Time Five -- Uruwashi no Lori（麗しのローリー）

 

Being a longtime fan of the Manhattan Transfer, discovering the vocal group Time Five（タイム・ファイブ）proved to be a fortuitous encounter since there's nothing like a bunch of folks in perfect harmony with the backup of a sizzling swing band.

I was helping out Rocket Brown with the translation of the liner notes on one of Time Five's albums "Gentle Breeze", and in it was a brief mention of a previous release "Tsubasa wo Kudasai"（翼をください...Give Me Your Wings） from 1979. The notes mention that "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" was a trailblazer in Japanese pop in that Time Five was masterfully covering a number of Western pop songs in Japanese. Track 1 is "Uruwashi no Lori" (Beautiful Lori) with Japanese lyrics by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, and to use an old word, it's a humdinger of a jazzy tune which explains why I like this group and the Transfer. Once again, it's all about the smooth harmonization and a group of instruments playing like there was no tomorrow. I just get this urge to reserve a room near the top of the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.

As I mentioned above, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" is supposedly an album of cover tunes, and "Uruwashi no Lori" is a cover of "Oh Lori" which was a 1977 single for the Alessi Brothers, who I had never heard of before. They are known as a pop-rock or a soft rock duo of twin brothers, but despite the soft rock appearance of Billy and Bobby (great hair, by the way) in the video, those jazz roots can't be hidden. The Alessis were also responsible for "Savin' The Day" which was a song on the 1984 "Ghostbusters" soundtrack.