Izumi Yukimura with Caramel Mama -- Tokyo Boogie Woogie（東京ブギウギ）

 

Just around 8 years ago, I wrote up about "Mune no Furiko"（胸の振り子）a 1947 kayo that was given a cool contemporary spin through a collaboration between veteran singer Izumi Yukimura（雪村いづみ）and musicians such as Masataka Matsutoya and Haruomi Hosono（松任谷正隆・細野晴臣）among others to create the 1974 "Super Generation"（スーパー・ジェネレイション）consisting of covers of the old kayo.

Last weekend, I had a nice chat with Rocket Brown of Come Along Radio and one of the topics was on how much he has enjoyed "Super Generation", especially one other track there, a cover of another 1947 hit, "Tokyo Boogie Woogie" which was originally recorded by Shizuko Kasagi（笠置シヅ子）. Since then of course, the standard has been covered countless times.

This time, though, "Tokyo Boogie Woogie" has Yukimura together with Caramel Mama (the future Tin Pan Alley) putting out a version that sounds as if it was absolutely meant to be performed and enjoyed in some actual roadside honky-tonk. Yukimura has got a mighty brassy voice while the piano is going full ragtime and the rock guitar goes wa-wa-wa. It was quite the match between 1940s kayo and 1970s New Music.

Rocket has put up his own review of "Super Generation" so have a look at it in his own blog.