Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）left this mortal coil a little more than six years ago but he still has friends who are more than happy to pay tribute through his music. I was mentioning this week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode a couple of times through for example, Crazy Ken Band's "Kankou"（観光）, and singer-songwriter and old friend Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子）also appeared on the show to not only fulfill the night's theme of folk music but also perform one of Monsieur's songs.
When I saw Moriyama talk-sing sinuously her way through "Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?" (Hey, You Ever Smoke a Gauloise?) on Tuesday night, I figured that the original by Monsieur must be something special. And sure enough, it is. Written and composed by the man himself, this is one of the coolest urban and urbane kayo that I've ever heard. Monsieur's sly-wink telling of the powers of the famous French cigarette to magically transport folks into a mysterious setting within the City of Lights is surrounded by an arrangement of boss horns and an electric organ that would suit the French equivalent of the detective John Shaft striding through the streets of Paris with a purpose. Maybe it's not a surprise that the song was arranged by Greg Adams from the band Tower of Power.
"Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?" was actually the B-side of Kamayatsu's February 1975 single "Waga Yoki Tomo yo"（我が良き友よ...My Good Friend）. According to his 2002 autobiography, "Monsieur!"（ムッシュ！）, Kamayatsu wanted to whatever he fancied with the B-side since he felt that "Waga Yoki Tomo yo" wasn't really something that fit his image. Well, at around that time, Tower of Power was visiting Japan and somehow the singer was able to sing backup at their concert so the collaboration between him and Adams came about.
Well, I just found out that Moriyama did release her own beatnik jazzier cover of "Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?" a few months ago in July.
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