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.
It was about a year ago that I introduced a since-disbanded jazz trio with the name Kurofune Lady to Ginsei Gakudan（黒船レディと銀星楽団...The Black Ship Lady and The Silver Star Orchestra） consisting of singer Fumi Mizubayashi（水林史）as the Black Ship Lady herself with pianist Yuri Hirota（廣田ゆり）and guitarist Toshihiko Shiokawa（塩川俊彦）. Their song was the peppy "Ichiban Hoshii Mono"（いちばんほしいもの）.
Well, that song belonged to the trio's 2006 album "Furubon'ya no Waltz"（古本屋のワルツ...The Old Bookstore Waltz）, and now that they're back on the blog again, I'm providing the title track. As advertised, it is a lovely and intimate jazz waltz with Mizubayashi's gently lilting voice doing that light waltz all over the floor and on the song sheet. Seeing that the album had been produced to help support the bookstore area in Jimbocho, Tokyo, there is that atmosphere of the ancient pages of books and woodsy bookshelves within that old-style bookstore. Here's hoping that the E-book trend hasn't totally eliminated the need to visit some of those establishments in Jimbocho. Writing this on a Saturday, I remember that I often used to visit the area on Saturdays.
It's a slightly atypical Saturday night here in Toronto. For one thing, in addition to the usual Maple Leafs game at the Scotiabank Arena, Taylor Swift is finishing up her third concert of six during her run here of the Eras Tour. Should be even crazier on the streets and the TTC tonight. For me, I've just been watching the Leafs game from my overly comfy armchair, and as would be the case for someone my age, I've been mostly dozing off. I needed to get off my duff and write something.
So, how about some Saturday night jazz? Singer Fumi Mizubayashi（水林史）from Toyama Prefecture gained her love of jazz and the music of the first few decades of the 20th century from her grandparents, and from about the beginning of the 21st century, she debuted her singing of the jazz classics under the name of Kurofune Lady（黒船レディ...Black Ship Lady）. For several years from 2002, Mizubayashi got together with pianist Yuri Hirota（廣田ゆり）and guitarist Toshihiko Shiokawa（塩川俊彦）to form the trio Kurofune Lady to Ginsei Gakudan（黒船レディと銀星楽団...The Silver Star Orchestra）.
In 2006, in an attempt to support the bookstore area in Jimbocho, Tokyo (one of my favourite neighbourhoods and the location of the used CD shop Tacto), Kurofune Lady to Ginsei Gakudan released an album titled "Furubon'ya no Waltz"（古本屋のワルツ...The Old Bookstore Waltz）. From that album, I offer you "Ichiban Hoshii Mono" （What I Want The Most） which was written and composed by Mizubayashi with co-composing credits also going to Hirota. A nice, light and swinging jazz number that is very nostalgic right down to the final "taking it home" segment, it had me swinging out of my slumber mode and it could be one of those songs that accompanies a flapper girl and her beau out to cut up a rug in one of them dance halls. It's also nice to have some more of those jazz instruments backing the main unit up and those sweet vocals by the Lady. There's even part of the song that reminds me of the theme from "Bewitched".
The Ginsei Gakudan called it a day in 2009 but since then, the Kurofune Lady has kept the collaborative spirit going by working in a couple of more groups from 2018. One is the jazz unit Mizu no Miyako Gakudan（水の都楽団...The Water City Orchestra） and the other is Baikamo（梅花藻...Plum Blossom Algae）, a duo with Mizubayashi and Irish harpist Akiko Ichimori（ 一守明子）. In 2024, a vinyl LP titled "Sweet Swingin' Suite" was released which contains selected songs from Kurofune Lady to Ginsei Gakudan including "Ichiban Hoshii Mono".
