Sumiko Toyohiro -- Night Flight

 

Back in late 2018, I wrote about a songstress by the name of Sumiko Toyohiro（豊広純子）who belted one heck of a torch song "Tawamure no Koi no Mama ni"（たわむれの恋のままに）in 1982 in the style of Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）. The ballad would also be covered by aidoru Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵）. Commenter Mike down at the bottom of that article recommended Toyohiro's one-and-only album "Water Heart" from 1983 as something of a must-have for the discerning City Pop fan.

Well, I'm already really liking one track from "Water Heart". Toyohiro's "Night Flight" not only has the cool title working for it, but also that melody by Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）indeed has my mouth watering for the City Pop goodness. Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）is behind the lyrics for this tune which possesses some fine silky sophistication deserving of a tumbler of brandy on the rocks. 

If Toyohiro's delivery of "Tawamure no Koi no Mama ni" can be compared with the vocals of Ohashi, then I can posit that "Night Flight" is perhaps a bit closer to the song stylings of Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子）. Those strings and lone trumpet do that for me. Happily, if this tune has captured your fancy, then you can give the entire album a spin since that is now up on YouTube.