Time Five -- Carnival（カーニバル）

 

According to what I've been hearing from contributor and KKP co-administrator Marcos V., it looks like that the big samba parade for Carnival in Brazil is ready to go as of April. I'm hopeful for it since it would be a huge boost to tourism and spirits down there after two years of COVID, and I heard today on the news that the nation is lifting most of its restrictions due to lessening numbers.

Marcos' comments came in the article that I wrote up back on February 27th on Cherish's（チェリッシュ）"Kasukabe Samba"（春日部サンバ）, a song that we both agreed was definitely not samba but a pleasant pop song extoling the virtues of the city of Kasukabe in Saitama Prefecture. Still, I was rather looking for a nice samba in the kayo area.

And it looks like I have found one, thanks to a conversation that Rocket Brown and I had last week regarding the vocal group Time Five. Back in 1979, the group originating from Doshisha University released an album called "Gentle Breeze" which has been seen as one of their City Pop/J-AOR projects. I've already written about one track called "Silent Night", but here is this other one titled "Carnival", and yep, this time, this is a good deal closer to what I've envisioned as a samba melody.

Written by Masumi Ono（大野真澄）, the melody was provided by Japan-based Brazilian singer Sonia Rosa, and I do believe that this is indeed her harmonizing with Time Five. The samba flavour is in there, and I'm not sure whether a sax solo would be a regular thing in a traditional samba, but since it is in there, I think that I could also place "Carnival" within City Pop, too. In any case, I hope that the Brazilian Carnival does come off without a hitch.

Sonia Rosa -- Charlie, My Darling

 

I gather that when reasonably priced mail passage is restored between Japan and Canada, Sonia Rosa's（ソニア・ローザ） 1979 "Samba Amour" may be one of the first albums that I'll get. So far, I've covered a couple of other tracks previously, "Te Quero Tanto (I Love You, So)" and "Tokyo in the Blue"（東京イン・ザ・ブルー）and both of them have been silky and smooth and eminently listenable.

Now, there is "Charlie, My Darling" with Rosa's kittenish vocals and a 70s City Pop/J-AOR arrangement. There are also some odd spacey bleeps in the background but otherwise, especially with a trombone solo, "Charlie, My Darling" takes me back to Mancini and Bacharach. It's perfect caipirinha-sipping music, and I think that it would have been fine on a "Lupin III" soundtrack of those times. That's not surprising considering it was Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the man behind the famous and iconic theme song for the anime, that composed this one for Rosa and Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）provided the lyrics.

Sonia Rosa -- Tokyo in the Blue（東京イン・ザ・ブルー）

 

Kinda wonder how busy Roppongi has been all of these months. It was a fairly regular hangout for me during my 17 years in the Tokyo area since I once met a student in a café in Roppongi Hills on Monday mornings, and my friends and I visited the Hard Rock Café and Tokyo Midtown for dinner once in a while. There was also a pretty stylish bookstore just above Roppongi Station that I visited often.

I don't recollect ever visiting Roppongi during that graduation trip to Japan in the summer of 1981 although our home away from home for the first four nights in the megalopolis was the Tokyo Prince Hotel which is located not too far away (then again, high school-age kids shouldn't have been anywhere in the neighbourhood). It probably was a little more exclusive since at the time, it was pretty much all about the bars and hostess clubs and discotheques.

A couple of years before that in 1979, Brazilian singer Sonia Rosa（ソニア・ローザ）put out her 4th album, "Samba Amour", and on it, was her 5th and final single to date, the stylish "Tokyo in the Blue". Perhaps it could have been played in the background of one of those Roppongi clubs or bars. With Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）embracing all of that bossa nova, it can nicely fit in the Latin arm of the City Pop octopus. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）provided the words that Rosa so silkily delivers. Actually, the song was used as the theme for a TV Asahi program "Haruka na Saka"（遥かな坂...Distant Hill）.

Another track from "Samba Amour" is "Te Quero Tanto (I Love You, So)" that already has a spot on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

Sonia Rosa -- Te Quero Tanto (I Love You, So)

Just on the cusp of July now and of course, Canada Day is tomorrow. As I write, thousands of people are happily and sleepily digesting tons of tasty spareribs during one of the major Ribfests in the GTA.

Recently on YouTube, I found this album by Brazilian chanteuse Sonia Rosa called "Samba Amour" from 1979. She already has representation on the blog thanks to her winning "Morning Coffee"（モーニング・コーヒー）from 1970. At first, I hadn't been sure whether this was actually more an album for her Brazilian fans, but then I saw a couple of the tracks such as "Natsu no Image" and "Tokyo In The Blue" and figured that it was probably also meant for Japanese audiences. Moreover according to her J-Wiki profile, "Samba Amour" is listed as her 4th album.

The first track is "Te Quero Tanto (I Love You, So)", and as much as it could provide images of enjoying that cocktail in some drinking establishment in Rosa's native São Paulo, I think it could also have adorned the atmosphere in some classy joint in Shinjuku back in the day that the album was released. I should further peruse the rest of the tracks.

Sonia Rosa -- Morning Coffee（モーニング・コーヒー）

Nice to have a cuppa joe in the morning. I grew up being an orange pekoe tea guy during breakfast but then once I entered university, it was all about the coffee. I never looked back although I still imbibe some Salada or Tetley once in a while.

Perhaps another inducement for another one of the five senses in terms of waking up is Sonia Rosa's "Morning Coffee" which was the B-side for her debut single in Japan "Aoi Bed"（青いベッド...Blue Bed, although the official English title was Long Black Hair）in 1970. There's some nice mellow bossa nova for you to help you get up from the bed and pour some java. Both songs were prepared by lyricist Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）and composer Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）.

Sonia Angelica De Carvalho Rosa was born in 1949 in São Paulo, Brazil, and starting on the guitar when she was 6, she was inspired by the songs of João Gilberto before becoming a bossa nova singer in her teens. According to her article in J-Wiki, through an encounter with the father of singer Lisa Ono（小野リサ）who had been running a club in her hometown, she made the journey to Japan and made her debut there with the help of saxophonist Sadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）who first produced her. Two more singles and a handful of albums would be released into the 1970s.