Finishing off this Friday's take on Urban Contemporary songs on KKP, I've decided to go with something mellow and older...maybe the aural equivalent of good scotch. And I found this one not from the City Pop guides above as you might think, but from a YouTube City Pop compilation video.
However, I was happy to find the song all by itself in a separate video, so I will go with that. This is "Mou Ichido Kikasete" (Please Play it Again) by the late singer-songwriter Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）. Written by Shibata and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, it's got that wonderful flute, the bluesy guitar and the splendid harmonies provided by the singer and others.
It's been around three years since I've had Shibata up on the blog, so I'm glad to have found this lovely example of 70s City Pop which was recorded onto Shibata's November 1975 2nd album "Singer Lady"（シンガー・レディ）. There's also a goodly amount of soul in "Mou Ichido Kikasete" which reminds me a bit of Minnie Ripperton's music.
Musically, this is a very good example of the intersection between 1970s Japanese jazz-pop, soul and sophisticated adult pop. Ohno doesn't overwhelm the song with orchestration; instead, the arrangement gives Shibata room to phrase almost like a jazz vocalist. What I particularly listen for is her control. She had a huge, powerful voice, but here she doesn't simply belt. She moves between intimacy and dramatic projection, making the song feel as though you're hearing someone's private memory gradually turn into a stage performance.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think perhaps some of Shibata's training was in jazz vocalization which explains what you've described.
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