Haruomi Hosono -- Roochoo Gumbo

Well on Saturday, for the first time in nearly 6 months, I actually left my own neighbourhood and took the TTC downtown to meet up with a couple of old friends to catch up on old times. That's a cinnamon roll, a hot chocolate and some Lysol disinfectant wipes that you see in the photo. Sign of the times and all that. The strange thing was that when I got onto the bus and subway and sat down with the guys in Yorkville, it didn't feel like all that much time had passed. I wasn't exactly gawking during my ride and remarking "So, this is what the inside of a transit vehicle looks like!" unironically. And neither was I suddenly stricken with the unquenchable urge to hug my friends after not meeting in so long (not that I would have done that in the first place because of COVID restrictions anyways). It simply felt like another monthly enjoyable get-together and that was fine with me.

Getting onto the topic at hand, I have here Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）"Roochoo Gumbo" from his July 1976 3rd solo album "Taian Yoko"（泰安洋行...Bon Voyage co.）. To quote the Wikipedia description of the album: "This album continues the tropical style of Hosono House and Tropical Dandy (which would continue later on with Paraiso) while showing influence from the music of New Orleans and also features performances from Tin Pan Alley and Happy End (excluding Takashi Matsumoto).''

Although "Taian Yoko" has its title track, perhaps the delectable "Roochoo Gumbo" can also be a fine representative of the album. I mean, along with that tropical style and New Orleans influences, this particular music gumbo also blends in the dominant ingredient of Okinawan folk music into some of the playful jazz and funk exotica. In fact, most of Hosono's lyrics are in the Okinawan dialect of Uchināguchi provided by Ayako Kawada*（川田禮子）and the backup is provided by the Kawada Ryūkyū Dance Troupe. Furthermore, near the end of "Roochoo Gumbo", Harry the Crown even throws in a shoutout to "Haisai Ojisan"（ハイサイおじさん）. I can even add that his nasal and laidback vocal delivery is an instrument unto itself. As for "Taian Yoko", the album peaked at No. 77 on Oricon.

Not sure what the immediate future is for get-togethers since Canada overall may be entering a second wave, but provided that things don't approach another shutdown, I'm hoping for another kaffeeklatsch later on in the fall.

*There are a number of readings for that first name according to Jisho.org and I couldn't find anything online to confirm Ms. Kawada's proper pronunciation of it. If any of you readers can help me out here, that would be greatly appreciated.