Maiko Nakano -- Shuumatsu no Lovelorn Girl（週末のLovelorn Girl）

 

It's been over eighteen months since I put up a Maiko Nakano（中野麻衣子）song on KKP, but I figure that today is the right time since it is Urban Contemporary Friday and with Japan also in Christmas mode, people are probably getting into the party spirit.

And yep, I was nicely reminded how snazzy her discography was back in the 1990s. The last song that I wrote about her back at the end of March 2023 was "Imitation Blue" from her 1991 album "Bay Side Story". Well just a couple of tracks down from that one is "Shuumatsu no Lovelorn Girl" (Weekend Lovelorn Girl). Written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed/arranged by Tatsuya Nishiwaki（西脇辰弥）from the band PAZZ, it seems to possess that feeling of caviar-and-champagne brand of City Pop brought over from Bubble Era Japan, just the thing to stride down that big boulevard at night while savoring some rich times.

Maiko Nakano -- Imitation Blue

 

Over five years ago, I provided an article regarding a little-known singer by the name of Maiko Nakano（中野麻衣子）and back in 2018, I lamented that I couldn't find much on this singer-songwriter. Well, in the years since, there has been some movement on that front with Discogs showing that she had released at least one album and a couple of singles dating back to 1989 including the topic of that first article, "Chinatown"（チャイナタウン）.

Well, along with "Chinatown" also being included on Nakano's one album from June 1991, "Bay Side Story", I was able to find its track mate, "Imitation Blue". Written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, "Imitation Blue" actually precedes the more conventional sophisti-pop of "Chinatown" and it's a little more different in style. For one thing, there is a slightly gloppy technopop thing going for it thanks to one synthesizer but the overall feeling is that of a jazzy time at an old-fashioned faded glory nightclub somewhere in the big city. Maybe there's even a bit of Matt Bianco in the proceedings.

Listening to Nakano, she does have that voice of a jazz chanteuse which makes me wonder whether she did go into that genre later on. But I have just discovered that she is currently running a drinking establishment in Yokohama called Rick's Café according to one blog and she has her own Facebook page. Being a fan of "Casablanca", I wouldn't find tracking down the place myself. It's located within five minutes' walk from Nihon-Odori Station（日本大通り駅）on the Minato Mirai Line, and from the looks of it online, I think that I may have indeed walked by the station.

Maiko Nakano -- Chinatown（チャイナタウン）

If I'm not mistaken, Chinese New Year is sometime next week. I'm not sure if I will be celebrating this with my anime buddy although he will be going out with his family for the usual Peking Duck dinner. There's nothing like a good dim sum around this time of year (or anytime, honestly speaking), and it's certainly a whole lot cheaper and more expansive than the variety provided in the Chinatowns in Japan (Yokohama, Kobe, etc.).

On that note, I found another J-Pop song based on Chinatown, titled simply "Chinatown" by a singer named Maiko Nakano（中野麻衣子）. Aside from the first several bars and one riff near the end, though, there really isn't anything that links the song to the area aside from the singing of the title and perhaps a lost romance there. Still, the melody and Nakano's vocals are pleasing to the ears with its urban contemporary feeling, and the arrangement I could automatically peg as belonging in the late 80s or early 90s. Sure enough, I did discover on the Amazon page that it was released in March 1991. The song sounds as if it belongs in that sophisti-pop scene from around that time period or perhaps it may have been categorized in that New Adult Music genre that I found out about recently.

But that was all I could find out about "Chinatown"...and the singer, for that matter. I could discover that it was a single for Nakano but otherwise, bupkiss. Through the JASRAC database, I was able to find out that Nakano wrote the lyrics while Masahiro Watanabe（渡邉正浩）took care of the music. Apparently, though, a few copies are available on Amazon.