Yasunori Soryo & EVE -- I'm In New York

 

Some weeks ago, I put up an article for Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）"Kennedy Airport" and I waxed a tad on my second trip to The Big Apple in 2001, focusing on the unique New York drink, the egg cream. There are some of those memory engrams comings in as I start off this article since my mind wanders back to 1993 during my first trip there in the fall.

I have probably mentioned this in past articles, but when my friend and I went down to New York City to see another old friend who used to live and work in Toronto, I was frankly terrified because of all those years in my childhood and youth hearing that America's most well-known metropolis had also been known as The World's Most Dangerous City. But staying at our buddy's apartment in the Upper East Side and spending those few days there, I realized that things had vastly changed. It has ended up becoming one of my more treasured memories (although I agree that the subway system is spooky, to say the least), especially enjoying that fall weather while browsing at the Kinokuniya Bookstore right by Rockefeller Center. It was a lovely establishment and I even managed to get a few Japanese CDs there. After having lived in Gunma Prefecture between 1989 and 1991 and then being back in Toronto for a couple of years afterwards, I really did need my J-Pop fix badly so I was grateful to see that wooden wagon filled with those albums.

So, as was the case with Suzuki's "Kennedy Airport", I have begun this article with a personal memory of New York City to present a song with a Manhattan theme titled "I'm In New York". This was the first track from a 1981 album "Peyote" by the combination of composer-arranger Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）and the vocal trio EVE. 

That intro from "I'm In New York" hit me fast and hard since it wasn't something that I've heard in a Japanese pop song. I got more of that 80s Bruce Cockburn or Paul Simon cool folk-pop vibe but then when one of the EVE sisters started rolling some delectably velvety vocals, I could hear the melody by Soryo take on that certain 70s life-in-the-city feeling that I used to hear from Billy Joel and then the main refrain really brought home the downtown brass in a mix of jazz and fusion. Bill Crutchfield was responsible for the lyrics of which the phrase "Dancin'...in the streets, in the streets, I'm in New York!" has that celebratory feeling of hitting the big time in the Big Apple.

"Peyote" itself has got quite the cachet in musicians helping out. Jake H. Concepcion is back with his sax, Akira Inoue（井上鑑）is on the piano, Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）is on the electric guitar and Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）has got his battery of horns supporting Soryo and EVE. Speaking of Soryo, you can also give his "City Lights by the Moonlight" from 1977 a spin as well.