Shingo Katori -- Kon'ya Saikou ne（今夜最高ね）

 

In the last few weeks, I've been made aware of the return of a former SMAP member who kinda laid low for several months to a couple of years following the breakup of the stupendously successful Johnny's Entertainment band. He was following his artistic muse for a while, as I recall. Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）always struck me as being the tall and goofily lovable funny guy of SMAP in contrast with the angry young rebel Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）and the affable leader Masahiro Nakai（中居正広）. In fact, when it came to any solo musical works, I will always remember Katori dressed up like a mother out of a 1970s Japanese home comedy-drama singing "Shingo Mama no Oha Rock"（慎吾ママのおはロック）, a big hit.

Well, what a difference a couple of decades make. Katori is now all dapper and grown up in a tuxedo, and he released a solo album earlier in April titled "Tokyo SNG"（東京SNG）which seems to be him going all Michael Bublé or Harry Connick Jr. Yup, he's going the swing jazz route and one track that has gotten my attention is "Kon'ya Saikou ne" (Tonight's The Greatest). He's performed this already on a couple of shows that I've watched: an episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few weeks ago and then on a Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）special earlier tonight. The lad's sense of humour has gotten a bit more droll.

Regardless, "Kon'ya Saikou ne" is some swing jazz given a bit of a contemporary spin...maybe even some Steely Dan chords in the arrangement. As well, I'm even picking up on some Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (sans the ska of course) and BLU-SWING. Words and music were supplied by Sohsaku Ohtake（大竹創作）, the vocalist of a band called Ossan（乙三.）. I've just been looking into some of their works and they've gotten my attention as well since they seem to be all about the jazz and rock. I will definitely have to cover at least one song of theirs in the next few days.