Mariko Takahashi -- Hitoaruki (Part 2)（ひとあるき）

 

Yesterday, I posted Part 1 covering chanteuse Mariko Takahashi's（高橋真梨子）March 1979 debut album "Hitoaruki" (Walking Alone) and so I'm completing it with Part 2 tonight. It's been a nice trip through the genres as the Hiroshima Prefecture-born singer exercises her wonderful chops for the first time as a solo singer.

Seeing that there were a total of ten tracks on the original LP, I'm assuming that Track 6 "Oide Summer Holiday"（おいでサマー・ホリディ）which I have already covered in its own separate article (you can click the link in Part 1) starts off Side B. So we go onto Track 7, "Otozure"（訪れ...The Visit） which is a short but very sweet and slightly woozy and boozy bossa nova-inflected song about a visit by a lover which, let's say, is a bit bigger than a pleasant arrival for tea and cake (maybe for breakfast, perhaps😎). Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）was responsible for the melody while the lyricist could be a man or a woman named Aki Fukunaga or Kumi Fukunaga（福永史）. According to Jisho.org, the kanji for that first name could be read in different ways.

The next track is "Futari no Monogatari"（二人の物語...Story of Two）, a bittersweet tale of a woman walking alone in the rain, being reminded when it used to be the two of them taking their walks before fate intervened and they split up. Takahashi has also been one of those few singers in Japanese pop music that also reveled in doing the occasional song with that country ballad lilt, and this is one of them. It doesn't always stay maudlin though as the arrangement by Shinichi Tanabe（田辺信一）takes things into something brighter and hopeful in the chorus. "Futari no Monogatari" was written and composed by Kuni Kawauchi（クニ河内）who had created "My Dream" from Part 1.

Takahashi has always had a deep and rich voice and she goes slightly even deeper here as she tackles Track 9, the melancholy "Yoru no Kao"（夜の顔...Face of the Night）. Written by Rei Tsushima（津島玲）and composed by Kiyoshi Hasegawa（長谷川きよし）, the song about what I think is a lady in the mizu shobai industry going about her evening business with a sense of resignation and necessity comes off in the arrangement as being dramatic to the point of being almost chanson. That intro also had me wondering whether this was going to be a Fashion Music tune but the arrangement veers things back into adult contemporary and perhaps a bit of classical pop.

From the heaviness of the previous song, we come to the final track for "Hitoaruki", "Chiisana Watashi"（小さなわたし...Little Me）. It's a love ballad composed by City Pop and jazz songsmith Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）, and I've found the collaborations between Takahashi and Hamada to be some wonderfully tenderhearted songs such as the one they would do later, "Jazz Singer". Both Takahashi and the aforementioned Fukunaga for "Otozure" worked on the lyrics about a woman who feels warm, safe and beloved in her partner's embrace. The ballad also feels like a lullaby of sorts and I recall that at least a few of Takahashi's other albums ended in the same manner as if she knew that fans would listen to them later into the wee hours of the night so that the final track would help to send them off to la-la land.

In any case, "Hitoaruki" is an album that Takahashi fans probably already have as a must-own, but for those who are starting their exploration into the Japanese pop music of yore that doesn't involve aidoru or enka, I can recommend this one as an album for those who could enjoy the adult contemporary with the foray into the romantic.

As a PS, I have to say that it was listening to "Chiisana Watashi" that prompted me to talk about the entire album. I had originally planned to just write about that final track from 1979 and then also introduce Takahashi's own cover of the ballad in her most recent album of covers, "Mari Covers" from June 2019. The newer version has been fortified with some bossa nova.

Kiyoshi Hasegawa -- Afterglow

 

Last October, I wrote about singer-songwriter Kiyoshi Hasegawa's（長谷川きよし）1985 "City Lights Blue" which was a pleasant surprise since I'd known him initially as a folk singer with the predilection for bossa nova. Of course, I have no bias against folk or bossa nova, which I do love, but Hasegawa was another example of a Japanese singer in the folk genre who made a leap into City Pop. 

However, on finding this particular song recorded by Hasegawa, I realize that his dabblings into the urban contemporary went even further back. Case in point: this track from his November 1978 album "Another Door", "Afterglow". At first, when I was looking up his discography on J-Wiki, I saw a 1976 album of his with that very same title of "After Glow" (albeit divided into two words), but then checking the track list and not seeing a title track with that name, I realized that the uploader was correct with that above thumbnail image of "Another Door" since "Afterglow" the song was placed in there. I gather that Hasegawa must have assumed that "Afterglow" was too cool a title not to earn a song around it.

In any case, "Afterglow" is an interesting concoction between composer Hasegawa and lyricist Rei Tsushima（津島玲）. It's got some of that Margaritaville aspect of City Pop/J-AOR with honey-toned trumpet and Fender Rhodes but at the same time as the song continues to flow steadily, there is also a hint of folk especially at the end of the verses. Additional horns come into play to provide some more fusion and then there are even a clarinet and a harmonica thrown into the mix with the latter having its solo near the end. Those last two instruments seem to inject a bit of old-time whimsey.

Feel relaxed enough to sip a good cocktail along to this one. 

Kiyoshi Hasegawa -- City Lights Blue

 

Earlier this spring, I introduced singer-songwriter and guitarist Kiyoshi Hasegawa（長谷川きよし）who has had a long career spanning all the way back into the late 1960s. His "Wakare no Samba"（別れのサンバ）was his 1969 debut single and a wonderful example of how much he loves Brazilian music. I pointed out that I think bossa nova is probably his beloved genre.

However, Hasegawa has also tackled folk music and apparently that's how he started gaining his fans. Interestingly enough, he is one of those Japanese folk singers who also made that leap into the world of City Pop, and so we have his 1985 album "This Time" and this one track "City Lights Blue".

Hasegawa seems to take to the urban contemporary genre like a duck to water if "City Lights Blue" is of any indication. He was responsible for the groovy music while Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）provided the lyrics. As usual, I'm a sucker for those rhythm keyboards and that bluesy guitar and the only thing I'm disappointed is that "City Lights Blue" is quite short at a shade over three minutes and the ending is surprisingly abrupt. But perhaps he's like any showman and likes to leave his fans wanting more. Yes, I'd like to know more next time about "This Time".

Kiyoshi Hasegawa -- Wakare no Samba（別れのサンバ）

As I mentioned in the article for J-WALK's "Neon Kagayaku Hibi"（ネオン輝く日々）, the singer-songwriter Kiyoshi Hasegawa（長谷川きよし）was the first person that I heard singing this wonderfully bluesy ballad through a streaming YouTube channel, but alas, I couldn't find his version online. However, I was interested in finding out more about Hasegawa.

His J-Wiki article states that the singer-songwriter and guitarist from Tokyo eventually lost his sight due to glaucoma at a young age. However, he won 4th place at a chanson competition when he was a high school senior, and in 1969, he debuted professionally with "Wakare no Samba" (The Breakup Samba) that was written and composed by him.

Wonderful voice and there's something about it that reminds me of crooner Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）. The J-Wiki article also states that although Hasegawa never particularly got any hits, his material was played on the late-night radio broadcasts and as a result, he gained much popularity from the young crowd who were interested in folk music at the time. His repertoire consists of bossa nova, folk and chanson, but I think it's that first genre that he's been in love with.