Hatsue Kato -- Youki na Houmonsha（陽気な訪問者）

 

Welcome once again to Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". The above photo is of the Tokyo business district of Kasumigaseki to get us in the mood.

Last year, I introduced singer Hatsue Kato（かとうはつえ）, someone who doesn't have a whole lot of information regarding her life and career, via her B-side "Kurayami ni Sayonara"（暗闇にさよなら）. The A-side is her 1979 single "Youki na Houmonsha" (A Cheerful Visitor), a song that also leads off her lone album from the same year, "Cascade".

I mentioned that the languid "Kurayami ni Sayonara" was interesting but ultimately not the most fulfilling tune. However, "Youki na Houmonsha" is a more stable number with more pep as a City Pop entry. There is also some nice rumba rolling in and out of the arrangement and any bass addicts should like this one, too. For some strange reason, though, Kato's vocal style somehow keeps reminding me of the delivery from Ichiro Nitta（新田一郎）, vocalist of the band Spectrum（スペクトラム）. Akira Inoue（井上鑑）was responsible for the melody while Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）took care of the lyrics.

Hatsue Kato/Takao Kisugi -- Kurayami ni Sayonara（暗闇にさよなら）

 

There is barely anything about this singer named Hatsue Kato（かとうはつえ）aside from the facts that she hails from Fukushima Prefecture and that she used to sing at the now-gone Ginpari（銀巴里）in Ginza which had been known as a mecca for the genre of chanson. As far as I could find out, she did release at least one February single "Youki na Houmonsha"（陽気な訪問者...A Cheerful Visitor） and one album "Cascade"（カスケード）, both in 1979. 

"Kurayami ni Sayonara" (Farewell to Darkness) is the B-side to "Youki na Houmonsha". Written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）, it's about a woman not quite recovered from the end of a romance but she's getting there. Kato's delivery rather reveals those chanson roots though there is some (intentional?) disjointedness when going from the verse to the main chorus; Toshi Kanazawa's review of "Cascade" hints at the inexperience by the arranger. And it was indeed Akira Inoue（井上鑑）who handled the overall arrangement which kinda wavers between Fashion Music and New Music.

I don't know at this time about what happened to Kato after 1979 but perhaps she went fully into chanson.

Later on in December that year, Takao released his 4th original album, "Natural Menu" with his own cover of "Kurayami ni Sayonara". This time, the arranger was Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）who improved upon the original with a more West Coast soft rock feeling that had me thinking Boz Scaggs or The Eagles. Every entry into the main chorus also feels like a jazzy "Alright, let's bring it home!" climax. Both the Kato original and Kisugi cover are interesting but I don't think that they have ended up as their own favourite tunes.