Tetsuji Hayashi ~ Celebration of 50 Years as a Songwriter: The City Pop Chronicle in Concert at Tokyo International Forum Part 1（林哲司 作曲活動50周年記念 ～ The City Pop Chronicle in Concert 林哲司の世界 in コンサート＠東京国際フォーラム）

 

A little over a month ago, I had posted an article talking about an upcoming concert paying tribute to the works of singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）in the realm of City Pop. Well, that event, "The City Pop Chronicle", did take place on Sunday November 5th at the Tokyo International Forum near Ginza and it appeared that it was quite the long session at over four hours. Along with the musical guests, I heard that even Van Paugam was able to not only attend but even meet some of the guests themselves such as Akira Terao（寺尾聡）and the man of the hour himself, Mr. Hayashi. 

One other person who was at the concert was music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）who's given his takes on City Pop and AOR in the United States on his own website, "Light Mellow on the web". A few days ago, he gave his own feelings on the concert (just a few hours after coming back from it) of which I'm providing a translation. I'll be splitting this up into two parts with Part 2 coming out next Friday. But let's try Part 1 which will begin after another word from our thumbnail photo.

I've just come back from "Tetsuji Hayashi ~ Celebration of 50 Years as a Songwriter: The City Pop Chronicle in Concert" at Tokyo International Forum. It was quite the long haul at over four hours including an intermission, but with the splendid artists coming out one after the other, there were no hints of time dragging whatsoever. There were no particularly elaborate performances but in turn, what stood out was getting the real stars of the concert tonight: the songs created by Tetsuji Hayashi! The front liners were Anri, Yukari Ito, Junichi Inagaki, Masaki Ueda, Emi Meyer, Momoko Kikuchi, Yurie Kokubu, Chikuzen Sato, Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe, Emiko Suzuki, Akira Terao, Asako Toki, Yukino Matsuki, Iyo Matsumoto, Ayami Muto, Little Black Dress and Tetsuji Hayashi himself. The musical directors were Hayashi and his two comrades-in-arms from their days studying at Yamaha, Mitsuo Hagita and Motoki Funayama. The backing Samurai Band consisted of Tsuyoshi Kon and Takashi Masuzaki on guitar, Haruo Togashi and Jun Abe on keyboards, Kenji Takamizu on bass, Nobuo Eguchi on drums, Nobu Saito on percussion, Naoki Takao, Yuko Ohtaki and Rin Inaizumi on chorus, Luis Valle on trumpet and Andy Wulf on saxophone. The secret to the success was that there were many people who participated in the original recordings of the songs such as Kon, Saito and Togashi.

The show began after about 10 minutes with the young female duo Little Black Dress and their rendition of "Kita Wing". My seat was near the front of the public address system, and suddenly the vocals were so loud that they cracked. I was worried that my ears wouldn't be able to take this right to the finale, but by the time that Ayami Muto appeared right after, things settled down. The first big sensation of the night was Emi Meyer's cover of Jigsaw's smash hit "If I Have To Go Away".

The next thrill was hearing the solo parts from Ohtaki and Inaizumi in the chorus. Being session singers, I knew that they would be good but Ohtaki has had a long career so I was impressed by her expressiveness. Having said that, I was surprised that veteran Yukari Ito arrived so early to do her song. She performed "Tsuyogari" (Bluff), the single that led to the production of "Misty Hour", her City Pop album produced by Hayashi. I guess she had a stronger attachment to this song than the album. Ito also mentioned that it had been forty years since she performed "Tsuyogari", so she probably hasn't sung it since its release. Yurie Kokubu's two songs, "Just a Joke" and "Koi no Yokogao" (Profile of Love), both came from the Hayashi-produced "Relief 72 Hours", her debut album. And both of these songs were included in the first Japanese compilation I put together 22 years ago, so I was especially moved by these two. Then with Anri's "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai" (I Can't Stop the Loneliness), some of the audience actually stood up. The drummer and backing singer on the original recording were the Samurai Band's Nobuo Eguchi and Yurie Kokubu respectively. Keyboardist Jun Abe was also a part of Anri's touring band. Although the backing arrangement was faithful to the original song, there was something a little off in the singing.

Continuing on, Asako Toki sang Tomoyo Harada's "Tengoku ni Ichiban Chikai Shima" (The Island Closest to Heaven). But just when I thought it a bit odd for Anri to come on before Toki, it was here that Hayashi-sensei called on Toki to perform "Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break" together as a duet, and then I was OK with that.* This song was a track on Hayashi's solo album "Rear Window", but if she were well, I can only imagine that Junko Ohashi would have been present for this one. Afterwards, Hayashi remained on stage alone to sing his famous "Kanashimi ga Ippai" (Filled with Sadness) from the album "Nine Stories". Finally to wrap up the first half of the show, Masaki Ueda appeared on stage. He was kinda going through the motions and he practically deviated from the melody, but for someone like this, the performance becomes an art in itself. Still, Kon's guitar playing in response was amazing.**

Hello, J-Canuck again here. Just wanted to clarify or inquire about a couple of notes in the translation.

*I'm not sure why Kanazawa was intrigued about Anri（杏里）preceding Asako Toki（土岐麻子）in the schedule. There was nothing in the schedule to hint that the performers would be coming on in Japanese hiragana order. If Van or anyone else in the know about the concert can give their insights here, that would be great, although I know that this isn't a life-or-death matter.😋

**This was quite the bitter note that Kanazawa made here considering his opinions on the preceding acts. A couple of days ago, I posted Ueda's（上田正樹）"Night Train to the Stars" in which I noted that the singer hadn't looked well when he appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）in late October to sing the same song. I am wondering whether his health was an issue on the 5th as well. 

In any case, the first four paragraphs of the translation match up with the first four paragraphs in the source article, so for those who can read both English and Japanese, have a look and see if I've made any major goofs and then let me know, especially on the Ueda matter.