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.
Showing posts with label Orquesta De La Luz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orquesta De La Luz. Show all posts
I guess Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico both have the same idea. It's summer, the patios are open as well as the dance floors, and right now in Toronto, there is the annual Salsa Festival for this weekend. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, the annual Samba Festival will be taking place in Asakusa, Tokyo later this season. Frankly, I was thinking about putting up some previously posted songs which can potentially have listeners doing a bit of the salsa, cha-cha, samba and other dances from around the Equator (well, the salsa is actually from New York) and southwards. Enjoy!
When it's so dreary outside, it's wonderful when I hear a song that just sparks off all that ASMR.
And yup, I am talking about the splendid salsa band from Japan, Orquesta De La Luz. From hearing their material and seeing them perform with their joie de vivre, the well-named Orchestra of the Light got me to buy their 2nd album"Salsa No Tiene Frontera" from 1991. And from that album, I present to you "El Me Ama, Yo Le Amo" (He Loves Me, I Love Him).
Beginning with something that sounds like 1990s City Pop balladry, there is no doubt that Orquesta De La Luz will go into their familiar dance-triggering (or at least shoulder-shimmying in my seat) salsa rhythms. It's been such a long time since I've heard this one that getting my aural reunion brought me back to first-time listening status. By the way, "Salsa No Tiene Frontera" also has a track that I first wrote about in the very early days of the blog, "Watashi wa Piano" (私はピアノ）.
The past 24 hours have brought about the obituaries of a few people. Broadcaster Larry King whom I watched from time to time on CNN both here in Toronto and back in Japan over a few decades died earlier this morning at the age of 87, while baseball legend Hank Aaron passed away at 86 yesterday. I'm just a casual fan of America's Pastime but even I knew about his record-breaking 715th home run over that of Babe Ruth.
I added it to her first "Kayo Kyoku Plus"article about an hour ago but I learned from Mixi and J-Wiki that actress and The Queen of Latin Music, Sumiko Sakamoto（坂本スミ子）, passed away at the age of 84. That first article addressed her contribution to the 1961-1965 NHK music-variety show "Yume de Aimashou"（夢であいましょう）with the titular theme song itself.
"Yume de Aimashou" is a standard of romantic dreams and starry nights but it doesn't reflect Sakamoto's nickname of the Queen of Latin Music. So I looked up her J-Wiki biography and found out that she had appeared on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for 5 years in a row between 1961 and 1965, and for all of her appearances, she performed a Latin song. Her second stint on the 1962 edition of the New Year's Eve special, for instance, was to perform "El Cumbanchero", the 1943 creation by Puerto Rican songwriter Rafael Hernández Marín. Unfortunately, I have yet to find any of Sakamoto's appearances on the Kohaku via YouTube but I can believe that when she did come onto the stage during those 5 times, things got pretty lively.
I could neither track down when exactly a recorded version of "El Cumbanchero" by Sakamoto was first released so as for the year to put into Labels, I will just go with 1962, the year that the singer presented the song on the Kohaku. The other thing was how is el cumbanchero defined. I've read things with vegetables such as "manly cucumber" and "spicy pickle", but apparently in Puerto Rican, the title means "The Fun Lover". Good enough for me and the lyrics translated into English seem to describe the titular person having a grand old time at a Latin jazz club.
I had heard of "El Cumbanchero" before just from that descending horn riff, and when I heard Sakamoto's version a couple of times, I wondered whether Latin jazz legend Tito Puente had tackled this one. Well, that was a silly question to myself and sure enough, here he is. With that frenetic percussion in the music and lyrics, there was no way that he could ignore this tune.
I also figured that salsa band Orquesta de la Luz has covered "El Cumbanchero" and sure enough, vocalist Nora and the gang did so on their 2008 album"¡CALIENTE!". It sounds like the band added some contemporary beats to their version...maybe it's House (forgive me, I'm not a dance music expert here)? Calling for any wisdom on this part. Anyways, the band is so good and smooth that they managed to make the corner of an empty lounge the most happening place on Earth in the video.
For all of you down in the United States, a Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope that most of you were able to reach your destinations despite the inclement weather. Perhaps some of you are about to tuck into or have just finished your great repast and are now resting comfortably on some furniture which may or may not be groaning on the increased strain.
Feel free to watch the above video on what do with those inevitable Thanksgiving leftovers on "Binging With Babish", one of the many other YouTube channels I've subscribed to.
However, if some of you have already generated some guilt on indulging on the turkey, stuffing (I do love that bread the turkey ate), pie, and what other dishes exist on the table, and if your collective gastrointestinal tracts are up to it, you can start on a bit of that exercise thanks to that grand band, Orquesta de la Luz（オルケスタ・デ・ラ・ルス）.
The last time I wrote about Japan's master salsa band was back in September when I covered their latest song from their 2019 album"Gracias Salseros". Well, now, I'm going all the way back to the early days when vocalist NORA and the gang started off in 1990 with their debut album"De La Luz". The opening track is "Salsa Caliente del Japon", whose lyrics seem to be a friendly greeting and a cover letter of sorts for salsa fans around the world who were knocked off their feet by this talented group.
The weather may have gotten a good deal colder but the heat can be turned up with the help of some good hip-swinging music.
Always nice when I learn something new. Doing some research for this latest Orquesta De La Luz（オルケスタ・デ・ラ・ルス）concoction, I discovered that the dance music genre of salsa was actually as American as baseball, apple pie and jazz. All these decades, I had assumed that salsa was straight out of Cuba and had been around since the early 20th century, when in fact, the genre has only been around since the 1960s and made its rise in New York City as the synthesis of a number of other genres including Cuban son montuno, mambo and jazz, according to Wikipedia.
The other thing that I discovered was that Orquesta De La Luz, the Japanese salsa band that wowed crowds right in the birthplace of their bread-and-butter music in the late 1980s, was still very much alive. I'd thought that NORA and the band broke up for good in the 1990s but according to their J-Wiki entry, they've been back at it since 2002. As such, this year, Orquesta De La Luz is celebrating their 35th anniversary in the music business so they just released a new album in July called "Gracias Salseros" which I think means "Thank You, Salsa Performers".
The above is the title track, and I'm happy to say that the band hasn't lost their step. NORA is in fine fettle, the horns are still smoking and the percussion is still popping. May they continue to have listeners dancing in the aisles and on the floor. Orquesta De La Luz was actually one of the first bands that I covered in the blog's history, so you can take a look at their first article all the way back in March 2012.
I just saw on the NHK Morning News within the last 15 minutes that Prime Minister Abe has quietly made his first trip to Cuba. He's already met Fidel and Raul Castro, and I'm going to assume that he and his staff will be trying to bring Japanese-Cuban relations closer through some signed agreements.
However, there was already a much earlier cultural attempt through the formation of the fantastic salsa band Orquesta De La Luz all the way back in 1984 with singer NORA. So I've decided to bring in a bit of Latin flavor tonight in commemoration of this historic visit and showcase a 1991 song that was released by the band "Salsa ni Kokyo wa nai" (Salsa No Tiene Frontera) or "Salsa Without Borders" in English.
Written and composed by NORA, "Salsa ni Kokyo wa nai", the lyrics that are flashing on the screen in the video above seem to be telling about the story of the band itself and how people needn't be locked into just one country's music. Totally agree with that and I got a blog to illustrate that. Man, I love those sharp horns!
I'm not going to pretend that I know the intricacies of salsa music and perhaps NORA would admonish me that the music of Orquesta De La Luz doesn't need to be a think piece. It's supposed to be a platform to have tons of fun...preferably on the dance floor. One other reason that I put up the band tonight is that it's been well over 4 years (basically since the start of "Kayo Kyoku Plus") that I first wrote up about the band through their amazing cover of "Watashi wa Piano"（私はピアノ）as originally sung by Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）and the songwriter behind it, Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）of Southern All Stars. Definitely they were due for another article and this time, it's one of their own songs.
Their 2nd album was given the same title in 1991 and went Platinum, but a couple of years later, Orquesta De La Luz was able to sing the title track at the Kohaku Utagassen. 1993 was indeed a banner year for the band as their latest album at that time "La Aventura" was nominated for a Grammy Award and they were even awarded with the United Nations Peace Medal.
I used to listen to an old audio tape that I'd brought back from Japan during my high school years. It had a mix of enka and mood kayo. But there was one song which stood out for its salsa rhythm. Kayo kyoku often included pop songs that embraced bossa nova, but here was one song which went for the more frenetic salsa. "Watashi wa Piano"(I am a Piano) was sung by Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）, who had a relatively brief career of 8 years (1977-1985) until she married a sumo wrestler, the former Wakashimazu（若嶋津）, and retired to become a stablemaster's wife at the Matsugane Stable in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture (only 10 minutes away from my old apartment by train).
"Watashi wa Piano" was originally written and composed by the leader of the Southern All Stars, Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）, for the band's 3rd album, "Tiny Bubbles"(notable for the cover picture of the cute Chaplinesque cat), which had been released in March 1980. It was keyboardist (and future Mrs. Kuwata) Yuko Hara's（原由子）first song as the lead singer. The song had also been set to be sung by another singer, but parties representing Takada related that she REALLY wanted to sing "Watashi wa Piano", which gives a respectful shout out to Larry Carlton and Billy Joel in the lyrics. Blessing was given for Takada to take it instead, and her insistence paid off since the song became the biggest hit of her career, peaking at No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies and becoming the 33rd-ranking song of the year after it had been released in July 1980. Takada's version as well as the original rendition by Hara has that salsa infusion but it is still very much a kayo kyoku song.
About a year before Takada resigned from show business, a Japanese band dedicated to salsa was formed called Orquesta De La Luz (Orchestra of Light) with the vivacious NORA as the lead vocal. In the summer of 1989, the band participated in a salsa festival in New York City where they basically stunned and delighted the crowds there with their mastery of the music and vocals. Their very first album, "De La Luz" in 1990 was at the top of the Billboard Latin charts for 11 straight weeks! If I can give any example of what a person can achieve that no one else had ever done, Orquesta De La Luz would be that example.
Their next album, "Salsa No Tiene Frontera"(There Are No Borders in Salsa) in 1991, included their version of the Kuwata-penned song as "I am a Piano". It's a wonderfully arranged salsa cover and NORA sings both Japanese and Spanish verses. I've provided the concert version here but there is also the studio-recorded one on YouTube.
