Yoko Masaki & Los Primos -- Nagoya Blues（名古屋ブルース）

 

I think that the first time I ever had unajuu (grilled eel on rice) was during the 1981 Japanese Language School graduation trip. It would have made sense too since we were there all throughout sizzling July, and Doyo no Ushi no Hi（土用の丑の日）which is traditionally July 24th is the day to eat eel to fight off the heat with stamina. The culinary experience was love at first bite for me. Since then, throughout all of my years in Japan, I've been lucky to have various eel dishes including the Nagoya delicacy of hitsumabushi（ひつまぶし）which you can witness being made above via Cooking with Dog.

As was the case yesterday, we're back in Nagoya today. I wrote about the kayo "Nagoya Blues" which was first sung by Ichiro Kanbe（神戸一郎）in 1971 then covered by Shigeru Amachi（天知茂）a decade later. Well, in December 2000, a wholly different "Nagoya Blues" was released as a single by enka singer Yoko Masaki（真咲よう子）through a duet between her and venerable Mood Kayo vocal group Los Primos（ロス・プリモス）. Compared to the somewhat forlorn-in-love sensation of Kanbe's and Amachi's namesake song, this particular "Nagoya Blues" is a more whimsical and jazz-inflected Mood Kayo about a breezy nocturnal affair all over the capital city of Aichi Prefecture. Written by Nana Hazono（はぞのなな）and composed by Noriaki or Tokuro Fukuda（福田徳朗）, I'd say that if Henry Mancini had ever decided to concoct a Mood Kayo of his own, perhaps "Nagoya Blues" would be the result.

Masaki was born Yoko Beniya（紅谷洋子）in Nagoya, and as a teenager, she made her debut in 1973 under her real name with the aim of singing kayo kyoku that ran the line between enka and pop music in the same fashion of Ayumi Ishida's（いしだあゆみ）"Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）according to J-Wiki. But despite releasing a number of singles, she never got that big hit during the remainder of the 1970s. However, acting as the warmup act for Haruo Minami（三波春夫）, she made a second debut in 1981 under the stage name of Yoko Masaki and stayed within the enka genre. According to her discography on J-Wiki, she was releasing singles and albums up to the late 2000s at least.

The video below from her YouTube channel has Masaki performing "Nagoya Blues" at a 2016 Xmas concert.