Masae Ohno -- For Darling (Four Brothers)

 

The first time that I had ever heard of the musical expression Vocalese was, not surprisingly, through The Manhattan Transfer's 1985 album "Vocalese". I soon learned that it was that form of jazz singing in which lyrics were crafted and grafted hand-in-glove onto original pre-existing solo instrumental performances. My first question was "So, is it like scatting?", and the answer to that was "No!" since scatting was using nonsensical wording instead of the actual words for Vocalese.

The Manhattan Transfer wasn't the first group to come up with Vocalese. According to Wikipedia, that honour goes to Eddie Jefferson and then I found out about Lambert, Hendricks & Ross among other artists who had been practicing their Vocalese before the Transfer. However, when I think of the famed quartet and their Vocalese virtuosity, I usually remember their incredible take on "Four Brothers" which came out on their 1978 album "Pastiche". Just to give credit where credit is due, though, "Four Brothers" had originally been composed by jazz saxophonist and composer Jimmy Giuffre in 1947.

Just to be able to create that stream of Vocalese and then make it sound seamless while performing at warp speed is a supreme feat, but just imagine trying to do the same thing with "Four Brothers" in Japanese. And yet, someone did try to do just that.

Almost a couple of years ago, I noted the Queen of Commercial Songs, Masae Ohno（大野方栄）, pulling off her version of "Lover, Come Back To Me" under the title of "Eccentric Person, Come Back To Me" for her 1983 debut album "Masae A La Mode". It looks like for this album, Ohno wanted to do covers for a few of the standards, and Track 1 was "Four Brothers" under the title of "For Darling". There may be no Big Band horns in this rendition but it's still plenty of jazz, and Ohno indeed takes on the big task of putting her own lyrics onto the quicksilver Giuffre melody. She does pretty well for the most part, I might add, as she dives into the pool and cuts through the water like a shark's fin, although I'm sure that she was absolutely exhausted in the recording booth.

I've also got to marvel at the lineup backing her up. Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）and the late Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, who I usually see in the City Pop file, were jamming happily away on guitar and piano respectively while the members of fusion band Casiopea were also helping out. Sato took care of the arrangements for the entire album.

Masae Ohno -- Eccentric Person, Come Back To Me

According to what I've heard from the Queen of Commercial Songs so far, singer-songwriter Masae Ohno（大野方栄）sure loves her jazz.

Furthermore this time, she's even cordially invited some technopop into her scatting and jiving "Eccentric Person, Come Back To Me". A track from her 1983 debut album "Masae A La Mode", Ohno was throwing out her techno kayo jazz at a good time when Taco was hitting it swell with his version of "Puttin' On The Ritz" and The Manhattan Transfer was continuing to bring their blend of jazz and pop in America and around the world. "Eccentric Person, Come Back To Me" is roughly based on "Lover, Come Back To Me", a jazz standard that has also gotten some Japanese love over many decades. Ohno provided her own lyrics to her version.

According to the liner notes for "Masae A La Mode", Ohno has earned her tiara as the Queen of Commercial Songs with more than 800 jingles under her belt. Moreover, she's provided backup vocals for a number of bands and she also provides narration. Her latest album, "Chapara"（ちゃぱら）, was released in 2017.

Masae Ohno -- Matenro no Hero（摩天楼のヒーロー）

I didn't know of any comedy-adventure programs with kids on the telly back in the day. With movies, though, there were "The Goonies" and "Stand By Me".

In the same decade that those two Hollywood films came out, there was a 1987 program on Fuji TV called "Omoikkiri Tanteidan Haado Gumi"（おもいっきり探偵団 覇悪怒組...The Utmost Detective Group ~ Haado Tribe） featuring some schoolkids. Never saw it before but from what I could figure from the title and the above trailer, it was about an amateur pre-teen sleuthing society helping out the folks in the neighbourhood with some mysterious assistance by a fellow who looks like he predated "V for Vendetta" by a couple of years at least.

Anyways, I was taken by the opening theme song, "Matenro no Hero" (The Hero of the Skyscraper) because of that Andrews Sisters boogie-woogie jazz melody. The song was written and performed by Masae Ohno（大野方栄）, so I gather that the Hero of the Skyscraper met The Queen of Commercial Songs. Takanori Arisawa（有澤孝紀）, who would later come up with the soundtrack for the "Sailor Moon"（セーラームーン）anime, composed the catchy tune which pretty much hints that the Haado Gumi would come out of each episode with no problem. Considering that both Ohno and Arisawa have expertise in jingles, it is no wonder that they were able to meet and collaborate

Not sure whether "Matenro no Hero" refers to the masked fellow or actually the intrepid kid detectives. In any case, that danchi area must have been an interesting place to live in back in the late 1980s.

Casiopea/Masae Ohno -- Take Me

I only did a Casiopea（カシオペア）article just a couple of weeks ago, but I'm going to break my own rule of no two songs by one artist in one month since I've been fascinated by this particular subject.

Oh, bring on some of that specially carbonated Perrier! I've been charmed by this one track on Casiopea's 7th album "Mint Jams" from May 1982 called "Take Me". It has taken me. The first thing that I was surprised about was that "Mint Jams" is also a live album, the fusion band's second, since "Take Me" at least sounds like a totally studio-recorded production.

As for "Take Me" itself, it's just another Casiopea classic bringing in plenty of sun, class and good vibes. Guitarist Issei Noro（野呂一生）took care of the composition of all of the tracks on the album but keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya（向谷実）especially holds court with this particular song that swings and funks it up at the same time.

(cover version)

What has doubled the pleasure for me in writing this article is that there was a cover version of "Take Me" by Masae Ohno（大野方栄）. The Tokyo-born singer has been dubbed as "The Queen of Commercial Songs", and apparently according to the liner notes in her first solo album "Masae A La Mode" from 1983, she's been responsible for singing more than 800 commercial jingles.

Well, based on her cover of "Take Me" alone, I will buy whatever she's selling. With Ono providing the lyrics, there is some more swinging jazz in this take including a piano and her own vocals which have this wonderful harmony near the end. If I could describe her delivery, I would have to say that it's a mix between Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）with the nasality of the former and the whispery nature of the latter.