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.
On a recent episode of "Asaichi"（あさイチ）when they were holding their Friday "Premium Talk" segment, the interviewee was model/actress/singer Elaiza Ikeda（池田エライザ）who usually goes by her mononym of ELAIZA. I've heard the name before but never saw what she looked like. As the interview went on, we discovered that back in 2018, she'd gotten the gig as host of the NHK BS show "The Covers" where singers of all stripes give their own twist on cover versions of their favourite songs. And apparently, ELAIZA herself got to perform some of her own covers a few months into her time and people found out that she has a pretty good set of smoky vocals. Above you can hear her take on Miyuki Nakajima's（中島みゆき）"Jidai"（時代）although that was on a different program.
A few years later, ELAIZA released her own debut single and album, and then recently, I came across this digital single released in September 2024 which has her collaborating with the fluid collective known as Jazztronik with organizer Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）providing the melody while ELAIZA and Sonomi Tameoka took care of the lyrics. The Neo-City Pop and club music vibe reminded me of those early 2000s when bird and Misia held centre court for J-R&B.
Jazztronik has worked with other singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Giovanca. In a way, there's a parallel between ELAIZA and Imai in that both ladies started out in the modeling and acting field only to fall into singing a few years into their career.
Hope your Sunday, and by extension your weekend, has been a good one wherever you are. It definitely felt like summer here in Toronto with the mugginess flowing in. Things will be getting cooler and drier from tomorrow though.
Perhaps we can start the final Sunday of June 2023 on KKP with something laidback but modern. Up to this point, I've written a couple of articles on the music collective known as Jazztronik centering around Tokyo DJ/pianist Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）with the songs being released several years back and featuring guest female vocalists including "Searching For Love" with Miki Imai（今井美樹）.
I'm taking things a bit more recent with a digital single released by Jazztronik in September 2021 called "Move", and this time it's an instrumental. According to his Wikipedia entry, along with jazz, Nozaki also specializes in a brand of electronic music known as Downtempo "...that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music." I did get reminded about ambient music when I first heard "Move", and sure enough, the Wiki article also has compared it to ambient but there is a further leaning toward rhythm within Downtempo. I gather that the song then does mesh jazz and Downtempo since it does feel very airy and leisurely. Indeed, I think instead of a club, perhaps "Move" might be more tempting for play in a café.
Not quite there yet in terms of summer patio visits. Folks would probably want the temperature by some more degrees before those happen. Still, the sun has been out after a number of rainy days so we'll take what we can get right now and hope for warmer spring weather to result next week.
In the meantime, we can all get aurally comfortable and party-like with Tokyo DJ/pianist/producer Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）and his collective Jazztronik. I wrote about his "Today" a few years ago and today I've got his even earlier "Searching for Love" from his August 2005"Cannibal Rock".
I was wondering about that wonderful voice helping to propel the tropical dance club-loving "Searching for Love", and it happens to be veteran songbird Miki Imai（今井美樹）. There's a lot in this one that reminds me of Mondo Grosso's way of getting folks to get up and dance, and maybe it won't be too long before we can all do that again in Toronto. Daisuke Kawaguchi（川口大輔）was responsible for the lyrics.
Hey, you can listen to the Rasmus Faber remix of it as well.
One of the events that we had during the early 90s with our Japanese club, the JCSA, at the University of Toronto was something called Coffee Night. It was an event that I concocted on Thursday nights between 7 and 10 at the International Student Centre just to provide another excuse for folks in the club to get together and perhaps for people who didn't know much about the club to come in and get to know us. Mind you, in those days, the JCSA schedule was already fairly packed with activities during the week with our English-instructing and Japanese-instructing events through video and then the language exchange on Saturdays. But I had wanted to create a somewhat more relaxed "Cheers"-like atmosphere in the Riddell Room at ISC.
It worked to a certain extent for the few years that I was back in Toronto. We had newbies and semi-regulars come in and out while we had our own coffeemaker and cups and I even brought in my Discman to hook up to some cheap speakers while bringing in some CDs. It was simply another opportunity to enhance our little community.
When I was reading the J-Wiki and Wikipedia articles on this Japanese collective called Jazztronik, I was reminded of my little own Thursday-night kaffeeklatsch within the club since Tokyo DJ, producer and pianist Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）has been handling this project of his since 1998 without any fixed members. Musicians have been coming in and out for years to jam in on his musical mix of speakeasy jazz, lounge and house.
I've been writing about the 1980s brand of techno-jazz for some time now on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with acts such as Kazuhiro Nishimatsu（西松一博）, Harumi Ohzora（大空はるみ）and most recently, Breakfast Club. I guess with Jazztronik, Nozaki's music is the 21st-century equivalent of this combination of jazz and contemporary dance club. Case in point, there is Jazztronik's 2011 album"Dig, Dig, Dig" and one track is "Today" featuring the silky yet nimble vocals of Giovanca. Hearing this, I can imagine the turntables and hip young DJ with the back-turned cap but with the addition of women in flapper dresses doing the Charleston.
Mind you, in comparison to the 1980s techno-jazz, the synths aren't as heavy and insistent here. It's a little more Fantastic Plastic Machine, more focused on the jazz with some dance beats added. In fact, I'd probably say Jazztronik's material, at least from what I've heard through "Today", is more on that Electro Swing kick that was the thing in Japan in the early 2010s with my favourite example being Café Des Belugas ode to "Puttin' On The Ritz".
(Sorry but the video has been taken down)
Also from listening to "Today", I was also reminded of another NHK vignette program that appears on TV Japan sandwiched between two other shows on Wednesday nights called "Ukiyoe EDO LIFE"（浮世絵 EDO-LIFE） which focuses on a lighthearted analysis of famous Japanese paintings. A number of the YouTube videos have had comments inquiring about who is behind the BGM, and I have been curious as well since it seems to a funkified/jazzed-up take on some classical music. Plus, I'm wondering if the lady performing the rap/scat sometimes is indeed Giovanca which also made me wonder then if Jazztronik was in on this, too. As it turns out, though, the music is provided by someone named U-Key, who is Yuki Kanesaka, also a DJ/producer as well as a professor.
