Ritsuko Kurosawa -- Eve no Tenmondai（イヴの天文台）

 

I think I've gotten most of the Xmas cards sent out by now. I'm usually pretty diligent with those.

The latest J-Xmas tune for this season and the one to round out today's crop of KKP entries is "Eve no Tenmondai" (The Observatory on Christmas Eve) by Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）. Released in December 1991 as her 4th single, it's a pleasant pop ballad of the season about a couple who once met at an observatory one Christmas Eve. To be honest, that's the first time I've ever heard of a place dedicated to space as a romantic meetup spot. Usually, I think of places with tons of illumination or restaurants for that special dinner, but perhaps privacy is a good site for some. Anyways, "Eve no Tenmondai" was written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）, composed by Takaaki Yasuoka（安岡孝章）of the band I Re'in For Re'in（アイリーン・フォーリーン）and arranged by Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）.

Ritsuko Kurosawa -- Hot Boy

 

I was never aware of this music variety show titled "Kayo Bin Bin House"（歌謡びんびんハウス）which was televised on TV Asahi on Sunday afternoons between 1986 and 1994. Most likely, when I was on the JET Programme back then, I was taking a leisurely nap in my room. But from what I've seen of this particular episode, it had quite a variety of musical guests running the gamut from aidoru to enka and having them go through different fun segments including the mini-golf at the beginning. One of them, enka diva Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）, was someone that I saw on the Kohaku Utagassen some days ago.

Throughout its nearly eight years on the air, there were a number of ending themes for the show with one of them being Ritsuko Kurosawa's（黒沢律子）"Hot Boy". The song was also her 2nd single released in October 1990 and that coincided with the release of her 2nd album, "Confess", on the same day. Masami Kobayashi（小林まさみ）was responsible for the lyrics which talk about the titular hot boy or maybe the young lady involved getting all hot and bothered about love. Meanwhile, the music was provided by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）. Not sure if it would fall under the category of City Pop, but there's a rather propulsive mix of R&B (maybe a touch of New Jack Swing?) and pop in there. 

RIZCO (Ritsuko Kurosawa) -- Tokai（都会）

 

As of this writing, I haven't been to Tokyo in six years and I would dearly love to visit my old stomping grounds and friends there once more. There's always been a vibrancy there that can't be beat, and I know that some of the neighbourhoods I frequented such as Shibuya have changed quite a bit since my last visit.

Well, since we are noting the big city here, I'd like to show off this Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）cover of Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）classic "Tokai" (The City) from her November 2001 7th album "melody". At the time, she was apparently going under the name of RIZCO. Not sure if I would categorize her take on "Tokai", which was originally on Ohnuki's "Sunshower" album (1977), a City Pop tune; I'd say that it has been given the groovy-and-spacey pop treatment which is perfectly fine. Nice bluesy guitar solo in there, too.

Ritsuko Kurosawa -- Dinner Time（ディナー・タイム）

One of my favourite forms of dinner time in Japan: eating out at a branch of Yayoi-ken（やよい軒）. This is one of those restaurant chains where you put your bills and coins into a ticket vending machine after making your selection. Of course, whenever I visit Japan, I must have my karaage teishoku with bottomless bowls of rice, miso soup and tea along with the rest of the sides that come up with my fried chicken.

Mind you, when I was living in the nation, I couldn't afford to eat out every night obviously. However, I did like to cook when I had my days off, so I did a lot of stir-fry, homemade Sweet N' Sour Chicken, Taco Rice, and niku jaga among other dishes.

Unfortunately for Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）, her "Dinner Time" isn't a happy one. Her dinners have apparently been with a cad who's been far more style over substance, and she's finally at her wit's end. But dang, the music infusing this frustrating story is really nice.

"Dinner Time" is the lead track from her June 1993 album "Dish", and this is the second article in a row for Kurosawa that I've written about a song from that release. The lyrics by Miwako Saito（斉藤美和子）are as bitter as goya but I do like the bouncy melody by Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）that goes with them. I wouldn't mind listening to this one over dinner, and I know that I will be having a far more satisfying repast than she has had.

Ritsuko Kurosawa -- Blue Sky

I do believe the above is a photo of Shiba Park near the Tokyo Prince Hotel. Nice sunny blue sky out there.

Found out another happy pop song from the Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）vault recently called "Blue Sky". I would also call it one of my naruhodo (Oh, I see!) songs, too. It's about a woman who has probably decided to go on with her life after a breakup, starting by forgiving her erstwhile boyfriend. Can't mourn forever, after all.

The naruhodo part comes with the folks who created "Blue Sky" for Kurosawa. It turns out that they are Chikuzen Sato and Chiaki Fujita（佐藤竹善・藤田千章）from Sing Like Talking, one of my favourite bands in Japan. Although admittedly I wouldn't have pegged those guys as the songwriters from just listening to it at first, as soon as I saw their names in kanji, I did do my "Oh, I see!" declaration due to the irresistible pop hook which has a bit of light funk and a bit of rock guitar near the end. SLT could have easily covered it (maybe they have) and in fact, I can hear Sato somewhere in the background.

"Blue Sky" was a track on Kurosawa's June 1993 album "Dish".

Ritsuko Kurosawa -- Give Me Love

About a year and a half ago, I discovered this singer Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）of which there is very little written about her although there is some information exists on sites such as Amazon.jp when it comes to her albums although I think all of them may now be in haiban status.

For that first song of hers, I focused on "Sayonara ga Nemuranai"（さよならが眠らない）from 1991. I was pretty drawn to that 80s/90s power ballad arrangement but one commenter, Pocari Dev, did mention that Kurosawa had actually been doing more uptempo Eurobeat dance tunes.

Well, I have found one such song "Give Me Love" which was actually written by the singer and composed by Keiko Yokoyama（横山敬子）. I wasn't sure whether this was an official single by Kurosawa but it was placed as a track on her April 1990 album "Real" which may have been her debut release. It has that underlying R&B beat for a pretty active song that keeps the singer's vocals very busy and the keyboard operator panting right to the very end. I've given "Give Me Love" a few spins now, and though I like it, I think the keyboardist didn't really need to punch down so hard.

Ritsuko Kurosawa -- Sayonara ga Nemuranai（さよならが眠らない）

Never heard of Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）before. But listening to her "Sayonara ga Nemuranai" (Goodbyes Never Sleep), I figure she might have gotten her first Canadian fan. Admittedly, it's from the nostalgic point of view since the arrangement of the song by Toshihiko Miyoshi（三好敏彦）pretty much screams early 1990s with that certain synthesizer and the power pop stylings that are reminiscent of ZARD.

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of information about Kurosawa aside from the fact that she debuted in 1990. "Sayonara ga Nemuranai", written by singer-songwriter Yui Nishiwaki（西脇唯）and composer Keiko Yokoyama（横山敬子）, comes from what was probably her 2nd album, "RITZ" from December 1991. According to this one page, "RITZ" is now out of print and possibly her other albums might be in the same boat. Kurosawa's vocals may not be the most standout but this one song has gotten me on the hook at least.