Well, being a Friday and all, I gather that a lot of folks are heavily thinking of hitting the nearest bar or hole-in-the-wall to celebrate the end of the work week with plenty of drink and hearty food. For some reason, I also muse about plenty of Latin jazz.
Guitarist and producer Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）has been serving his fair share of tonic since the 1970s. Within his 5th studio album "Jolly Jive" (December 1979), I have "Bamboo Vender" which has songwriter Takanaka also helping out not only on the guitar but also the steel drums while Izumi Kobayashi（小林泉）is on the keyboards. I don't really think of anyone selling bamboo poles while getting into "Bamboo Vender", but it's very pleasant hearing that rumbling Cuban jazz rhythm (if I'm wrong with my geography here, please let me know). My image is more of beach chairs, white sands and sipping cocktails.
With that December 1979 release date, I can only figure that those who had bought the original LP of "Jolly Jive" had some mighty big ideas about flying out of the cold and over to more tropical climes. I can certainly sympathize although as I'm typing this out, it's been unusually warm here in Toronto with the heat index in the low 20s Celsius.
Longtime lurker of this blog, I just noticed today that my local college radio station(University of Maryland) has a show dedicated to Japanese music mostly from the 70's-80's, which is pretty cool. They did a Halloween-themed show today and it would be interesting to see if these are songs you have highlighted before:
ReplyDeletehttps://wmuc.umd.edu/playlist/18066540
Hello there and thanks for your lurking all these years. :) Looks like the playlist indeed had a Halloween theme. I recall that we've done a few of them such as YMO's "Behind the Mask" and Miporin's "Witches", but there are a lot of songs that I've not encountered before. I may have to cover a few of them before the 31st comes around. Thanks for the tip.
DeleteBy the way, out of curiosity, does the radio station at the University of Maryland often do Japanese pop music?
You're welcome! No, as far as I'm aware they haven't. A lot of the shows come from students, so of course, the programming changes from year-to-year. This is the first time I've seen one just dedicated to Japanese music.
DeleteThat's incredible and heartwarming at the same time. I don't think I've ever heard of anything that specific as a theme for a student radio station show. :) Well, I'll be covering a couple more on the 31st.
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