Shigeharu Mukai -- Hip Cruiser

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Welcome to Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP where we get into all those City Pop, fusion, J-AOR and other similar genres. 

I was surprised that up until this article, I hadn't done any articles featuring jazz trombonist Shigeharu Mukai（向井滋春）. The name is familiar with me but I guess that any mention of him on the blog was more for his participation in other musicians' or singers' works. But that ends today. First off, a bit of biography on him: he was born in Nagoya in January 1949. He took up the trombone in high school there and within a couple of years, he was earning his chops in a jazz band. Mukai would come to Tokyo in 1971 and then in the middle of the decade, he made his professional debut as the leader of the Shigeharu Mukai Quintet with the single "For My Little Bird". As the years passed, he would also have plenty of opportunities as a studio musician, taking part in albums such as Akira Terao's（寺尾聡）"Reflections".

Up until 2011, he would release 22 albums. For today, I give you the title track from his 4th album from February 1979, "Hip Cruiser", which actually does sound quite hip for some reason. The funk takes off from Note One and along with Mukai's solo, there is also another solo from guitarist Kazumi Watanabe（渡辺香津美）. The album cover shows it but I think this is the type of music that would go well with sipping cocktails along the beach.