Keiko Kobayashi -- Kono Karui Kanji ga Suki nan desu（このかるい感じが好きなんです）

 

Ah, yes. The Laforet store that was the huge signpost delineating cool and funky Harajuku and stylish Omotesando in Tokyo. I've passed by this intersection many times.

It was almost three years ago when I posted an article on the song "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido"（気分を出してもう一度）which was recorded by a number of singers, including folk singer and radio personality Keiko Kobayashi（小林啓子）in her third album "Chotto Kibun wo Kaete"（ちょっと気分をかえて...Change The Mood A Bit） from August 1977. Well, another track from the album is "Kono Karui Kanji ga Suki nan desu" (I Really Like This Light Feeling). 

With lyrics by the future Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and music by Yu Imai（今井裕）, Kobayashi's song kinda hovers over the line between City Pop and New Music with a bit of a lemon twist. Yep, there's something rather tropical in "Kono Karui Kanji ga Suki nan desu" as if it were channeling a bit of Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）Tin Pan Alley. It's rather cool and soothing like a soft breeze wafting over the islands. By the way, if the name Yu Imai sounds familiar, you must have been reading last Friday's batch of City Pop stuff since Imai was one fellow who was featured through his "A Cool Evening". 

Yu Imai -- A Cool Evening

 

Starting from mid-August, the evenings here in Toronto tend to get a little cooler, a little crisper. And so, we get out heads-up from weather that the autumn is not too far away. Warm days and cool nights...not too bad a thing.

This is the first post for keyboardist Yu Imai（今井裕）that's getting onto KKP, but I can give you a quote from my fellow writer and friend on the blog, HRLE92, via his YouTube channel:

Yu Imai (Born March 31, 1949) is a Japanese musician, This is his only solo album. Although not heard a lot, he participated in many well-known Japanese musicians' releases and live shows, for example, he played keyboard in Taeko Ohnuki's "Sunshower" album and was a member of the Sadistic Mika Band.

Just to add some of my own information about the Osakan keyboardist, when he was with the Sadistic Mika Band, he was known as Hiroshi Imai. His career began around 1970 when he played both the keyboards and bass in the folk group Rock Candies（ロック・キャンディーズ）alongside Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）. Imai was influenced by singer-songwriter Leon Russell and musician Nicky Collins. 

Imai may have also been inspired by the Sadistic Mika Band and maybe even Tin Pan Alley when he recorded his one and only solo album in 1977, "A Cool Evening". The video above has the title track which launches the album with Imai handling the music while Takeshi Matsuyama（松山猛）and Gregory Starr are behind the lyrics. "A Cool Evening" is a long song to be sure at a shade over eight minutes, and HRLE92 has opined that it's a little overlong which I can understand. Usually for me, four to five minutes is an ideal length for a pop tune, but considering how musicians (especially the progressive rockers) liked to trip the light fantastic in the recording booth back in the 1970s, I'm not that surprised by the length of this one. 

One thing for sure is that Imai did like to bring in some of that swing jazz (including that tribute to "Blue Moon") and tropical pop...maybe even a tad of disco near the end. There is also some sprinkling of City Pop that gets dusted onto the sung portion of "A Cool Evening". I'm not proof positive on who's singing but it could be Imai himself along with a female vocalist. Hip Tank Records lists only one female singer in its description of the album and that is Haruko Kuwana（桑名晴子）which would mean that she participated before her official debut in 1978. I gather that a cool evening was had by all.