KAZZ:BA -- Itsumo（いつも）

 

Earlier in the 1980s, there was that kiddie technopop quintet Cosmic Invention（コスミック・インベンション）centering upon the drummer and vocalist Mima Morioka（森岡みま）. Well, the quintet broke up in 1982 and of course, the kids couldn't remain kids.

Morioka continued on in a solo career and according to a brief description regarding her on the Cosmic Invention J-Wiki file, she also became involved with another technopop unit known as DIO. However, going into the 1990s, Morioka also became part of a band known as KAZZ:BA. Although I had initially thought that it was pronounced like "Casbah", it's actually pronounced as "Kajiiba".

Very little information is available on this band aside from the facts that Morioka was in it and that KAZZ:BA released a July 1991 album titled "Cuarenta". I don't know how the rest of the album is, but at least one track is about as far away from technopop as Morioka can get. "Itsumo" (Always) may have some mix of real brass and synth-brass in the arrangement, but the overall feeling is some snazzy City Pop of the time.