Yutaka Yokokura -- YUTAKA

One of the wonderful benefits from doing this blog for over 8 years is that I've been able to find out a lot of new faces and enjoy their music. I believe that I have mentioned this before, and I will say it again since this time, one of those people is AOR singer/keyboardist/kotoist Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）. He's already got a goodly amount of representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" not just for himself but also for his work with the band NOVO and even actress Tomoko Fujita（藤田朋子）, but up until late last year, I hadn't gotten my hands on any of his albums.

So I am happy to say that I did obtain two of his works...finally...for Xmas with the earlier album being "YUTAKA" from 1988 and then "Another Sun" from 1993. Those two albums along with one in the middle, "Brazasia" (1990) were his projects under GRP Records owned by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen. I know that by getting "YUTAKA" I was in for a fine treat, thanks to one of the tracks "Warm & Sunny Sunday Morning" which basically demands an Eggs Benedict and a cup of freshly roasted coffee as a culinary backdrop. At the very least, I had to get it since Yokokura had one of the most impressive mullets in the history of photography.

The vast majority of the tracks on "YUTAKA" are instrumentals showcasing his koto and keyboard work with only three providing vocals including the aforementioned "Warm & Sunny Sunday Morning". The first track is one of those instrumentals "Colors of the Wind", an appropriately warmhearted and breezy number that had me marveling at the fact that Yokokura was able to make a koto sound jazzy.

One of the other three tracks with vocals is "Dreamland". Bunny Hull provides the lyrics and background vocals behind Yutaka's music and main vocals. Those strings add a layer of old-fashioned romance to the koto-driven AOR.

"Night Wave" composed by Yokokura begins with an atypically sinister tone, and there is even the addition of another traditional Japanese instrument in the form of a shakuhachi thanks to Kazu Matsui. As the title would suggest, there's something fairly reminiscent of some 1980s crime drama taking place replete with some shady goings-on but including a bit of lightness (perhaps a romantic interlude). Maybe another crazy thing that I could suggest here is that the song could act as a theme for some nighttime radio program for AOR called "Night Wave" itself.

One more song that I will include here is the remaining track with vocals "Living Inside of Your Love", another Hull and Yokokura collaboration with the two of them backing up Pauline Wilson as the main vocalist. Wilson was also singing on "Warm & Sunny Sunday Morning". This one has some more oomph and horns in the beat, and carrying on with the movie analogy, I think "Living Inside of Your Love" can provide some of the music for a scene where either Sly or Arnie enter a dance club in Los Angeles looking to pick a fight with one of the bad guys.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

The above video is for the entire album so you can get to listen to some of the other tracks that I didn't cover this time. As one commenter put it, "YUTAKA" is one relaxing album. It's the type of collection of songs that a person would love to put into the stereo as destressing therapy after a hard day of work. And as a simple observation, I pick up some hints of Pat Metheny and even the poppier ballads of the Manhattan Transfer when I go through "YUTAKA". Moreover, Yokokura's voice itself is as soothing as the koto that he plucks and the smooth arrangements that he has woven.

I will get into "Another Sun" in a few weeks.