Some sad news to start off Wednesday in that veteran drummer Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami（村上 “ポンタ” 秀一）passed away on March 9th at the age of 70. Murakami was a name that I often saw in the liner notes of albums that I have and through J-Wiki writeups of other albums. The Hyogo Prefecture-born musician took part in the recording of songs ranging from anime to enka, starting his career as a drummer for the folk band Akai Tori（赤い鳥）and then also participating in the backing band for singer-songwriter Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）. Murakami worked with everyone from Candies（キャンディーズ）to Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）to Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.
As well, Murakami participated in Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Spacy" album in June 1977 including the glorious track "Love Space". He is also playing here on this other track "Suteki na Gogo wa" (Wonderful Afternoon) which is pure aural sunset sunshine.
Another tasty collaboration between lyricist Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and composer Yamashita, it's all about savoring the present with a loved one on a gorgeous late afternoon. It's about as smooth an arrangement as I have ever heard for one of Tats' 70s City Pop gems with the gently plucking guitars, the mellow Fender Rhodes and horns, the steady-as-she-goes drumming, and of course, the singer's relaxed delivery (he could have been delivering this while lying down on the sofa). According to J-Wiki, Yamashita was going for some of the Chicago soul by Gene Chandler.
Nothing better for a Wednesday afternoon. My condolences to the Murakami family and all who worked with Ponta.
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