Yoshinori Monta -- Woman

 

Early in 2020, I discovered this really cool and snazzy number by singer-songwriter Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり） of Monta & Brothers fame titled "Aisarenai Show Time"（愛されないShow Time） that was the second track of his 1987 solo album "Bitter". It was quite the perky City Pop song, and I've found that "Bitter" does have a good dollop of variety.

Right before "Aisarenai Show Time" is Track 1, "Woman", which was also his 6th single from the same year. Not to be mistaken with Keizo Nakanishi's（中西圭三）breakthrough hit of the same name later in the following decade, this "Woman" by Monta is a contemporary turn on the type of old-time jazz that you would hear in some sort of tropical nightclub sometime in the middle of the previous century. Interestingly enough, "Woman" was used as the campaign song for a commercial selling soup spaghetti, because when one hears jazz, one always feels like pasta...apparently. All joking aside, the underlying rhythm does remind me of The Andrews Sisters' take on "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" from 1937.