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.
We're about five weeks into autumn now so things have chilled down significantly from the blazing summer that we had here. People are probably reaching for their pumpkin lattes and sweaters and the like. Or perhaps like Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico above, they may still be going for something cold. It's all good.
Earlier this year, I featured "Sweet Magic", the jaunty title track from jazz saxophonist MALTA's September 1984 album. Well, we're going down the list a little bit to show off his "Autumn Place", a more languid song to rake the fall foliage by...or better yet, to watch someone else rake the fall foliage by. With those strings in there, I also feel there's a bit of Mancini mixed in with MALTA's honey-toned sax playing. Enjoy the latte!
I recall a few years ago having posted an article on saxophonist MALTA's "A Letter From September"(1987), a romantic sunset or nighttime work that would make any romantic date sound even better.
Well, I've got something which comes in a little earlier in his career. The title track for MALTA's 2nd album"Sweet Magic" from September 1984 is definitely more upbeat and would probably fit the morning or early afternoon for any couple's walkabout on the beach. MALTA probably sweated a couple of litres' worth of sweat recording this one but it's well worth it, especially with some of his friends on piano and guitar. Also, I have to give a shoutout to that lovely cover. Looks like Tokyo Big Sight with an attitude!
Indeed, welcome to September! I figure that we ought to start with something that has a September theme to it.
Therefore, we have "A Letter From September" by jazz saxophonist MALTA from his 1987 album"My Ballads". Those honey tones possess a warmth-filled sensation of a lovely dinner in the penthouse apartment with some added class thanks to those strings and some fine piano, but MALTA is definitely the leader of this band here. Maybe this would be the song to hear after a hard day of work today.
Strangely enough, this isn't MALTA's first rodeo on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Years ago, I featured him on the blog as a composer for music that was completely outside of his jazz-fusion roots. Back in 1991, he took care of a Eurobeat tune for the duo Yamadakatsutenai Wink（やまだかつてないウィンク）composed of comedienne Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子）and aidoru Chisa Yokoyama（横山知枝）, "T-Intersection -- Anata ni Modorenai"(T-Intersection -- あなたに戻れない...I Can't Return to You).
MALTA is actually the nom de plume for Yoshiaki Maruta（丸田良昭）from Tottori Prefecture. Born in 1949, he started playing the saxophone in junior high school and soon professed his intention to go professional, but his parents maintained that he should become a teacher. However, it looks like there was probably more intense negotiation after that, since after graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1973 with that degree in music, he promptly went over to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music. Once he graduated from Berklee in 1976, he even started lecturing there, but a few years later, he worked with fellow artists including trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombonist Jimmy Knepper and guitarist Larry Coryell on bassist/pianist Charles Mingus'"Me, Myself An Eye" (1979), although by that point, Mingus had been too ill to perform. His first solo album"MALTA" came out in 1983 after which a long stream of other albums have flowed over the years if you take a look at his discography.
Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子）, a homely but hilariously cheeky comedienne, first found fame on the Fuji-TV Saturday night comedy-variety show, "Oretachi Hyokinzoku"（オレたちひょうきん族...We Are The Funny Guys) which pretty much ran for the entire decade of the 1980s. Her specialty was impersonating singers, but I recall seeing her in a segment in which she drew some surprisingly racy stuff in front of the kids. But with her own star rising, Yamada eventually got her own variety show on the same network from October 1989 titled "Kuni-chan no Yamada Katsutenai Terebi"(やまだかつてないテレビ....Kuni's Yamada Unprecedented TV) every Wednesday night. It was part of my weekly viewing routine during my years in Gunma. The comedienne was her usual hammy self in various skits and segments with other regulars, but a number of musicians also achieved a form of semi-regular status on the show.
So, in March 1991, a double-CD pack which resembled one of those cubic watermelons that Japanese scientists had concocted some years back was released titled "Yamada Katsutenai CD"（やまだかつてないＣＤ....Yamada Unprecedented CD). Being a fan of the show, of course, I just had to purchase my own copy. CD 1 has all of the original songs while CD 2 contains the karaoke versions of those songs. Almost half of them have already been profiled: Kan -- "Ai wa Katsu", Mariko Nagai -- "ZUTTO" and the late Kaori Kawamura -- "Tsubasa wo Kudasai".
Kawamura also had another contribution to the show in the form of "Kamisama ga Oritekuru Yoru"（神様が降りてくる夜...The Night The Gods Come Down), a pop-rock tune which was used as the theme for one of the recurring segments: a parodic feature on medieval Japanese court life. The song was created by Ken Takahashi（高橋研）.
During the turn of this decade, the singing duo Wink had become one of the big acts in show business. Of course, Kuniko Yamada, whose talent lay in impersonating singers, just couldn't resist and decided that she needed to impersonate them. So, she incorporated another segment in 1990 titled "Nihon Zenkoku Sachiko Sagase"(日本全国早智子探せ.... Find A Sachiko All Over Japan) in which her Shoko Aida would find the right Sachiko Suzuki. She found her.... Chie Yokoyama（横山知枝）, a high school student from Hiroshima Prefecture. Together they formed the unit, Yamadakatsutenai Wink（やまだかつてないWink), and their first single was "T-Intersection -- Anata ni Modorenai"(T-Intersection -- あなたに戻れない...I Can't Return to You), an uptempo Eurobeat piece whose lyrics were written by Yamada herself and composed by saxophonist MALTA.
In the following year, the ersatz Wink came up with a ballad titled "Sayonara dakedo Sayonara janai"（さよならだけどさよならじゃない...It is and It Isn't Goodbye), which was also written by Yamada and composed by regular guest KAN. It was created partially as a tribute to Yokoyama who was on her way to graduating from high school and onto college. However, it's become a graduation song for just about everyone. It did become a hit, peaking at No. 2 and ending up as the 49th-ranked song of 1991. The entire disc set itself was able to hit the top spot on Oricon as well.
There is also a Xmas song by the duo on the CD, but let's save that for a more appropriate time.
Yamada Katsutenai CD
Discs to help me remember the late 80s and early 90s
