Kazuko Ishibashi（石橋和子）is probably one of the more obscure singer-songwriters that I've encountered in the annals of Yutaka Kimura's "Japanese City Pop" guidebook, but that album cover for her 1981 "Nice to Meet You" is likely to be one of the most genre-friendly when it comes to everything from the iconography to the fashion that Ms. Ishibashi is sporting in the picture. Maybe the only thing she's missing is a bottle of Perrier.
I've already covered a few tracks from "Nice to Meet You" including the jazzy "Gin no Cigarette Case"（銀のシガレット・ケース）, and from listening to some of the other tracks on YouTube, the album isn't strictly City Pop as Ishibashi actually covers a few other genres. For example, here we have "Koi no Wasuremono" (Lost Item of Love) which was written and composed by the singer with arrangement by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）. This is definitely south-of-the-Equator stuff with some good ol' samba in the mix here. Interestingly, as I continued to listen to "Koi no Wasuremono" right to the end, I got the impression that Ishibashi and band could have performed this in some sort of hotel Tiki bar as the headliner with the lady bantering in a most friendly manner with the guests afterward. Nice to meet you, indeed.😀
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