Mai Yamane -- Turn On Street

 

Looks like I've been going for the funk today on Urban Contemporary Friday at "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I might as well wrap things up for my four contributions with "Turn On Street" by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. A track from her March 1981 album "Sorry", there's some good old funk strut going on here judging by that beefy bass which launches things. And methinks that this must have been one heck of a jam session if and when she performed this live at a venue. But at the same time, the last third of the song does have a brief respite of gliding City Pop. Overall though, I did get some feelings of Donald Fagen's amazing "The Nightfly" album via the horns.

Unfortunately, I couldn't peg down the exact bassist who worked on "Turn On Street" although it's a star lineup of Shigeru Okazawa（岡沢茂）, Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利） and Yasuo Tomikura（富倉安生）helping out on "Sorry". Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）was once again on trumpet while Jake H. Concepcion took care of the saxophone. Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）was the guy responsible for music and arrangement so I figure that was him at the very end squealing away. According to JASRAC, there was someone named FUNKY CHICK who wrote the lyrics, and I'm wondering if that was actually Yamane being her coy self.