Yes, I realize that it's hardly the time to think of fireplaces. Toronto is reporting 27 degrees Celsius out there with lots of summery sun, and my room is an entire fireplace right now. The fan is doing its best. By the way, the fireplace above is supplied by Relaxing Fire Sound.
However, I felt the need to introduce yet another track from Hi-Fi Set's（ハイ・ファイ・セット）"The Diary", their September 1977 album which is fast becoming one of those New Music/City Pop releases that needs to be brought into anyone's genre collection. I've already gotten the album's "Koi no Nikki"（恋の日記）and "Memorandum" (メモランダム) onto the blog, and here is "Danro de Marshmallow" (Marshmallows Over a Fire).
Written by the recently retired Kei Ogura（小椋佳）and composed by Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）, the intro sounds like the beginning to an Elton John song, but listeners quickly enter a world of completely relaxed and refined jazz. Usually, it's Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）as the lead vocalist but this time, "Danro de Marshmallow" is sung by who I believe is her husband Toshihiko（山本俊彦）. The wonderful Hi-Fi Set harmonies are there and I would have said that the setting for this swaddling cloth of 1970s City Pop/New Music could have been in any place ranging from a Manhattan penthouse apartment to a well-appointed lodge out in Vermont. However with that sax solo in there, I'm thinking it's more of the former than the latter. In any event, the happy couple is roasting those marshmallows among some soulfulness whether the melody is within New York, Chicago or Philadelphia.
Ah, thanks to Purplesound for uploading this winner. I usually don't pounce on videos that have just been put up because that seems a little unseemly but I couldn't resist "Danro de Marshmallow".
Here in the blueforest area of Tohoku it is 13 degrees Celsius at 21:0 on Saturday night. Tomorrow the temp will rise to 17 degrees Celsius.
ReplyDeleteGoing up to 23 Celsius today. Looks like the next few days will have us hovering in the high teens or the low 20s.
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