Terumasa Hino -- Still Be Bop

 

Over the past few days, Japanese media has been all abuzz about the annual Nobel Prizes as it has been for probably decades. I mean, Canadian media has been making reports about the winners as well, but for some reason in Japan, the news surrounding these awards seems to take on a level equivalent to that of the National Hockey League's Trade Deadline Day here in Canada and the announcement of the nominations for the Oscar awards. By the way, the above video has 2012 Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka（山中伸弥）having his press conference for winning his prize in Physiology/Medicine.

Even years before that, when I was working for my second school, a few of us teachers were sent to train some high-flying students English presentation skills for three days while we stayed at their company's high-tech research centre in Yokohama. It was a really modern facility with some fine cafeteria food...and the training went well, too. But in the evenings, we could all let our hair down a bit and get together in more casual garb over some brewskis. But one night, we all gathered around the lounge television to watch the media hoopla surrounding the fact that Masatoshi Koshiba（小柴昌俊）and Koichi Tanaka（田中耕一）had just gotten their Nobel prizes in Physics and Chemistry respectively back in 2002. By the way, I give my thanks to Wikipedia's "List of Japanese Nobel Laureates".

As such, last night I was wondering about whether I could find out about these Japanese Nobel laureates' taste in music. I figured that it would be a stretch, but I tried...and failed. All I could find was that a couple of them enjoyed jazz and classical. The rest of them were apparently too busy to have favourite singers or bands.

So, just to stubbornly hold onto that thin sliver of hope of a prestigious award themed KKP article, I found myself some minutes ago at the Wikipedia's article of "Order of the Rising Sun" which is "...awarded to people who have rendered distinguished service to the state in various fields except military service." There are various ranks to this order with the first-class awards (the Grand Cordon) being conferred onto people in high government office or notable institutions, Japanese or non-Japanese, for example. Then as I went down the list to the fourth-class awards, Gold Rays with Rosette, there were quite a few entertainers and athletes such as actor George Takei, baseball legend Hank Aaron, French singer Charles Aznavour and jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi（秋吉敏子）.

Another Japanese jazz legend was included in that list. Trumpeter extraordinaire Terumasa Hino（日野皓正）received his Gold Rays with Rosette in 2019. And so, to finally get onto a song here, I go into his 1980 album "Daydream" for his "Still Be Bop", the first track. There's some mighty fine and spicy funk and jazz as Hino and his fellow horn players riff through the music like a hot knife through butter. But I also like the analogy of racing down the oceanside highway from Tokyo to a really nice resort area in a red convertible. Dave Liebman does the saxophone solo, and the legendary Steve Gadd is on the drums. Of course, Hino's gotta have his solo, too.

Terumasa Hino -- High Tide-Manhattan Ecstasy

In the last couple of weeks, I've been watching the videos of one Erik Conover on YouTube who seems to absolutely delight in showing off the most luxurious of homes and apartments of New York City. Obviously, I'm nowhere in the market to purchase even a dog's watering bowl in such abodes but admittedly I have been enjoying watching these on the same level as I watch with fascination societies on alien worlds like Vulcan.

And this goes back to when I was a university kid because back then I used to watch this series called "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with Robin Leach from time to time. The title says it all. Leach visited these opulent homes of the wealthy celebrities such as Liberace. I never particularly envied or sought that way of life but I was curious about how these folks took in their form of comfort. To be frank, from watching the show, there was more jade in my eyes than there was in any of the baubles that adorned the interiors of those mansions.

I have given you all that preamble to present a marvelous track from jazz trumpeter's Terumasa Hino's（日野皓正）1979 "City Connection" album, "High Tide-Manhattan Ecstasy". If a theme song could be placed with one of Conover's ultra-luxurious showings, I would pick this one.

"High Tide-Manhattan Ecstasy" is a 7-minute journey which begins with a slow and sensuous trumpet passage by Hino. It seems to start off a morning for some Mickey Spillane-inspired detective with intact internal pithy dialogue before he steps out onto the tough sun-baked concrete of Manhattan on some sort of case. The funky beat then gradually washes in as Hino joins in on the jam. The detective starts his usual routine of shaking the trees by talking with his contacts in the lowest of low places as well as the highest of high places. Intimate 50s nightclub jazz gives way to streetwise funk n' fusion.

Finally, the last couple of minutes feature a true fusion of the jazz and funk as the detective somehow finishes the day, resolving or not resolving the case, by hitting his favourite hole-in-the-wall for a slug of the hard stuff (and not a slug of the hard lead) before schlepping it back to his apartment which is guaranteed not to be anything on Conover's love list. "High Tide-Manhattan Ecstasy" may be 7 minutes but it's a trip well worth taking, no matter which city where you are walking.

Seiko Matsuda -- Natsu Fuku no Eve（夏服のイヴ）

This is another article for one of those songs that have percolated up from the deep crevasses of my memory after many years. I first heard it on some compilation or a Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）BEST album, perhaps, but it's one of the more unusual Seiko-chan songs that I've heard.

For one thing, "Natsu Fuku no Eve" (Eve in Summer Clothing) begins as if it were the theme song for some major Disney fantasy movie along the lines of "Syrius no Densetsu"（シリウスの伝説）, that animated feature that I had caught back in the summer of 1981 in Osaka, loosely inspired by "Romeo & Juliet". It was definitely not the usual bubbly aidoru tune that I usually expected from Matsuda. Another thing is that I hadn't known the title until only recently so it was quite the Dickens to track it down, but from browsing YouTube one day, I found the above video and realized that it was the B-side to her 17th single released in May 1984, the fun and snazzy "Jikan no Kuni no Alice"（時間の国のアリス）that I've talked about for her album "Train".

I'm OK with "Natsu Fuku no Eve" which has that classical fantasy romance feeling to it but as I've already pointed out, it's a bit off-kilter with Seiko sounding a little more off-tune (yes, even more than the usual adorable off-tune parts of an aidoru song in the 1980s) in key parts of the verses. There is also an inclusion of a very sad trumpet in the intro, the bridge and the end with that second part being surrounded suddenly by an orchestral City Pop arrangement in a not-so-perfect contrast with the Disney-esque atmosphere in the rest of "Natsu Fuku no Eve". Well, the man behind the horn was none other than jazz trumpeter Terumasa Hino（日野皓正）who also composed the song.

Hino, in fact, composed the soundtrack for the movie "Natsu Fuku no Eve", so yes, that means that the song was indeed a cinematic theme tune, just not for an animated feature. Not surprisingly, Seiko was the star in this flick that was partially filmed in New Zealand. I did find the movie but it's been sped up by around 4 times so this may be the world's first Tik Tok-ized motion picture on YouTube.

Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics to "Natsu Fuku no Eve" which describe a woman trying to elope with her lover as far away from the complicated world as possible. Those lyrics helped me in figuring out what the title was all about since I'd initially thought quizzically that "Natsu Fuku no Eve" referred to "The Eve Before Summer Clothing" since so many Japanese pop songs had that word "eve" being used as in "Christmas Eve". But actually, it was more the lady's Eve trying to run away with her Adam one summer day. Incidentally, the song is also included on one of Seiko's many BEST albums "Seiko - Town" from November 1984.

According to the J-Wiki article on the movie, "Natsu Fuku no Eve" was out in theatres as of July 1984. The following year, on June 24th 1985, Seiko-chan married actor Masaki Kanda（神田正輝）, and in commemoration of that event, the movie was broadcast on NTV for the first time on the 26th.

Terumasa Hino -- City Connection（シティ・コネクション）

Terumasa Hino（日野皓正）is a musician that I had heard about for years but never really got to know until now. The Tokyo-born trumpeter who can also play the cornet and flugelhorn was born into a family of music makers including his father, Satoshi（日野敏）who was also a trumpeter as well as a tap dancer, and his younger brother Motohiko（日野元彦）who is a drummer. Terumasa's second son is bassist Kenji Hino（日野賢二）.

In the early 1950s when he was a child, he entered Nihon Jazz Gakko（日本ジャズ学校...Japan Jazz School）founded by jazz singer Tib Kamayatsu（ティーブ・釜萢）to learn the trumpet (copying solos of Clifford Brown and Miles Davis among others), and later started his career in the same decade. According to the J-Wiki article about him, Hino started getting international recognition at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival after being in the Hideo Shiraki Quartet（白木秀雄クインテット）with his debut album being "Alone, Alone and Alone" in 1967.

My introduction, finally, to Hino has begun with his title track from the 1979 album "City Connection", thanks to my friend Jerry's playlist. I gotta say...using an old expression here...that this tune really cooks. I'm not sure whether Hino had been imagining life in a particular city but if I were a betting man, I would say that it's New York City.

A delectable fusion of jazz and R&B, "City Connection" has that melody line that could act like the soundtrack to the life of a really happy-go-lucky comedian in some movie from the 1970s. I'm just imagining the fellow bombing out of his brownstone in Queens or Brooklyn, trying not to be late for his audition at the comedy club. Heck, from Hino's solo, I could pick out hints of the theme song from "The Odd Couple" and even "S.W.A.T." Wouldn't mind getting to know him a little bit more.