Time Five -- Uruwashi no Lori（麗しのローリー）

 

Being a longtime fan of the Manhattan Transfer, discovering the vocal group Time Five（タイム・ファイブ）proved to be a fortuitous encounter since there's nothing like a bunch of folks in perfect harmony with the backup of a sizzling swing band.

I was helping out Rocket Brown with the translation of the liner notes on one of Time Five's albums "Gentle Breeze", and in it was a brief mention of a previous release "Tsubasa wo Kudasai"（翼をください...Give Me Your Wings） from 1979. The notes mention that "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" was a trailblazer in Japanese pop in that Time Five was masterfully covering a number of Western pop songs in Japanese. Track 1 is "Uruwashi no Lori" (Beautiful Lori) with Japanese lyrics by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, and to use an old word, it's a humdinger of a jazzy tune which explains why I like this group and the Transfer. Once again, it's all about the smooth harmonization and a group of instruments playing like there was no tomorrow. I just get this urge to reserve a room near the top of the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.

As I mentioned above, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" is supposedly an album of cover tunes, and "Uruwashi no Lori" is a cover of "Oh Lori" which was a 1977 single for the Alessi Brothers, who I had never heard of before. They are known as a pop-rock or a soft rock duo of twin brothers, but despite the soft rock appearance of Billy and Bobby (great hair, by the way) in the video, those jazz roots can't be hidden. The Alessis were also responsible for "Savin' The Day" which was a song on the 1984 "Ghostbusters" soundtrack.

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.

Time Five -- Silent Night

Now to be up front about this, this has nothing to do with one of the most famous English-language Xmas carols.

Secondly, I couldn't find all that much about this vocal group Time Five（タイム・ファイブ）, but I've seen their name in a number of liner notes for other singers over the years so I've at least been aware of them as a solid backup chorus. What I could find out was that this quintet of male singers has been around since 1968 without a single change in their lineup. They all came out of the music department at Doshisha University where they were once known as the Modern Hula Hawaiians, perhaps after winning a university championship for singing a song by the chorus group Invitations that had become a hit in the Aloha State.

Their website doesn't seem to have a complete list of their discography but in 1979, Time Five released the album "Gentle Breeze" and on it was "Silent Night". Not a Yuletide song, but a smart and smoky urban tune which needs to have a cigarette in there to add to the atmosphere, it's one of those songs that has me reminded of some of the early 1970s soul. As well, the song itself could wear a trench coat and walk the lonely downtown streets of the night.

The never-changing lineup is Yasuo Tai（田井康夫）, Shizuo Noguchi（野口鎮雄）, Sadaaki Teshigawara（勅使河原貞昭）, Haruya Yoshimura（吉村晴哉） and Kohey Sugie（杉江浩平）. Now, there are a number of different readings for at least some of the names listed here so if any of you Time Five fans see an incorrectly depicted name, please let me know ASAP.

November 13, 2019: Now corrected.