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.
To think that saxophonist extraordinaire Sadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）isn't too far away from his 92nd birthday! I don't know how active he has been these days although his most recent appearance wasn't all that long ago when he released an album titled "SADAO 2019 ~ Live at Blue Note Tokyo". Here's hoping that he's still enjoying life and still playing that horn.
A few decades back in 1981, Watanabe released the album "Orange Express" and from it, here is the title track. It really does sound like something played in a country where oranges readily grow and are probably just one ingredient in a very potent punch. It is one happy sangria of a tune and I could imagine it being played on a cruise ship in port or on "Fantasy Island". Maybe the saxophonist is even living life large on a similar island.
The good news is that it's feeling really balmy out there with temperatures being on the plus side of things. However, the bad news is that we're supposed to be getting smacked around again with a wall of precipitation and a lot of that will be in the form of cold hard rain before it changes into snow. Then, the temperatures will plummet once more.
For this Wednesday smack dab in the middle of February, allow me to give you a song that is rather soothing. Bossa jazz always has that effect on me. The folk duo Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モワ）provided something that was a little out of their folk toolbox, and yet, Emiko Shiratori（白鳥英美子）and Sumio Akutagawa（芥川澄夫）handle their "Shiroi Nami"(White Waves) as if they were born to sing bossa nova. It's just a pity that I couldn't track down when they had released "Shiroi Nami" although it is located on their "La Belle Epoque" compilation from 2001. I could only find out that through another YouTube video featuring this particular song that it had made its presence known sometime in the early 1970s, so I'll just plant it as a 1970 concoction.
But then, there was one comment that I saw under that video for Toi et Moi's"Shiroi Nami" that said something to the effect that they "...also liked this version" by the folk duo. And so I thought "Oh, was there an original version of it?". Once again, I was happy to go into the rabbit hole to search for a story on this comforting "Shiroi Nami".
And sure enough, I found out that the first sung version of "Shiroi Nami" was recorded by another duo that specialized in Japanese-style bossa nova, Yuki to Hide（ユキとヒデ...Yuki & Hide）. In fact, "Shiroi Nami" was their very first single released in July 1967, and yep, I can "taste" an even more pronounced bossa nova flavour in this version.
The lyrics were provided by Hide himself under his other stage name of Eiji Mizuki （水木英二）, and for very keen readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and/or true believers in kayo kyoku, both of those names might strike you as being very familiar because they both popped up in my February 2015 article for Hide & Rosanna's（ヒデとロザンナ）"Ai no Kiseki"（愛の奇跡）. Yep, same fellow but different duo. There was one more single released by Yuki to Hide later in October but the act broke up sometime in 1968 with Hide meeting Rosanna soon after that. In fact, there were two Yukis during the Yuki to Hide era with the original, Yuki Sato（佐藤ユキ）, taking on the geimei of Mariko An（アン真理子）in 1969 and going onto a career of singing, songwriting and acting.
Up to now, I haven't revealed the composer for "Shiroi Nami" but I will as of this sentence, and it is jazz saxophone legend Sadao Watanabe (渡辺貞夫...Yuki to Hide during their short time together enjoyed covering his songs). The original is quite a bit peppier than then sung versions and it is a track on his June 1967 LP, "Bossa Best Collection".
Another sunny and steamy day in the GTA. Some of my fellow Canadians have lamented that it's been a wet and cool summer but I sure don't believe it. It's been plenty warm here for me although we have gotten goodly buckets of rain now and then. Now that things have been opening up in Toronto for the past week in the province's Stage 3, I'm certain that many folks who have been starved for outdoor dining have been taking advantage and hitting the patios and going inside for a table. For now, Torontonians should be one pretty happy bunch.
I swear that jazz saxophonist Sadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）is one of the most perpetually happy musicians I've ever seen. Whenever he shows up in a photo, his beaming smile reaches my eyes before the rest of his face does. He also seems to hit some of the most picturesque settings as well such as certain parts of the Big Apple.
Well, the song "Till We Meet Again" in Watanabe's 1993 album"Earth Step" can also be described as blissfully happy. The title might be saying goodbye but that saxophone he plays is saying "Hello there! Come and stay for a while! The sangria is nice and cold." Maybe I'm stretching the analogy a bit here but it is an inviting track with not only Watanabe but also the dreamy keyboard action that could hint at either a gorgeous sunset afternoon or a clear night under the stars on the balcony part of a tony bar.
I first mentioned about the legendary saxophonist Sadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）in the blog as one of the songwriters for one of the songs covered by AOR duo The Milky Way in their lone album "Summertime Love Song". However, tonight I'm happy to say that I finally get to write about him in his element of putting forth those sweet sweet honeyed tones in this article. My first time finding about him was through one of those really glossy photo magazines published in Japan in the early 1980s. Sorry to say that I wasn't able to retain that issue but I got the impression that the Tochigi Prefecture-born Watanabe was having a great life traveling throughout the world with his music.
And it's really quite nice music to my ears. I love the whole arrangement on his "Good News", a track from his 1985 album"Maisha"（マイシャ）. Produced in Los Angeles, "Good News" by itself wonderfully swirls together all that I've loved about the AOR instrumental genre all these years. Watanabe and his sax, all those horns, the keyboards, the bass and the scatting bring back all sorts of radio nostalgia even though I only heard the track for the first time a few months ago. Will have to sample more of his stuff from the different decades that he has played.
Back in the summer of 2017, I ended up my first article on this collaborative duo The Milky Way's"Summertime Love Song" by stating that it would be nice to get the whole album if it were ever out on compact disc. Well, guess what? It is and it happily didn't cost me an arm and a leg either.
The album "Summertime Love Song" came out in 1979 as a one-off project between guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and keyboardist Kazuo Nobuta（信田一男）, and it's made up of AOR versions of standards and a few of their own concoctions matching the soothing feelings of the covers. Along with the title track, I've already taken care of one other song from the album, their take on "Theme From A Summer Place".
Get those caipirinhas, mint juleps or whatever cocktails get you in that state of relaxation, and start with some "Wave", the cover of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic. As I've already stated, this has more of the AOR feeling as opposed to the original bossa nova (although this one also has a nice taste of the bossa flavour) and the jazzy take by Miki Matsubara（松原みき）that I wrote about back in late September. To be honest, I still prefer the Matsubara one but The Milky Way can sure induce those alpha waves. In fact, I think that it's so relaxing that I completely forgot that Matsushita and Nobuta sang this totally in Japanese, thanks to lyricist and poet Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）.
Recently, I've been in thrall to Boz Scaggs' ultra-cool "Lowdown" (the bass and those horns), but I also know about his easy nighttime "Harbor Lights". The Milky Way makes the Japanese version go down so smoothly here as well with Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）providing the words.
"Shiroi Nami"（白い波...White Wave）is another Milky Way cover but this one is of a Japanese bossa nova song created by legendary saxophonist Sadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）for the album "Bossa Nova Concert" in 1967 according to the discography on his website. The lyrics were provided by Hide Demon（出門英）who would later become one-half of the singing duo Hide & Rosanna（ヒデとロザンナ）.
"Hitoribocchi no Nagisa"（ひとりぼっちの渚...Memories in the Sand）is one of the three original compositions for the album which includes the title track. Written by Fuji and composed by Nobuta, I think it's the farthest away from the overall theme of Latin-infused AOR and has that feeling of a stroll on a spring day. I like the "veil-like" chorus that is described as such in the liner notes, and despite the use of synthesizers, "Hitoribocchi no Nagisa" still has that atmosphere of an old-timey tune.
The final track is the third original composition by Fuji and Nobuta, "Kagirinaki Natsu"（限りなきの夏...Endless Summer）which serves as the epilogue to the whole Milky Way experience of a summer day by the seaside. It's short and sweet, and the tinkling of the keyboards at the end seems to hint at the sight of a million stars up in the night sky, untroubled by light pollution from the city. There's also that melodic feeling of "Time to go to bed, folks!".
A commenter asked me this morning about my choice of favourite City Pop/AOR albums. "Summertime Love Song" is definitely not a City Pop release; Matsushita would make his own masterpiece in that genre with "First Light" in 1981. This album, though, is something that I would consider as a fine AOR creation.
