Shinji Takeda -- Blow Up

For those who have watched NHK's Kohaku Utagassen over the last couple of years at least, you may have noticed a fellow pop out and play the saxophone while dressed more as if he should be working out in a gym. He doesn't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger but he looks plenty ripped.

This is actor/musician Shinji Takeda（武田真治）who you can see in the above thumbnail for the video of a more celebrity-run televised workout on the national broadcaster. He's actually the fellow second from the left. A few others that I've seen on the show include seiyuu Ai Fairouz（ファイルーズあい）and singer TM Revolution. Apparently, according to an interview on that workout show via his profile on J-Wiki, Takeda became quite the fitness buff after suffering from temporomandibular joint dysfunction when he was in his mid-20s with his doctor recommending that he go on an exercise regimen to build up his musculature.

However, I'd known Takeda for decades even before I went to Japan for that long stint. My friend was showing Japanese dramas as part of one of the programmes that our university club held back in the early 1990s, and one of the comedy-dramas that I remember was Fuji-TV's  "Chance!"（チャンス！）from 1993 which had a very young Takeda as a weaselly talent manager. Never thought that a guy like him would turn out as chiseled as he has become.

Another surprise for me when it came to Takeda was that along his thespian abilities, he was also a saxophone player, and I gather that with his growing fame, he decided to showcase some of that musical side, too. He was bitten by the sax bug when he was watching a music program featuring the band Checkers（チェッカーズ）alongside his sister who was a huge fan, and he saw band member Naoyuki Fujii（藤井尚之）blowing that horn.

I was in Japan when the non-weaselly Takeda came out with his first single "Blow Up" in April 1995. I believe that there was also a music video for it since it was getting onto the music channels but I couldn't find that anywhere, but I do remember Takeda going nuts on the sax. Listening to it again after so long, I realize that it wasn't just a cool jazz number reminiscent of a 1950s cop show but there are also some dance club elements in there.

Even back then, I didn't hear of too many instrumental tunes breaking into the Top 10 of Oricon, but "Blow Up" really did blow up good by peaking in at No. 9. The single had the original version along with three remixes, one of them being the "Big Saxy Thing" version that you can hear above. "Blow Up" also turned up on Takeda's debut album "S" which was released in June 1995.