Yuji Toriyama -- Maze

 

As a kid, I did have my casual interest in solving mazes in those cheap puzzle books, so you can imagine how fascinated I was in a 1970s game show called "The Money Maze". Seeing all those contestants racing frantically around a gigantic labyrinth to find their thousands of dollars had my heart pumping back then although now I would probably think that the entire exercise could be an allegory for life for folks between their twenties and sixties.

Although at the time I hadn't been aware of it when it came on in 1974 on ABC, "The Money Maze" was hosted by journalist and television host Nick Clooney who happens to be the sister of singer Rosemary Clooney. His son has gained even bigger fame by becoming a Hollywood A-lister, George Clooney.

Once again, my preamble ramble is due to the fact that I wanted to introduce this track called "Maze" by musician, composer and music producer Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）. I've usually posted about him as part of the "back office", so to speak, since I've known him mostly as the songwriter for other singers' pieces. In fact, the last time he was on the title byline was back when I posted an article in April 2019 for "Your tender lovin' care", a groovy AOR song from his first solo album "take A break" from 1981.

Well, a few albums and years later, Toriyama released his fourth album "A Taste of Paradise" in 1985 and with "Maze", it's still got the jazz in there but now it's fused with some synthpop goodness. It's obvious that he embraced the technology with a Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）giddiness on Xmas Day. Despite all of the synths and effects (including the 80s orchestra hit), though, I can still hear that Toriyama wanted his "Maze" to have that feeling of taking place in a tropical clime. Maybe that synth-trumpet was channeling Miles Davis, too.