Kangaroo -- A Night In New York

 

Some months ago, this video got into my Recommended list and it did earn my admiration. To be honest, I'd only heard just a glimmer of this band called Shakatak via mentions of other groups but never bothered to investigate what this English jazz-funk band was all about. Then, I heard "Dance Like Fred Astaire" and started getting visions of early 1980s Manhattan Transfer and fusion band Casiopea（カシオペア）mashed together as I heard some smooth sounds and equally smooth vocals. They were indeed like the nimble feet of the master song-and-dance man in the title.

Well, just last night, another musical waif showed up on my Recommended doorstep and it's another amazing corker! In fact, this fusion band called Kangaroo（カンガルー）had been called the Japanese Shakatak according to its J-Wiki article, and double in fact, Kangaroo even opened up for Shakatak back in the 1980s.

Now, with that album cover in the video thumbnail aside, when I first heard the name Kangaroo, my easy impressions were that this group was either something on the R&B/dance side of City Pop a la Jadoes or from the title of that album "A Night In New York", a band that was into the jazz just like Elbow Bones & The Racketeers since they came up with a snappy song with that very same title.

However, when I pressed Play on Kangaroo's "A Night In New York", I heard something completely different and glorious. I was given some good hope right from the start with the keyboards and the guitar, but then Midori Fukuhara's（福原みどり）splendiferous vocals and the elegant flow of the song accentuated by the horns cemented things as solidly as those sidewalks in Manhattan. Good golly! I actually felt romance toward the Big Apple again after so many years.

"A Night In New York" was the band's debut single (only two singles were released by them) and the name of their final album, both released in 1986. The song was also used for a car commercial; I will give you two guesses where the producers probably filmed the ad. Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）was the lyricist with Yo Kano（加納洋）providing the melody.

Kangaroo actually started life in 1982 when the group with keyboardists Ikuko Arakaki and Hitomi Maseki（新垣郁子・柵木ひとみ）entered an amateur band contest called EastWest with both ladies winning Best Keyboardist honours. The band then debuted in 1983 with their album "Steppin'" and in total up to 1986, they were able to release four albums. In the early part of their time together, it looks like Kangaroo was only doing instrumentals but then in 1984, two vocalists entered: Fukuhara and Emi Kuwasawa（桑沢エミ）. However, Kuwasawa departed, leaving just Fukuhara and having the band shift focus slightly to center around the vocalist in their output in their remaining years before finally breaking up in 1986. 

As for the other members, there were bassist Toshiro Matsuda（松田俊郎）, guitarist Keiichi Hidaka（日高恵一）, and drummer Masashi Hasegawa（長谷川正志）.