Blend -- Montego Nights

 

Well, this isn't exactly a night shot but it is a photo of Jamaica from our 2017 cruise, and the title is "Montego Nights", probably in tribute to Montego Bay over there.

Our game of association continues since the previous article was for Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Manhattan ni Miserarete"（マンハッタンに魅せられて）. Now, we're getting her husband, John J. Stanley, into the mix today with his band Blend. 

Yup, a couple of years back, I introduced Blend which consisted of vocalist Stanley, songwriter Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, and drummer Tohru Yazawa（矢沢透）. I also remarked on how similar Stanley sounded to the amazing Gino Vannelli which is quite the boon to the band's brand of music. With "Woman That I Love" on the blog, I now turn to another track "Montego Nights" from their lone 1982 album "Intercity Renegade". Written by Stanley and composed by Yazawa, the song is really a blend (no pun intended) of Vannelli, the sultry rhythms of Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", Boz Scaggs and maybe even some softer Stevie Wonder. I'm not sure what walking through Montego Bay in the evenings is like but I can only hope that it's as cool as this tune.