Sadao Watanabe/Yuki to Hide/Toi et Moi -- Shiroi Nami（白い波）

 

The good news is that it's feeling really balmy out there with temperatures being on the plus side of things. However, the bad news is that we're supposed to be getting smacked around again with a wall of precipitation and a lot of that will be in the form of cold hard rain before it changes into snow. Then, the temperatures will plummet once more.

For this Wednesday smack dab in the middle of February, allow me to give you a song that is rather soothing. Bossa jazz always has that effect on me. The folk duo Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モワ）provided something that was a little out of their folk toolbox, and yet, Emiko Shiratori（白鳥英美子）and Sumio Akutagawa（芥川澄夫）handle their "Shiroi Nami" (White Waves) as if they were born to sing bossa nova. It's just a pity that I couldn't track down when they had released "Shiroi Nami" although it is located on their "La Belle Epoque" compilation from 2001. I could only find out that through another YouTube video featuring this particular song that it had made its presence known sometime in the early 1970s, so I'll just plant it as a 1970 concoction.

But then, there was one comment that I saw under that video for Toi et Moi's "Shiroi Nami" that said something to the effect that they "...also liked this version" by the folk duo. And so I thought "Oh, was there an original version of it?". Once again, I was happy to go into the rabbit hole to search for a story on this comforting "Shiroi Nami".

And sure enough, I found out that the first sung version of "Shiroi Nami" was recorded by another duo that specialized in Japanese-style bossa nova, Yuki to Hide（ユキとヒデ...Yuki & Hide）. In fact, "Shiroi Nami" was their very first single released in July 1967, and yep, I can "taste" an even more pronounced bossa nova flavour in this version. 

The lyrics were provided by Hide himself under his other stage name of Eiji Mizuki （水木英二）, and for very keen readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and/or true believers in kayo kyoku, both of those names might strike you as being very familiar because they both popped up in my February 2015 article for Hide & Rosanna's（ヒデとロザンナ）"Ai no Kiseki"（愛の奇跡）. Yep, same fellow but different duo. There was one more single released by Yuki to Hide later in October but the act broke up sometime in 1968 with Hide meeting Rosanna soon after that. In fact, there were two Yukis during the Yuki to Hide era with the original, Yuki Sato（佐藤ユキ）, taking on the geimei of Mariko An（アン真理子）in 1969 and going onto a career of singing, songwriting and acting.

Up to now, I haven't revealed the composer for "Shiroi Nami" but I will as of this sentence, and it is jazz saxophone legend Sadao Watanabe (渡辺貞夫...Yuki to Hide during their short time together enjoyed covering his songs). The original is quite a bit peppier than then sung versions and it is a track on his June 1967 LP, "Bossa Best Collection".