Tom Coster -- I Give My Love to You

 

What further cemented my fan love for singer Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）was my purchase of her 1986 LP "Main Course". Not surprisingly, the KKP article for "Main Course" was one of the first ones I did on the blog for an album. Right from the first track, it held me in its thrall with its mix of sophisticated pop, jazz and City Pop.

And speaking of that first track, "Koi Hitosuji ni"（恋ひとすじに) is one prime example of sophisticated pop that felt like Kurahashi singing from some late afternoon or early evening balcony overlooking the French Riviera. With lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and the melody by American keyboardist Tom Coster, I'd assumed for years that Coster had contributed the song just for Kurahashi as a single and then as the track to begin "Main Course", and nothing was noted about it on the American side of things.

Well, I was completely wrong about that. It turns out that "Koi Hitosuji ni" was a cover version of Coster's original "I Give My Love to You" from his 1983 album "Ivory Expeditions". And the original, though the basic melody is intact, still gives off something very different in its arrangement. For one thing, it's an instrumental that is fusion with a heavier emphasis on the jazz side of things, and for another, there is an electric guitar solo by Joaquin Lievano that had me thinking Santana, and as it turns out, Coster did work with the band Santana on many occasions. In fact, one of the commenters for the above video remarked that the original "I Give My Love to You" is basically a Santana song. I'm trying to imagine that...a Fashion Music chanteuse covering a Santana ballad.