Saki Kubota -- Alfama no Musume（アルファマの娘）

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by Ingo Mehling

 

Recently, some of my family were able to visit Lisbon, Portugal for the first time and they had a really good time there. They kept things to the city and though the rest of us gave them the third degree about what they did, what they ate, etc., I wasn't quite sure if they had mentioned touring around the Alfama district which is the oldest neighbourhood of the city.

Interestingly enough, I begin Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP with more of an exotic kayo tune here that's titled "Alfama no Musume" (The Girl From Alfama) by Saki Kubota（久保田早紀）. Kubota, of course, is well known for "Ihojin"（異邦人）, one of the exotic kayo classics from the late 70s/early 80s although it had ironically had its genesis solidly set in central Tokyo. 

Well, on the other hand, "Alfama no Musume" is one of the tracks from the exotic kayo A-side of her third album "Saudade"（サウダーデ）from November 1980, and all of that A-side had been recorded right in Lisbon itself with the more New Music B-side being recorded in Tokyo. That bi-city nature of creating an album reminded me of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）City Pop-friendly "Miss M" from the same year in which her Side A was recorded in Los Angeles. Kubota would have her own City Pop moment with her following album "Air Mail Special"（エアメール・スペシャル）from 1981 (and my previous article on one of her songs is from that album).

But getting back to "Saudade", the A-side starts off with an acoustic version of "Ihojin" with the second track being "Alfama no Musume", a short-but-sweet-and-oh-so-flavourful kayo of the region. Kubota sings as if she's toe-dancing on the cobblestones of some of those Alfama streets. The original "Ihojin" may have been a rousing adventure along the Silk Road but "Alfama no Musume" is definitely more of a romantic stroll in Portugal. Kubota was responsible for words and music with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）taking care of arrangement for all of the tracks on the album.