72.