According to what I've been hearing from contributor and KKP co-administrator Marcos V., it looks like that the big samba parade for Carnival in Brazil is ready to go as of April. I'm hopeful for it since it would be a huge boost to tourism and spirits down there after two years of COVID, and I heard today on the news that the nation is lifting most of its restrictions due to lessening numbers.
Marcos' comments came in the article that I wrote up back on February 27th on Cherish's（チェリッシュ）"Kasukabe Samba"（春日部サンバ）, a song that we both agreed was definitely not samba but a pleasant pop song extoling the virtues of the city of Kasukabe in Saitama Prefecture. Still, I was rather looking for a nice samba in the kayo area.
And it looks like I have found one, thanks to a conversation that Rocket Brown and I had last week regarding the vocal group Time Five. Back in 1979, the group originating from Doshisha University released an album called "Gentle Breeze" which has been seen as one of their City Pop/J-AOR projects. I've already written about one track called "Silent Night", but here is this other one titled "Carnival", and yep, this time, this is a good deal closer to what I've envisioned as a samba melody.
Written by Masumi Ono（大野真澄）, the melody was provided by Japan-based Brazilian singer Sonia Rosa, and I do believe that this is indeed her harmonizing with Time Five. The samba flavour is in there, and I'm not sure whether a sax solo would be a regular thing in a traditional samba, but since it is in there, I think that I could also place "Carnival" within City Pop, too. In any case, I hope that the Brazilian Carnival does come off without a hitch.
Hi, J-Canuck.
ReplyDeleteThere's a popular saying here in Brazil which says our year only really begins after Carnival, so it's a little weird to watch the samba parade so late, in April. Anyway, I'm thankful we're at least going to have it.
As for Time Five's "Carnival", that's really samba-inspired, which was not the case with "Kasukabe Samba". Of course it still sounds like a Kayo song with its jazzy elements and all, but that's never a problem. In fact, I really like kayo songs with samba elements.
As always, Sonia Rosa sounds great here, and I can really feel her Brazilian touch in the melody. Even while living in Japan, she probably was well aware of the Brazilian samba scene from the 60s and 70s, since there's something in "Carnival" that reminds me of a very famous samba from the 60s, which is called "Trem das Onze" (Eleven o'clock Train) by Demônios da Garoa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzoWVTyEalQ
Hi, Marcos. Good to hear from you. Yeah, it'll be good to have Carnival back up and running in Rio after so long. We're looking forward to our own festivals returning after two years starting with the St. Patrick's Day parade in about a week.
DeleteKayo kyoku has had a fairly long and successful "love affair" with Brazilian music ever since bossa nova came on the scene in the 1960s. I'm not sure if it's because of the large ethnic Japanese population in South America, but both bossa and samba have been good sources for kayo.
Thanks for the referral to "Trem das Onze". I listened to it and it is a very jaunty and muscular samba by the guys.