I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Well, now that we're in early August 2026, I might be introducing this song a month late. After all, the Tanabata festival is an early July event in Japan. But still...better late than never.
Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）is a singer that I first introduced back in 2020. The reason I found out about her was due to her 1989 cover of the late great Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"It Isn't Easy" from his 1982 "Awakening" album. That particular cover can be found on Haneda's 2nd album"Sora", which was produced by Sato. I've also found another really pleasant track from that one, and it's called "Milky Way". Again composed by Sato and written by Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）, it's an urban and urbane synthpop number with a touch of bossa nova. Haneda's strong and silky vocals are given some backup by Sato himself.
Over the past few years, it's become fairly regular for me to wait in hospitals and clinics while my folks and myself go through various medical procedures. And as such, I bring a book along to wile away the time. A few weeks ago, I brought the above tome called the April 2018 edition of "Record Collectors" which was focusing on the City Pop singles and albums from 1980 to 1989.
Well on Page 47, there was an article with the title "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）which has been translated into the title on the above byline. Now, Takiguchi is the leader of the band Ryusenkei（流線形）, one of the groups that spearheaded a new version of City Pop going into the 21st century although he has gone on record to state that he doesn't particularly want that exact label applied to his work since City Pop is a musical phenomenon of past decades; he would prefer that his discography and those of other similarly-minded contemporary musicians be called urban contemporary. I respect his opinion but I also have my own on the reach of City Pop throughout the past few decades and I feel that City Pop never really died out even when the Bubble Era collapsed at the turn of the decade from the 80s into the 90s so I have continued to use the label to categorize songs by Ryusenkei, Kirinji（キリンジ）and Suchmos, etc.
But in any case, I have here Part 1 of his list of those City Pop albums from the 1980s that he has enjoyed starting from 1 to 5. The latter half of the selection will be posted next week. I have also included the comments that he stated in the article for each album. For the last couple of entries, I wasn't able to find a full album.
When I was a junior high school sophomore, one summer, my three buddies and I listened to "Futari" on the Walkman from the veranda of an Atami cottage while looking at the night sky. We were so moved as we each had a turn listening to it and the memory has lasted as a formative experience in City Pop for me.
For the wonderful keyboardist, Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, who had his input on that Yamashita album, I took another look at his "Awakening" in my thirties and it became one of my most favourite albums. He once gave me an interview and though I was nervous, he was kind enough to give me two hours of his time which was a happy memory.
Going back from Matsushita's（松下誠）days with AB's, the original jacket from "First Light" struck me as something that was so cool. The refined chord progressions and arrangement along with Matsushita's not-overly-polished vocals were very comfortable to hear.
I got into "Coconuts High" through the soundtrack she provided to "Urusei Yatsura"（うる星やつら）, and those tropical songs contained the Latin rhythms and her light and cute vocals which harmonized just right with those muscular synths.
I fell in love with "Tasogare My Love"（たそがれマイ・ラブ） when I was in elementary school. I got to know her cool and groovy side when I listened to "Point Zero" in my twenties.
It was exactly a year ago (and also today happens to be the current Emperor's birthday in Japan so it was a national holiday over there) that I posted up "Dance-y Songs for Me (for International Dance Day)". I don't consider myself anything of even being a mediocre dancer but I always enjoy seeing the experts trot their stuff especially when it comes to music I've come to known and love. And yes, International Dance Day is on April 29th but as I mentioned in the original article a year ago, I can't wait until the 29th. I wanna boogie now! So, without further ado:
This was one of commenter Brian Mitchell's suggestions when he spoke on the original dance article, and I see that the dance-oriented video games have agreed as well. Seeing how kayo kyoku has been getting its props around the world, I can also imagine that folks can be strutting their stuff to Pink Lady's classic in the clubs as well as the karaoke boxes.
Hey, the Village People brought it to the disco-crazed masses but Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）also made it his own as a beloved piece of his discography. The danceability is already built in, and as with "UFO" above, I'm sure that both the karaoke boxes and dance clubs felt the love for "Young Man". Certainly, Saijo may be looking at us with a smile.
I don't usually consider the music of Hosono（細野晴臣）, Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and Sakamoto（坂本龍一）something to hit the disco floors for (despite YMO marking itself "the No. 1 dance band in Japan"), but "Tighten Up" can be one exception since as with "Young Man" above, this was a Japanese cover of a song by an American band that liked to get the folks up and moving. I still want that YMO shirt!
I'm surprised that I hadn't included this one in the original article but I guess Labels was pretty stuffed to the gills with entries, so I'm glad that I get to put it the second list. After all. Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）classic is a City Pop party favour for big city living. Plus, YouTuber hirokoboogie shows how folks can move to the groove if you refer back to the "midnight cruisin'" article.
This was another one of Brian's recommendations. Having listened to "Say Goodbye" in the years since I posted up the article for the song and got my copy of the 1982 album "Awakenings", I'm wondering if the late great Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）had been channeling his inner Stevie Wonder or Herbie Hancock when he came up with this masterpiece. Shimmy those shoulders away.
Speaking of hirokoboogie, here she is with her friends as they cut up a rug doing Anri's（杏里）"Goodbye Boogie Dance". Not sure if there had been a lot of lockin' when the song first came out in 1983, but I'm sure folks at home were shimmying up a storm. I can't even imagine how the new fans were reacting on the dance floor at the City Pop dance parties several years ago to this one.
PSY-S was another technopop band that burst onto the scene with some great hooks...hooks that could potentially grab onto listeners and force them to boogie, shimmy or however folks tend to move. The two versions of "Woman-S" had their own ways of manipulating people into doing their steps; the original (below), for example, had that booming percussion.
I've got a feeling that "Dance-y songs for Me 3" will be coming out in 2027!
I remember reading about this 1992 Mikiko Noda（野田幹子）album"Cute" while I was reading through my "Obscure City Pop CDs" book in a freezing Castle Frank subway station in downtown Toronto one February night in 2024 before meeting up with Larry Chan for dinner. It's not easy leafing through a fairly thick tome with gloves on, let me tell you that. But it was from reading on that particular album that I posted up the snazzy first track "Kakete Miyou"（駆けてみよう）, a really nice sophisticated pop tune.
Then, recently, I encountered this lovely mid-tempo track from the same album. "Kono Eki kara" (From This Station) was written by Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）and composed by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, and like a lot of songs that I do like, it's got a number of genres mixed into it: soul (quiet storm), jazz and pop. Of course, I'm a sucker for some of that keyboard work...maybe done by Sato himself...and the bluesy guitar solo. I don't think I'm exaggerating too much if I can say that "Kono Eki kara" could be the musical equivalent of a a really smooth Godiva chocolate bar.
Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"Rainbow Sea Line" is a cover of a song that he provided Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, but compared to the Yoshida version, it's even mellower and more effervescent. His solo debut album "Super Market" was recorded in Los Angeles through an abrupt decision, but even so, the sense of perfection here is such that I am keenly reminded of how much of a truly talented musician he was, no matter the decade. As the title suggests, it's a number that makes me want to listen to it during a drive while feeling that sea breeze.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Hi, J-Canuck here. I do remember posting an article regarding "Rainbow Sea Line" more than a decade ago on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but despite me putting both Yoshida's and Sato's names on the byline, I actually wrote only about the former's version and threw in the Sato version from "Super Market" as an "emergency measure" because at the time, the only Yoshida version that was on YouTube had gotten taken down by the powers-that-be for the longest time. I didn't really bother writing anything about Sato's indeed truly mellower take which I hadn't thought was possible after first hearing the original take for Yoshida. But Kimura is right; his "Rainbow Sea Line" is ideal as a driving song with the top down on the convertible, and it's a tune that reflects the romanticism of 1970s City Pop regarding the possibilities of finally living the good life for a lot of Japanese.
I'd like to also remind readers of Yutaka Kimura Speaks that some 97 weeks ago, Sato was entry 001 for this series and I'm about to finish the final two entries in as many weeks.
Initially coming out with normal ballads with a languid tempo, "Shiosai"(The Sound of Waves) is a 16-beat medium-slow masterpiece by Kirigaya（桐ヶ谷仁）with a floating sensation, thanks to Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）touch. With the effective playing of the Moog and the timbre of the sax solo during the bridge, no matter how you cut it, this is without a doubt a miraculous pairing and it takes my breath away every time I hear it. I have to tip my hat to Alfa Records back in those days.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Hello, J-Canuck here and just like with last week'sYutaka Kimura Speaks with Yumi Arai（荒井由実）, I'm here with another song that I hadn't previously covered on the blog although I have posted about another track on Kirigaya's "My Love For You", "Yotsuya Yuumagure"（四ツ谷ゆうまぐれ）. I guess as we get deeper and deeper into these 100 masterpieces, this sort of thing will be popping up, so we'll just play it by ear.
Anyways, although I'm not quite ready to be as gushing as Kimura about "Shiosai" since I've only started listening and only really appreciating the first track of "My Love For You", it's growing on me. The first few measures did have me wondering whether I was in for a prog rock thing but the melody quickly turned into something more warm and comfy. And Kimura was right about the pairing of the Moog synthesizer and a saxophone that sounds a lot like Artie Shaw's playing. I can only imagine how Hiroshi Sato came up with that sort of arrangement.
Featuring a Chris Rea-esque slide guitar solo by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, "Wasted Summer Love" is a first-rate medium-tempo song that skillfully weaves via Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）arrangement an image of momentary silence while riding on the highway. While an exceptionally fine Hamada song with a specially urbanite sentimentalism permeating its mellowness, "Wasted Summer Love" can also be considered to be an absolute masterpiece which unreservedly displays that distinctive Hamada flavour.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
It just so happens that the final day of June falls on the typical Urban Contemporary Friday for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so let's make it a good one.
With a title like "Wasted Summer Love", I'll have to ask for Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）forgiveness for assuming that it is rather depressing. This is the penultimate track on his fifth album from August 1983, "Mugshot", but in spite of the title, it's another beautifully crafted ballad by the singer-songwriter with lyrics by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and arrangement by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）. Maybe there was a love lost here but I'm hoping that the breakup was amicable and both parties learned something wonderful from each other during their time together.
Especially listening to the bridge, there is something rather Boz Scaggs or Bobby Caldwell in Sato's work, and the wistfulness is amped up due to the addition of that steel pedal guitar. Though I'm writing this in the early days of summer, "Wasted Summer Love" could be more for the latter days of the season (that August release date certainly hints at it) nearly hitting fall which would fit the theme of the song.
Unlike for the inaugural article for Yutaka Kimura Speaks, there will be less J-Canuck blah, blah, blah and more of Kimura.
Number: 001
Lyricist: Lorraine Feather
Composer/Arranger: Hiroshi Sato
From his 1982 album: "Awakening"
This is his most contemporary mellow groove song from his landmark recording which established his distinct style after his encounter with the Linn drum. It may be a silly love song based on lyrics talking about the negotiations between a man and a woman, but thanks to Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）splendid taste, I can immerse myself in an aurally luxurious sensation within the dry air of Los Angeles. With the quality of the melody and the sound, it's of course very hard to dismiss "I Can't Wait" with the flavour that he imbues into it.
Sorry the resolution for the above image from Aucview isn't very good but I did want to have some form of this medium to help explain myself and this particular song. This is the back of a laser disc (remember those?) that featured an album of past tunes paired with imagery by musician Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）called "California Image Sketch ~ Twinkle Square" (1985). The uploader for the song of this article, BetoCrazy, mentioned that this is an extremely rare album, and I can believe it. I tried looking for it on Sato's long list of accomplishments on J-Wiki and even his own website, but I couldn't find any sign of "Twinkle Square" anywhere.
Anyways, I'm grateful that BetoCrazy was kind enough to upload one of the tracks from this unusual LD album. If you can squint and risk your eyesight on the thumbnail at the very top, you can see two tracks listed "Sweet Inspiration '85" and "Inspiration". The one here is supposed to be "Inspiration" and it's an English-language cover of the opening track "Sweet Inspiration", the opening track from Sato's June 1984 album"Sailing Blaster".
The original "Sweet Inspiration" is a happy funky animal but this new version "Inspiration" with singer Cindy Yamamoto, who was also the lyricist, taking over the mike this time. It's a whole lot mellower in a tropical way so I don't think that I would place it as a City Pop tune but it's pretty relaxing in an AOR way. Enjoy the rum punch on the Lido Deck!
Well, whaddaya know? YouTuber Reely Interesting was kind enough to upload the entire LD earlier this year, so enjoy the music and the views.
I guess that this song from Sumiko Yamagata's（やまがたすみこ）1977 album"FLYING" must have taken its sweet time growing on me since I hadn't included it in my article on the album back in 2018 and it hadn't gotten its own article until...well, today.
(9:21)
And so, today is time for "TODAY" as I exercise my right for Dad Joke Wednesdays. Whatever reason it was that I held back on writing about this track from "FLYING" has been nullified and the tune is now quite catchy. It was written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, and it has this intro which sounds quite cheerful and encouraging with a slight reggae hop. Then there is the instrumental bridge with the twangy guitar that comes across like something that Matsumoto's old bandmate from Happy End（はっぴいえんど）, bassist Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, would concoct for his Tiki bar music with Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）back around the same time. But near the end, there is the muskrat-sounding keyboard riff which struck me as being quintessentially Sato.
Keeping in line with kayo traditions, the happy-go-lucky melody underlies Matsumoto's lyrics of a woman just going through her sad daily rut of a routine at the company. She would like to break out of it, but it doesn't look like that's going to be happening too soon whether it be today, tomorrow or the day after that. Can't complain about the music, though, and for that matter, Yamagata's dreamy and almost woozy delivery. "Hello, Miss Gloomy" indeed!
It looks like it's the Sato-and-Masaki day today. I've just finished the article on Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"Tandem Run" which was written and composed by Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）and Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）respectively, and while I was in the middle of finding out the basic information about that song, I found a brief report on Masaki's creations. The first song at the top of the list was "Honeymoon Shuttle" by Anri（杏里）.
Now, as for those Martin fans who have just read about "Tandem Run", I did have to give belated birthday greetings, but I was much better with Anri since I did give those right on her birthday on August 31st via the article for her "Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai"（涙を海に返したい）. Anyways, as I mentioned off the top, it's indeed a Sato-and-Masaki day since the two of them had also been behind this dreamy Anri song "Honeymoon Shuttle" from her 1986 album"Mystique". The kanji which could be read as "Mitsugetsu Sen" or "Mitsugetsu Bune" is always sung as "honeymoon shuttle" by the singer.
However, the reason that I chose to write about this Sato-and-Masaki-penned number immediately after a Sato-and-Masaki-penned one for Martin is not because of the commonality in songwriters. It was actually because "Honeymoon Shuttle" isn't only another lovely Anri tune but it also sounds quite different in my estimation when compared to the songs that she was recording during that decade with folks like Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. Even its track mate on "Mystique", "Morning Squall"（モーニング スコール）, has some of that Kadomatsu feeling although the composer and arranger are different.
Actually, "Honeymoon Shuttle" is a romantic Latin-tinged song that sounds so Sato. In fact, I think that if it hadn't been for Wendy Matthews living large on his amazing "Awakening" album, Anri and "Honeymoon Shuttle" could have fit right in as a track there. Sato and Masaki created "Tandem Run" to fit the Martin style but for this Anri tune, it was the other way around. Incidentally, regarding the lyrics, I thought that the narrative was a happy one but then by the end, I realized that despite the honeymoon nature of the music, there was that cold and musty smell of breakup. I'm not sure why the word "honeymoon" was even included except to further dig the toothpicks under the fingernails to stress the message that what could have been didn't happen. I guess Masaki and Sato were in their own Blue period at the time.
And welcome to another sunny Sunday edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". The age of 60 is an important one in Japan since the birthday is known as kanreki, a sign that one has gone through the Chinese zodiac five times and is seen as a rebirth for the individual. Still, like in Canada, Japan's Old Age Pension clicks in from 65 years of age.
Well, guess who turned 65 on September 22nd? It was none other than the King of Love Songs, the Count of Charisma and the Sultan of Soul in Japan himself (the last two titles are mine alone), Masayuki "Martin" Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. Yup, this guy is now technically a senior citizen! This is a fellow who can probably dance orbits around me (and considering my girth, the vocabulary is accurate here) and he's now able to pick up his OAP cheques.
While we "Kaguya-sama"anime fans wait for a third season next year and therefore, hopefully, another Martin opening theme extravaganza, allow me to introduce another track onto the blog from his April 1988 album, "Radio Days", to join "Misty Mauve" and "Hohoemi wo Machi nagara"（微笑みを待ちながら）among others. "Tandem Run" will have new fans of Martin swooning with its cool and upbeat soulfulness and some of that city-zipping sophisti-pop feeling.
Keyboardist Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was responsible for the music and arrangement while Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）came up with the lyrics about a fellow giving his goodbyes to a woman and a relationship after a great run in the city via a car (I'm assuming nothing less than a sporty version of Audi would have sufficed here). Just from the description, the guy seems like a blasé Humphrey Bogart type who has acknowledged the good times but when it's time to say adios, it's time to say adios (although it's uncertain who initiated the breakup). The only couple that really stays is Bogie and his Audi. Somewhat cold, but dang, I love the music by melody magician Sato.
In October 2018, Kevin Lozano of the website "Pitchfork" contributed a fine article ostensibly on Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）debut solo album "Hosono House" (May 1973) but actually delving into that album and some of his others from the 1970s and 1980s. His point was that there was more to Hosono than just being a part of the technopop pioneers in Yellow Magic Orchestra (of course, YMO in itself was an incredible achievement and influence on music). Since then, with interest in overall Japanese popular music of the past building thanks to the "Plastic Love" phenomenon around the time that Lozano's article was publicized, perhaps the author's wishes may finally be getting realized with listeners discovering Hosono's own music-laden past with Happy End（はっぴいえんど）and Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）in the early to mid-1970s which was far away from the technopop.
The reason I mention all this is that I wanted to cover Hosono's first track on "Hosono House", the quiet but happy-go-lucky "Rock-a-Bye My Baby". When I first laid eyes on the title, I'd assumed wrongly that Hosono was covering some old American pop song from the 1960s but this was actually his own creation on all fronts. In fact, "Rock-a-Bye My Baby", even listening to the LP or CD, sounds like an intimate experience as if Japan's music legend invited himself into your abode to play this on the acoustic guitar and you're happy that he did so. I imagine that Hosono's lyrics are all about enjoying time with that significant other on a bright sunshine-y day in the park with a local diner awaiting your patronage (meat loaf and mashed potatoes for me, thanks!).
Simply my opinion here but because this was Hosono's solo debut after breaking up with rock band Happy End, I think that he wanted to start off the album with something that was very different from that rock sound which he had created with his bandmates. Therefore, Hosono came up with this simple bluesy guitar-driven ditty about a happy day outside. Lozano did mention in his article that Hosono had wanted to come up with "virtual American country" for "Hosono House", and there is something very old country genteel about "Rock-a-Bye My Baby" as if this should be listened to while sipping a Mint Julep in a rocking chair on a wooden stoop. At the same time, there is something about that basic rhythm which had me remembering the theme song for the 1960s"The Dick Van Dyke Show" and a standard that was often played in a number of Warner Bros. cartoons.
In 1975, a couple of Hosono's contemporaries covered "Rock-a-Bye My Baby". One singer was Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）who recorded her version as the final track on "MINAKO", her 2nd studio album from October of that year. Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）arranged the song as a breezy and groovier take with a hint of bossa nova. Although the YouTube video of the actual recorded version exists here, I wanted to include the live version above since it's difficult to find an early Yoshida performance.
Folk singer-songwriter Kyozo Nishioka（西岡恭蔵）did his own cover of the song earlier in July 1975 as the title track of "Rock-a-Bye My Baby" the album. I think the arrangement is similar to the Hosono original although there is a bit of that breeze in Nishioka's version as well. Incidentally, that original was used as the ending theme for the 2015 second season of the anime "Atashin'chi"（あたしンち...My Home） focused on the antics of a family in Tokyo (although despite the thumbnail image of the Tachibanas above, the Nishioka cover is being played).
To wrap up, here is Nishioka on television to sing "Rock-a-Bye My Baby". For some reason, the credits which pop up at the beginning of his performance have Nishioka behind words and music. Hopefully, Harry didn't take that personally.
Mighty shiny building in West Shinjuku. I hope those window cleaners got a hefty bonus for their work. Not sure whether I actually set foot in there, but there was one of those towers that I did get to enter to have dinner right at the top. Wonderful view...in fact, it was so wonderful that I've completely forgotten what I ate there. If you know my appetite, that's not easy to do.
"Shiny Lady" is the first track on singer/musician Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）compilation album"This Boy" from May 1985. Sato of course composed and arranged this bouncy and funky City Pop tune that, for the lack of a better word, is a typically Sato-esque creation. The man is a marvel on the keyboards which include a Yamaha DX-7, a Mini Moog and a Fairlight CMI according to the J-Wiki article on the album, and the whole effect is like a walk among the modern skyscrapers of the aforementioned West Shinjuku, day or night. Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）is behind the lyrics that Sato and his backup, EVE and Miho Fujii（藤井美保）, sing out high and low.
Now that I've been listening to City Pop with all of its members including Sato, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）among others, I've gotten some pretty solid images whenever I hear their music. With Tats, it'll either be a beach or an Eizin Suzuki painting, but with Sato, it'll be photos of gleaming Tokyo buildings.
It's been a while since I've seen Mako Ishino（石野真子）. Being the late 1970s aidoruand then going on to a career in acting and appearing as a tarento, I also have to realize that she also made a transition into straight pop going into the 1980s. Although a lot of folks on this side of the Pacific, which includes orthodontists, will not agree with me here, she was also known for having one of the cuter smiles due to her yaeba（八重歯）or what we would call a snaggle-toothed smile. Since then, Ishino has had that corrected.
Anyways, I have found this track from her October 1985 album"Saffron"（サフラン）called "Boushi" (The Hat). Even though I could find the lyrics by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）, I still couldn't quite understand them so I gather that this was more of an image-laden dreamscape that was being portrayed. It would seem that Mako-chan has found herself in a café and she takes notice of an enigmatic figure under a hat, rakishly slanted over the man's head.
The composer for "Boushi" was none other than keyboardist extraordinaire Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, the man behind the City Pop/J-AOR classic "Awakening", and I'm pretty sure that he's also the one behind the keyboards in this particular song. His seemingly delicate playing (along with Ishino's vocals) also adds to the dream-like quality of "Boushi". It's kinda like the equivalent of a cup of chamomile tea.
Martin is in a pensive mood tonight? Is he perhaps thinking about what he could do to top "DADDY DADDY DO" when the next season of "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦）finally appears? We can all bet that fans of that anime are hoping that the King of Love Songs comes back to help out with the theme.
In the meantime, we fans of Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）can go way back in his solo career to his 2nd album"Radio Days"(April 1988) to partake in some of that wonderful soul music. From the same release that has brought listeners "Misty Mauve" and "Guilty", I give you "Hohoemi wo Machi nagara"(Waiting For Your Smile).
Lyricist Norie Kanzawa（神沢礼江）, composer Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and arranger Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）have provided Suzuki with some of that wonderful nighttime soul through "Hohoemi wo Machi Nagara", a cool tune about a man who's pining away for that young lady who just doesn't seem to notice him. It could be the most kakkoii ballad involving an adult Charlie Brown and the Little Red-Haired Girl or if the dynamics were different, even the story of Kaguya and Miyuki from the above-mentioned anime (personally, I wouldn't mind one of Martin's earlier hits put into an episode as an insert song).
Before I get carried away on the implications of Kanzawa's lyrics, let me also compliment that music with the keyboards and the city sax solo. And of course, there is the King's voice. Not a bad way to end a Friday.
Friday night...and the sight is unfortunately rather drab and wet here in Toronto right now but hopefully the restaurants have been able to bring countermeasures to their patios in the form of awnings or something similar.
It's too bad since this song is the type of song that City Pop fans would like to hear adorning their nursing of their beer or cocktail on some sunset balcony of a bar or other eatery. This is Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）"Saigo no Tejina" (The Last Sleight of Hand) from her 3rd album"Pillow Talk" released in October 1978. I've actually written about one other track from "Pillow Talk", "Koi no Ryuusei"（恋の流星）.
As would befit the times, there is that "haze" effect from the synthesizer to start things off before the Fender Rhodes and a Latin guitar escort Sato's always relaxing and sultry vocals. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was the lyricist here and I have to give my compliments to the person running the keyboards especially during the instrumental bridge, and it turns out that it is the keyboard master himself, the late Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, who composed the bossa nova-tinged "Saigo no Tejina".
Well, if you can't get to a bar tonight, at least you can enjoy that beer in front of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" or YouTube listening to this one.
The first time that I had ever heard of the musical expression Vocalese was, not surprisingly, through The Manhattan Transfer's 1985 album"Vocalese". I soon learned that it was that form of jazz singing in which lyrics were crafted and grafted hand-in-glove onto original pre-existing solo instrumental performances. My first question was "So, is it like scatting?", and the answer to that was "No!" since scatting was using nonsensical wording instead of the actual words for Vocalese.
The Manhattan Transfer wasn't the first group to come up with Vocalese. According to Wikipedia, that honour goes to Eddie Jefferson and then I found out about Lambert, Hendricks & Ross among other artists who had been practicing their Vocalese before the Transfer. However, when I think of the famed quartet and their Vocalese virtuosity, I usually remember their incredible take on "Four Brothers" which came out on their 1978 album"Pastiche". Just to give credit where credit is due, though, "Four Brothers" had originally been composed by jazz saxophonist and composer Jimmy Giuffre in 1947.
Just to be able to create that stream of Vocalese and then make it sound seamless while performing at warp speed is a supreme feat, but just imagine trying to do the same thing with "Four Brothers" in Japanese. And yet, someone did try to do just that.
Almost a couple of years ago, I noted the Queen of Commercial Songs, Masae Ohno（大野方栄）, pulling off her version of "Lover, Come Back To Me" under the title of "Eccentric Person, Come Back To Me" for her 1983 debut album"Masae A La Mode". It looks like for this album, Ohno wanted to do covers for a few of the standards, and Track 1 was "Four Brothers" under the title of "For Darling". There may be no Big Band horns in this rendition but it's still plenty of jazz, and Ohno indeed takes on the big task of putting her own lyrics onto the quicksilver Giuffre melody. She does pretty well for the most part, I might add, as she dives into the pool and cuts through the water like a shark's fin, although I'm sure that she was absolutely exhausted in the recording booth.
I've also got to marvel at the lineup backing her up. Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）and the late Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, who I usually see in the City Pop file, were jamming happily away on guitar and piano respectively while the members of fusion band Casiopea were also helping out. Sato took care of the arrangements for the entire album.
It's been a while since I put up a Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）song and it's indeed a City Pop Fridaynight so why not go with one of his upbeat numbers? From his August 1983 album"Mugshot", I bring you "Good Luck City Romance" which means that it shares KKP space with its track mates from the album, the cool and punchy "Rainy Heart" and the mellow "Gatsby Woman".
"Good Luck City Romance" has Hamada as composer and Chinfa Kan（康珍化）as the lyricist. It's also got the punch and strut punctuated with horns that sound as if they were inspired by their brethren from Stevie Wonder's"Sir Duke". Plus of course, the boppy bass and the sax solo are intact as well.
The song does indeed describe what I hope is a very successful date in Tokyo with plenty of dinner and dancing, and perhaps in a reflection of a wonderful night in the big city ending a tad too soon, "Good Luck City Romance" seems to finish off rather abruptly. I would have hoped that it went on for at least another 15 seconds into the 4-minute mark.
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