Friday, August 16, 2024

Kaoru Uemura -- JOKER

 

The last time I put up a Kaoru Uemura(上村かをる)article was in April 2022 for "Crystal Night"(クリスタル・ナイト). The one before that had been even farther back in 2016 so at least the temporal gap is closing. And to be fair, back in the 2010s, there was a dearth of Uemura material on YouTube, something I believe has been rectified to a good extent, especially with City Pop becoming popular in one corner of the platform.


Well, "Crystal Night" comes from Uemura's 1979 album "Just My Feeling" and so does "JOKER" which actually launches the album. I'm assuming that the song has nothing to do with Batman's iconic enemy and it's got that great bouncy disco feeling through a good time in Roppongi back in the day. Strangely enough, the intro reminds me of the one for Alicia Bridges' "I Love The Nightlife" which came out a year earlier. 

Kyoko Matsumiya(松宮恭子)came up with words and music while the arrangers were Yoshihiro Naruse(鳴瀬喜博), bassist from fusion band Casiopea(カシオペア), and jazz saxophonist Genji Sawai(沢井原兒)who I believe has that sexy sax solo in "JOKER". Nothing like this song to strut down Roppongi Douri with.

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