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.
Gotta have singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe（安部康弘）back on Urban Contemporary Friday. When you're talking about a drive on an evening leading into the weekend in Tokyo and thinking about what to put onto the radio, one of his songs usually fits the bill.
Managed to come across the B-side for Abe's November 1982 debut single"We Got It!" which is definitely car stereo-worthy. Mind you, "Hadashi no Ballerina"(Barefoot Ballerina) can also be put into the dashboard slot although it's a little more melancholy as a ballad. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Abe, it looks like one guy and his "prima ballerina" have come to the end of their relationship so the night is spent with one last meal before the inevitable goodbye. It is indeed another song of broken hearts but it also feels like a true Abe creation.
The above thumbnail shot is a woozy photo of Roppongi Avenue with Tokyo Tower off in the distance. Not sure how popular it is as a Halloween get-together place but I can still imagine that it would be considering the numbers of foreigners that have conglomerated there on at least a weekly basis. I remember being there on October 31st in 2009 and saw a couple of ladies dressed up as gambling die walking down the avenue. Perhaps they should have been rolling down the avenue to keep up appearances.
Considering how bleary the above photo is, I can also imagine some guy moping down the street and wondering if and how he and his currently estranged love of his life can somehow get back together again. I think that's the premise of Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）"Fall in Love" which was composed by him with Goro Matsui（松井五郎）coming up with the lyrics. With a poignant minor-key arrangement leading the way, Abe dreamily relates the story of that young man planning to have a long-awaited conversation with the lady to give their relationship another try. The song was a track on his 11th album "Gallery" from October 1995. Despite the release date, "Fall in Love" sounds very 1980s.
Welcome to another Urban Contemporary Friday on Kayo Kyoku Plus. When I think of the crooning singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）, I will always think of him as one of the princes of 1980s City Pop in Japan.
So, when I saw one of his more recent songs I couldn't help but be a little surprised and delighted. "Sequence" is a track from his 2015 album"Time is", his first album release in a dozen years and though he obviously moved on from City Pop, the song is still in that comfortable area of café/bar-friendly jazzy AOR and pop. His vocals hadn't changed one whit either. While Abe took care of the melody, Goro Matsui（松井五郎）was the lyricist.
The first time I heard Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）"Rainy Day Girl", I swore that this must have been used for one of the original anime vignettes on Seizo Watase's（わたせせいぞう）"Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）series in the 1980s. I mean, it just had that gloss perfect to adorn some three-minute romantic interlude between the beautiful people there.
But strangely enough, "Rainy Day Girl" was the fifth single in Abe's discography that was released in June 1984. I think what got me getting all Watase in the head was that bouncy keyboard intro that I've heard in at least a few of those "Heart Cocktail" episodes. Still, it's all Abe's melody with his joy of City Pop and J-AOR (especially that guitar solo) and Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics. The song was also included in the singer-songwriter's second album"Moderato" from March 1984. How about a drive down the Ventura?
There is no rarer artist who has continued to release music of such high quality consistently since his debut as Yasuhiro Abe.
As well, his skill as a songwriter is considerable. One good example to prove this is "September Valentine"（セプテンバー・バレンタイン）, which Abe himself performed at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest in 1977 and was his notable debut as a songwriter when Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）recorded it as a single. It's an outstanding and wonderful ballad, noteworthy for its beautiful melody, and when considering that 1977 was the golden age of folk and New Music in the music world, it could be said that the song was even a little too sophisticated for its time. At that time, Ryo Aska（飛鳥涼）once listened to "September Valentine" out of the blue on the radio and marveled at how much it stood out. Abe back then was often creating songs with a stylish bossa nova touch, and even since his amateur days, he'd already been making tunes that were totally extraordinary ("Gosenshi", which he provided to Mariya Takeuchi, also fell into this category). Thinking along those lines, one can be convinced by the high level of perfection that wouldn't normally be possible with a newbie when it comes to his debut album"Hold Me Tight".
While his second album"Moderato" and his third album"Slit" were rooted in 60s pop music including The Beatles, Abe envisioned Gino Vannelli's"Nightwalker" when he came up with one of his early hits "Irene" (heard on "Slit"), which can be heard as Abe's own interpretation of David Foster, and as such, his smart approach to the AOR of that time and his stylish expressionism of "urban mellowness" can be said to define "Yasuhiro Abe Pop". His special skill with chorus and harmony and his unwillingness to compromise on the little details mean that we can continue to look forward to high quality music from him at his own pace.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Partly inspired by my previous article on Naomi Chiaki's（ちあきなおみ）"Waltz"（円舞曲）and also thinking it would be nice to begin the work week with something a little different, I've opted to complete my Monday entries with some of the dance-titled kayo kyoku and J-Pop out there since it seems as if the Japanese also enjoyed cutting a rug if vicariously for most people.
Ahhh...Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）...the City Pop gift that keeps on giving. It's come to the point where anytime I see his name for one of his tunes or for songs that are sung by others, I will pay attention to what they offer.
Once again, it's time to respect those B-sides. Indeed, "Still I Love You" is an Abe B-side for his February 1983 sophomore single"Café Flamingo". Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by the singer himself, it's about a couple coming back home from the beach by train, but man, it has quite the soundtrack. Everything in the arrangement and instrumentation pretty much screams Bobby Caldwell, and by the craziest coincidence, today is the 2nd anniversary since his departure from this mortal coil. If he's somehow reading this from wherever he is, this song is in tribute to him. Maybe the couple's feet are dusted with lots of sand grains, but this number is truly one of urban and urbane class.
Lining up with masters like Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, needless to say but the songwriting sense of Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）is the biggest thing to listen for when it comes to the iconic "Long Version" which was contributed to Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）2nd album"Shylights". Additionally, Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）leaves quite an impression with phrases such as "I'd only wanted a single play, but before I knew it, I got the long version", and Akira Inoue（井上鑑）provides a splendid arrangement which really hits the mark.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Not sure how this idea came about but last night, it got into my mind (through inception?) about how Japanese popular music shared one trope with Western pop material in that there have been plenty of songs with female names in the titles. Of course, we have Paul Anka's"Diana", Kool & The Gang's"Joanna" and TOTO's "Rosanna". Well, over the years of KKP, I've noticed that kayo kyoku and J-Pop has had its share already listed, so just to keep myself busy on this very snowy Sunday, here is a short list of such songs. I'll probably get a short list of male names up next week.
Well, our building is currently in the middle of a sudden water outage due to a burst pipe; it has been very cold out there over the past few days. As such, we're in the middle of a holding pattern but hopefully, we'll be back to normal within 90 minutes. In any case, I'm a little frazzled right now after all of the running around to get information and updates so allow me to include another visit to the AI gallery.
The duo Bread & Butter（ブレッド＆バター）has always been a welcome presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" ever since we started things up in 2012. One intriguing thing though is that for 2024, the Iwasawa Brothers have been represented just through the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaksseries three times. As well as they should, too, but maybe it would be nice to have them back with an original article, something that we haven't seen since May 2023.
One reason that I've enjoyed Bread & Butter for so long is that they can record songs with fine hooks across the genre spectrum just like Kirinji and Sing Like Talking. Mind you, neither Iwasawa brother was responsible for the making of "Baraketa Initial" (Scattered Initials) which was written by Norie Kanzawa（神沢札江）and composed by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）with arrangement by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. Still, it's a nice, bouncy and contemplative pop song to add onto their City Pop and folk with a hint of an odyssey through European environments.
"Baraketa Initial" was the duo's 20th single from September 1984 and was also included on their 9th album"Second Serenade" which was released later in November.
As soon as I heard the first notes of this Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）song, I figured that this was from the 1990s rather than the 1980s. There were the certain synthesizers at play here and nothing to hear from the Fender Rhodes this time around.
Sure enough, "Shizenha"(The Naturalist) comes from Abe's January 1993 9th album"Dear". Wasn't quite sure what to make of that title; I had images of a truly calm superhero in my mind...maybe played by Perry Como or even Abe himself (he seems like a really laidback dude). Regardless, those first notes that I mentioned in the previous paragraph are filled with some rich piano and saxophone. The overall atmosphere of "Shizenha" kinda has this one straddling the line between regular pop and City Pop; that bluesy sax kinda pulls things into that latter area, especially with those thoughts of the Big Apple floating in my mind.
Last week, I provided an article covering Side A of the late Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）1988 album"DEF" and so today, I'm following up with my thoughts on Side B. So far, it's got a good mixture of the various urban contemporary genres in there. Also, just to let you know, I've realized that my copy of the album, which I had purchased literally decades ago, is different from the track arrangement in future releases, so my copy is going with the track list showing for "DEF" on Amazon Japan while probably your copies have the arrangement shown on Discogs. In addition, as noted last week, the trio of lyricist, composer and arranger handling the album mostly involves Goro Matsui（松井五郎）, Ken Sato（佐藤健）and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）for the most part. Any other songwriters will be noted for each track below.
Side B of my own copy begins with "Madoi no Wicked Woman"（惑いのWicked Woman...The Wicked Woman of My Illusions） which has been described as a nice slice of urban funk but I can also hear some of that sophisticated pop as well. This time, the lyricist is a fellow by the name of Tsurezuregusa（徒然草）which is obviously a pen name but it's also the title of an ancient collection of essays by the monk Kenko. Nothing about nature or humourous incidents in this song though which is all about that fateful encounter with a mystery lady on the dance floor. Basically, I gather that this is the urban Japanese version of two ships passing each other in the night.
Track B2 is the soulful ballad"Tooi Hohoemi"（遠いほゝえみ...Distant Smile） which has the main three songwriters listed above but with Junko's husband, Sato, handling chorus duties this time, while singer-songwriter Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）is taking care of the melody. Meanwhile, the overall arrangement was by Keiichi Oku（奥恵一）for a tune of wistful reminiscing over a past romance. Another lovely performance by Ohashi and the piano in there has had me remembering many an 80s love song from America.
If somehow, the anime "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）had been willing to include insert songs not sung by the God of Love Songs, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, himself, this particular track by Ohashi, "Burlesque ga Oniai"（バーレスクがお似合い...Fit for a Burlesque）, could have been a candidate since it involves a lot of the love and games that was going on in the first season of the series. As it is though, it's a cool blend of City Pop and funk, thanks to composer Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）with Hiroshi Yamada（山田ひろし）behind the lyrics.
"Mayonaka no Distance"（真夜中の距離...Midnight Distance） is a smoky and haunting funk tune with some thumping percussion (which then gets passed onto the keyboards) about a mysterious and dangerous tryst at the bewitching hour. As noted in Yukinojo Mori's（森雪之丞）lyrics, there is a Don Juan making his rounds which most likely means that there will be some major heartbreak at the end. Again, Nakazaki took care of the melody.
The final track, "Yume no Tobira"（夢の扉...The Doors to a Dream）, is unsurprisingly a quieter song (at least initially) to finish off "DEF" with. This time, Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）is on board to provide the gently undulating music surrounding the aftermath of a couple's eventful night in bed. The aforementioned Oku took care of the string arrangements for some added dramatic bossa nova oomph to the climax (no pun intended). If there had been a longer coda, it would have been for the afterglow cigarettes.
Gotta say that I largely underestimated "DEF" all these years. One Gibbs slap to the back of my head. I gather that I wasn't quite ready yet but I am now. Hopefully, Ohashi's fans have been celebrating her life and career and music at the one-year anniversary of her departure.
I'm rather surprised that I hadn't posted this track from Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）November 1985 album"Frame of Mind" when I wrote up on it back in 2019. But that just means that I can provide a single article for "Steppin'" all on its own, happily enough.
As would appropriately be the case for a song with this title, the Abe-penned sunny "Steppin'" has got a nice shuffling or strutting beat throughout the tune, and again as I mentioned in my earlier article regarding Mikiko Noda's（野田幹子）entry today, I do love me some horns. Plenty of lovely horns here. I'd been wondering early in "Steppin'" whether this could be one of Abe's rare pure pop songs but when I heard the horns, the electric guitar and those keyboard chords, I was reassured that the singer-songwriter was back with his appealing brand of AOR and City Pop.
If this book were to select a Christmas song, this would be straight-up the one. "Juu-ni-gatsu no Yuki" is the song that you want to hear on a silent holy night overlooking powder snow that has fallen without any sound. Done with Abe's（安部恭弘）sense of style channeling The Great American Songbook, for some reason, the more luxurious the sound gets, the more I get that wistful feeling that gets me right here.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Well, we're a day early for Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but heck, I think we can sneak in a bit of caviar-and-champagne sophisticated City Pop, especially when it's about Christmas. And especially when the recording artist is Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）.
From his 8th album"Tengoku wa Mattekureru"（天国は待ってくれる...Heaven Can Wait） released in November 1991, I offer you "Eve no Restaurant" (Christmas Eve Restaurant). Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and Ren Takayanagi（高柳恋）and composed by the singer himself, it's one charming and optimistic tune (always love the horns) that's probably like Abe's character who's putting on the dog-and-pony show that he'll always be on his girlfriend's side. Now, let's eat at that expensive and stylish restaurant on December 24th after which Abe will be paying the bill in five installments on his credit card into the New Year. That's the Japanese way!
I did find this video from YouTuber Chotto Ohgui Joshi（ちょっと大食い女子...Little Big Eating Lady） where she had her Christmas dinner up at the New York Grill at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo. Methinks this is quite the step up from Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Fujiya Strawberry Shortcake. However, I believe that the New York Grill has been shut down for the next little while because the Hyatt will be undergoing major renovations for the next several months.
Last week on the regular Yutaka Kimura Speaks segment of Urban Contemporary Fridays, No. 29 was Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Gosenshi" which had been created by lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and singer-composer Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）for her 1980 album"Love Songs". It was a nice little doo-wop number matching Mariya's type of music back then.
Well, about 14 years later, Abe put out his album of covers, "Passage", in October 1994 with one of those tracks being a cover of "Gosenshi". This time, with Greg Adams arranging everything, Abe puts out his version with the backing of one smashing swing jazz orchestra. I was half-expecting an old NBC announcer to come on and say that the song was being performed at the top of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan. By the way, another song that I've covered from "Passage" is "Kuu na"（くーな）, a number that had been first performed by Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）.
Abe and songbird-songwriter EPO had apparently been on backup vocals for the Mariya original, so I gather that it was natural that the two of them would perform "Gosenshi". However, I don't think their version was officially put onto vinyl (which is too bad) but just put out there on a 1986 radio program. Coming in between the Takeuchi doo-wop original from 1980 and the all-out jazz Abe cover from 1994, this EPO-Abe performance is an amazing work that reminds me of some of the jazz vocal groups from the 1950s and 1960s such as Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Heck, I would be thrilled if the current incarnation of the Manhattan Transfer would be able to cover it someday.
"Gosenshi"（Music Paper） is a song that came out exactly 10 years after Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）had expressed the world of the "windy city" through Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. I feel that he brought together the complete transformation of the cityscape through his lyrics of "The ten years have been the same/Even the shadows of the city are coloured in dreams", and at the same time, that boy from his novel "Binetsu Shonen"（微熱少年...The Slightly Feverish Boy）* has all grown up. The sumptuous melody by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）as well as the light swing arrangement has led to a marvelous work befitting the 10th anniversary of City Pop.
*Matsumoto's novel is a coming-of-age story that was first published in the mid-1970s and then made into a film in 1987.
Hi, J-Canuck here! Try out the scintillating cover by Abe himself.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Being only a couple of months away from his 64th birthday in December, let me wish Nobuyuki Shimizu a very early Happy Birthday. My, he really cut a dapper figure on the cover of his sophomore solo album"Anything Goes" in 1982. It's been a long while since I posted a Creator article on the blog, and as I noted in Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）"Kanojo ni Dry na Martini wo"（彼女にドライなマティーニを）last Friday, I figured that Shimizu needed to get his due here soon.
The Tokyo-born Shimizu has had plenty of mentions on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. It's no surprise since he's not only a musician on the keyboards (main), guitar, bass and drums, having begun in the 1970s, but he has been a composer and an arranger since the 1980s. His connections with other figures in the Japanese music industry began very early in his life with one of his classmates in piano lessons being future fellow musician and songwriter Yuuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）. Additionally, during his time at Tokyo Metropolitan Matsubara High School, he created a band with his kohai EPO, Yoshiyuki Sahashi（佐橋佳幸）and others after which he became a student of the late Latin jazz pianist Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）.
From my view, Shimizu has been one of the most prolific songwriters and arrangers in Japanese pop music, so I realized that I need to divvy up this tribute to him in two parts. The first half will go into his early days as a band man and then arranger entering the 1980s.
When I first wrote about Kinokuniya Band（紀ノ国屋バンド）in 2018, it was for this jazzy cover of Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"4AM" on their one-and-only album "Street Sensation" (1979). What I hadn't realized until later was that a 17-year-old Shimizu was a part of the band when they started up in 1976. Afterwards, he would also act as a support musician for Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Ohnuki and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and become a general session musician.
Shimizu may be primarily known as someone who supports other singers but he has put out his own discography beginning with his 1980"Corner Top" album. From that one is the romantic and urbane "Sayonara Mata Itsuka". Enjoy the sunset! 🌇
Shimizu was also involved in another short-lived if slightly flashier urban contemporary band project, MASH, with their own self-titled album in 1981. This time, he was matched up with his mentor Matsuoka, vocalist Yumi Murata（村田有美）and drummer "Ponta" Murakami（村上秀一）.
The way the J-Wiki timeline posits, Shimizu's arranging career started with his kohai and former school bandmate EPO's classic "Downtown", her debut single. A marked contrast from the original Sugar Babe New Music/rock tune from the mid-1970s, the half-decade-later cover has that added funkiness with synthesizers that make her "Downtown" a City Pop favourite and not a technopop tune. It really did sound like a welcome to bright and sparkly Tokyo of the 1980s, and for me, the template was set for Shimizu's arrangement style at least where this decade was concerned.
EPO was a frequent client of Shimizu but so was another City Pop veteran, Yasuhiro Abe, beginning with his own debut single"You Got It!". The fantastic and wailing electric guitar leading the way has struck me as another Shimizu trope during that time. Abe and Shimizu co-arranged this one.
Well, the aforementioned Abe and Ohnuki helped out on backup vocals for this Shimizu-arranged "U, Fu, Fu, Fu", a huge hit for EPO. The singer and the arranger collaborated to shape the melody into this bright and cheerful tune matching her style with the help of the keyboards and strings. The strings near the end really send listeners soaring into the ether.
Composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）created the most well-known song from the "Macross"（マクロス）anime franchise, and it was with Shimizu's arrangement that "Ai Oboeteimasuka?" became this epic aidoru-cute yet Zentraedi-destroying ballad. There wasn't anything urgent nor military about it at all; just a simple love song to the universe and a career-making song for Mari Iijima（飯島真理）.
"Close Your Eyes" is a gentle medium-tempo tune that brings a taste of that quintessential Abe（安部恭弘）mellowness. Because it's not especially a flashy song, it's prone to be overlooked but I think it is a highly refined work. I have to tip my hat off to the excellent sense of Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）who was also the arranger for "Irene"（アイリーン）. This was the peak of their prime time together.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
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