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.
Back in late July, I posted an article regarding the late Yuji Ohno's（大野雄二）"Wavelet"（ウエイブリット）, which was the B-side to "Inubue no Tehma"(The Theme for "Inubue"). "Inubue" (Dog Whistle) was the 1978 TV adaptation of a suspense novel by Jugou Nishimura（西村寿行）about a man and his faithful dog who track down the kidnappers who grabbed his kid. Considering that most of the show took place in the woods, I was surprised that something so jazzy and City Poppy could be applied to something like this.
I did mention in that article that I would have a posting about the A-side in August. Well once again, I broke that promise which means you folks shouldn't trust what I write in terms of dates and I will never make such guarantees again. So, I ought to say something rather generic like "soon".
Anyways, "Inubue no Tehma" is another classy and refined instrumental by Ohno but I think there's also that hint of suspense in the arrangement as well (although there is also a hopeful-sounding "middle eight" section). Hearing it a few times now and perhaps adding a sharp horn section, this could have made for a fine opening for those Quinn Martin detective shows in the States back in the 1970s.
Finishing off this Friday's take on Urban Contemporary songs on KKP, I've decided to go with something mellow and older...maybe the aural equivalent of good scotch. And I found this one not from the City Pop guides above as you might think, but from a YouTube City Pop compilation video.
However, I was happy to find the song all by itself in a separate video, so I will go with that. This is "Mou Ichido Kikasete"(Please Play it Again) by the late singer-songwriter Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）. Written by Shibata and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, it's got that wonderful flute, the bluesy guitar and the splendid harmonies provided by the singer and others.
It's been around three years since I've had Shibata up on the blog, so I'm glad to have found this lovely example of 70s City Pop which was recorded onto Shibata's November 1975 2nd album"Singer Lady"（シンガー・レディ）. There's also a goodly amount of soul in "Mou Ichido Kikasete" which reminds me a bit of Minnie Ripperton's music.
Whenever I think of canine heroes, my memories reveal "Lassie" (Rin Tin Tin was just way before even my time) from the 1960s. I remember watching some of the TV series as a kid and though I can't really remember the theme song, I can make out enough of it that it was an instrumental with a faintly classical arrangement.
In 1976, novelist Jugou Nishimura（西村寿行）wrote "Inubue"（犬笛...Dog Whistle） whose plot entailed a child kidnapping and the father who used his trusty dog via a dog whistle to track down his kid and the dastardly folks behind the crime. Apparently, the novel had quite the legs since it would be made into a movie in 1978 followed by three television adaptations in 1978, 1990 and 2002. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage from any of those TV shows or the movie so the poster up at the top is the best I could do.
For the 1978 TV adaptation that was an 8-week summer series on NTV, the recently departed Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）was placed in charge of the music. I'll do the official ending theme by him next month but for today, I'll go with the B-side of the single, the shibui "Wavelet". The first time I heard this, I thought that this was awfully urban and urbane for a thriller that seems to take place in the deep woods, and it's not everyday that an adventure involving a kid and a dog sounds like something from "Lupin III". But hey, it's Ohno and he was the master of the jazzier side of City Pop, so if the kid and the dog wanna hit a Shinjuku hotel top bar for mocktails (I wouldn't dare say cocktails) after filming, I'm not judging. 👍
Hello, J-Canuck here. I'd like to welcome Rocket Brown to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as a new contributor to the blog. For those among the City Pop fandom, Rocket's been known for years for providing his thoughts on the music via his "Come Along Radio" broadcasts, some of which I've been honoured to be invited to over the past number of years. He's been a good friend and fellow City Pop fan, so right after the rocket photo below, he'll take over with his first article.
Sometime in high school, I became disillusioned with modern movies. They just weren’t capturing my attention in a way that sparked my imagination anymore. One day, after spending my entire Japanese language class discussing Studio Ghibli films, I decided to look into Hayao Miyazaki’s filmography and discovered that he had directed a Lupin III movie called The Castle of Cagliostro.
After sitting down and watching the movie, I was hooked. The comedy, the action, the fun and witty dialogue — always watch the Manga dub if you can — all pulled me in. But what captivated me the most was the music, especially the main theme song, Fire Treasure (炎のたからもの).
It’s no secret that legendary jazz composer Yuji Ohno (大野雄二) practically defined the musical identity of Lupin III. But what makes this particular theme so special is that it isn’t bombastic like the big band sound of “Lupin ’89,” nor does it have the exploitation-style funk of the 1979 theme. Instead, it’s a nostalgic ballad sung by Toshie Kihara (木原敏恵), with lyrics by Jun Hashimoto.
Much like the movie itself, “Fire Treasure” embodies a feeling of longing for adventure and romance. I can’t think of another song in the Lupin III canon that captures the same whimsical sense of mystery this song evokes. Ohno would try to recapture that feeling in the 2019 film Lupin III: The First — Lupin’s first 3D CGI movie — with the song “GIFT” featuring Lyn Inaizumi (稲泉りん). It’s a beautiful song in its own right, but it just doesn’t hit the same way.
“Fire Treasure” is truly lightning in a bottle and a showcase of Yuji Ohno’s genius. Most people only know him for his LupinIII music, but he did so much more. As J-Canuck once put it, Ohno was essentially the Japanese Henry Mancini, composing iconic themes and soundtracks for various television and film productions such as Proof of the Man andDai Gekitō Mad Police ’80.
Yuji Ohno would pass away in his sleep on May 4, 2026, but he left behind an incredible legacy of music for the world to enjoy. And much like Lupin himself, he stole our hearts.
Earlier today, I received word from commenter and contributor Fireminer that musician and composer/arranger Yuji Ohno had passed away on May 4th from natural causes at the age of 84 according to newspaper reports just coming out today.
Whenever I heard his name, the music that automatically flowed through my head was jazz...whiskey-on-the-rocks jazz with lots of pizzazz. And of course, that means his iconic theme from the anime "Lupin The 3rd"（ルパン三世）comes pounding to mind. There have been a variety of versions of that theme but at the core of them all is a song that was just perfectly made for the bumbling if charming thief.
Born on May 30th 1941 in the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, he started playing the piano during elementary school and formed his own unit in high school while schooling himself on the joys of jazz music. He became a member of Keio University's Light Music Society, the school's big band of the genre while studying in the Faculty of Law. His first work for the public came out in 1966 for a record featuring singer/actor Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）.
Sometime in the early 1970s, Ohno opted to take a break from piano playing and focus on composition. His first album "Sound Adventure Act.1" came out in 1975 and the above video has the whole album with the first track being the propulsive "Too High".
Ohno would create his brand of exciting music which took in disco, City Pop and jazz among other genres, and in the same year as "Sound Adventure Act. 1", he was also responsible for making most of the tracks on Hatsumi Shibata's（しばたはつみ）2nd album, "Singer Lady", including the title track whose lyrics were created by Takahiro or Masahiro Takeda（武田全弘）. Evidently, Shibata wanted some sort of melodic calling card for herself and Ohno provided one that pretty much bashed down the door.
The J-Wiki article for Ohno features a long list of clients who he whipped up songs for, ranging from Hi-Fi Set（ハイファイセット）and Circus（サーカス）to SMAP and Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）. He was also in the business of making music for not only singers but also for commercials, TV soundtracks and anime. For example, the aforementioned Hi-Fi Set got to record one of his compositions "America Monogatari"（あめりか物語）in 1978 which was used for a Japan Air Lines campaign.
One of his TV works was the opening theme for "Daigekito Mad Police '80"（大激闘マッドポリス'80）under the collaborative name of You & Explosion Band. It's a kickass tune to match a kickass special police squad. All I can say is that the horns should have been paid time-and-a-half for their work here.
For all of his swaggering and staggering jazz, Ohno probably surprised quite a few people including myself when he composed the tenderhearted "Chiisana Tabi" (小さな旅）for NHK's long-running documentary travelogue series. Here, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）provided a sung version of the song for her album "Wa Ga Ma Ma" in 1986.
As for one more entry here, I only found out about this in the last few minutes, but apparently Ohno also provided his own tribute to the American cop series "CHiPs" through a 1981 album which included a really disco take on the original theme by John Parker (in fact, I'd probably say it sounds closer to Alan Silvestri's handling of the theme from Season 2 onwards). I didn't watch too much of the series compared to other cop shows but I recall the theme being pretty darn cool.
We lost one of the big guns in Japanese pop composition today. My condolences go to Ohno's family, friends and many fans out there. Play your "Lupin III" theme today if you've got it.
The city of Urayasu（浦安）, Chiba Prefecture is right next door to my residence city of Ichikawa（市川） in the same prefecture. Both cities gave me some strong impressions. Both of them are bedroom towns for Tokyo but whereas Ichikawa spread out so widely that there was no way I could explore all of it even within a few days, Urayasu struck me as having a dual personality.
For me, there was Old Urayasu around the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line's Urayasu Station (refer to the above video) which I was far more well-acquainted with. It was the usual conglomeration of fast-food restaurants, izakaya, pachinko parlors, one major department store, supermarkets and apartment buildings. I used to teach at a juku some fifteen minutes walk away from the station so I often made use of the local Starbucks, KFC, the family restaurant and the MUJI store there.
But then there was Shin-Urayasu or New Urayasu as you can see below. And it was like comparing night to day. The new development looked like a southern California resort community by the sea. There were palm trees, wide boulevards, a lot of spiffy new condos and attractive shopping malls. Of course, all that was probably started when Tokyo Disneyland began operations there in 1983. I could get to the area by a bus that actually began its route in front of my subway station, Minami-Gyotoku（南行徳）, just one stop east from Urayasu on the Tozai (why it didn't start from Urayasu itself is beyond me). It was a half-hour ride one way to Shin-Urayasu Station. Mind you, unless I had friends come over from abroad to head to the Mouse House, I never really frequented the Shin-Urayasu area. It appeared and most likely still is too expensive for my blood.
I knew that Urayasu had its humble beginnings as a small fishing town but I never really saw that side; Urayasu has always been that bedroom town/condo community for me. But I got that historical reality put into my brain while listening to Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）single from 1978"Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa"(Rumours of a Sea Breeze Avenue) because it was the theme song for an NTV drama of that year called "Kaigara no Machi" (貝がらの街...Seashell Town) which took place and was actually filmed in Urayasu when it was a whole lot smaller and sleepier. It's a pity that I can't find any footage from the drama.
Unlike Minami's familiar City Pop stuff or his 50s/60s twangy material, "Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa" is quite the softer song. For one thing, he had nothing to do with the actual creation of the song which was handled by lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer/arranger Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. The result is something that sounds quite early 70s Carpenter-esque but then again, any languid tune with an oboe in there will always remind me of Karen and Richard Carpenter. Again, there is no sign of the drama on YouTube but from the song itself, I can imagine that "Kaigara no Machi" was a pretty down-home TV series with plenty of that smalltown Urayasu atmosphere.
I never became a dedicated follower of "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）although the music associated with the various shows and movies has interested me over the years because some of it has had roots in jazz and City Pop. But I do have to say that next year will be the 60th anniversary since the original manga was first published in 1967.
Until today though, I hadn't even known of this "Lupin III" flick called "Lupin Tai Clone"（ルパンVS複製人間）which literally translates into "Lupin vs. The Clone" although the English title is"Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo" which got into theatres in December 1978. I have no idea what it's all about but I'm sure that it's got the usual Lupin hijinks with Fujiko, car chases and lots of derring-do.
What it also has is a rather interesting insert song called "Lupin Ondo" (The Lupin Song). I never thought I'd see the day that a Lupin song would be a 80/20 mix of traditional festival-friendly min'yo and some of that Lupin jazz created by composer Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. With "Lupin III" creator Monkey Punch（モンキー・パンチ）and Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）providing the lyrics, the finishing touch was inviting the legendary Haruo Minami（三波春夫）coming into the recording booth to sing "Lupin Ondo".
I'd expected the characters to be involved in a typical Japanese festival as they danced to "Lupin Ondo", but I guess the producers went with a montage-style ending credit sequence while Minami was singing away.
It's been a while since composer and jazz pianist Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）has appeared on the byline although of course, he's been getting included in the Labels as a songwriter. In fact, I think the last time was through his "Lupin the 3rd Ai no Theme"（ルパン三世・愛のテーマ）back in 2021 as You & Explosion Band（ユー&エクスプロージョン・バンド）.
That was back in the late 1970s. Well, Ohno was also doing some of his own solo stuff back in the day as well and that included his 1981 album "Cosmos". One of the tracks was "Take it to the Sky" which starts off sounding quite appropriately cosmic but then goes into a groovy and spacy fusion riff followed by the horns. There are also some generous appearances of Latin and funk so Ohno gives us a little bit of everything.
Well, I was just writing about vocal group Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）last week in the regular Yutaka Kimura Speaks series. Mind you, that was a song from their 1980s period but we're back in the 1970s for them, the decade that I've known them best for. And man, this 12th single from August 1978 is quite the banger.
Listening to the first few measures of "America Monogatari"(The Story of America), I have to admit that I was wondering whether we were going to get a refrain from Barry Gray's theme from "Space: 1999", knowing how prog rock and disco that song was. Instead though, I got a huge aural advertisement by Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）and company to visit the good ol' US of A. More likely, it was a big invitation to take a bite out of the Big Apple.
Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed/arranged by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, "America Monogatari" was indeed created for a 1978 Japan Air Lines commercial campaign getting folks to come and visit the United States (though I can't find the ad on YouTube). Ohno really stuffed the song with jazz and disco which were probably the music genres that a lot of Japanese equated America with at the time. Of course, Hi-Fi Set's optimistic and upbeat delivery sure made it inviting for folks to make their reservations.
As was the case with my immediately preceding article regarding Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express（Dr.ドラゴン&オリエンタル・エクスプレス）and their "Carib no Yume"（カリブの夢）, I think the song of this article might have made for another exciting theme song for some law enforcement program on Japan's prime time schedule back in the day.
Ken Tanaka（田中健）is an actor, TV personality and a musician who plays the drums, bass and Andean quena. Born Kenichi Tanaka（田中研一）in Fukuoka Prefecture, he debuted in 1972 and went by a couple of other stage names: Ken Aoi（あおい健）and Kenny Taylor Jr. He also had a time as a singer under the former name with three singles and one album between 1972 and 1973. Then as Ken Tanaka, he released ten singles and three albums, mostly in the 70s and 80s.
Looking at the cover of his September 1978 second album"Flash Back", I can't help but see Tanaka as a more serious-looking Jackie Chan, taking umbrage at his cigarette being criticized. Marlboro is a perfectly fine cigarette. In any case, the title track has that mix of Latin and disco with those silky strings, horns and chorus hinting at another exciting night in areas such as Roppongi and Shinjuku while Tanaka sings in his soft rasp. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）was the lyricist here while the exciting music was provided by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, who would also come up with an iconic anime theme in the same year.
First off, Happy Monday and to the final full week of January 2023. Yep, it seems as if the calendar is already warping ahead. Hopefully, all of you had a good weekend, especially those celebrating Chinese New Year.
I have heard of the old 1960s musical and title tune "Bye Bye Birdie" as sung by Ann-Margret in the movie version, but I was unaware of this "Bye Bye Hummingbird" by the late chanteuse Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）. This was a track from her June 1976 3rd album"Lots of Love".
"Bye Bye Hummingbird" is one interesting animal. Starting off with a bluesy guitar riff, Shibata and company go into a sultry torch song; perhaps "torch" may not be the accurate term here because it sounds as if the singer has already brought her love into a compromising position (or several) on the bed. It's all jazzy and urban with some of that Henry Mancini classiness. And here I thought that the song would remain that way. However, a little over halfway through "Bye Bye Hummingbird", something happens that I can analogize through the following conversation. Let's imagine Shibata and the lucky guy on the Serta!
Shibata: Oh, h-o-n-e-y! Can we do something else?💋
Mr. Lucky: Heh, heh. You are an energetic one, aren't you? Sure, what?😍
Shibata: Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.....let's hop in the BMW and take a ride right now!😀
Mr. Lucky: !?😨
Yup, lazing about on the mattress just went out the window. The music suddenly takes things off into a new direction thanks to a sudden increase in the tempo and a blast of brass. And everyone's off to the melodic races at 100 km/h. Go figure on that. Anyways, poet and playwright Shuji Terayama（寺山修司）wrote the lyrics to "Bye Bye Hummingbird" while the cool 1970s City Pop melody was provided by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, a composer who knows his way around some horn-powered goodness. A couple of years later, he would come up with the immortal "Lupin III" theme and then a theme for a cop show that could have been a battering ram itself.
Oh, those old Japanese game shows. I think those were going from the 1960s into the 1990s, and maybe even into the early 2000s. I don't get the impression that those are proliferating anymore although I believe that former Arashi（嵐）member Masaki Aiba（相葉雅紀）may still be pushing ahead with his replacement for "VS. Arashi". By the way, I should congratulate Mr. Aiba for becoming a father.
Maybe the most famous one during the 1980s was the rousing Fuji-TV program "Naruhodo! The World"（なるほど!ザ・ワールド）with amiable Kin'ya Aikawa（愛川欽也）and the statuesque Eriko Kusuta（楠田恵理子）at 170 cm (well, in her heels, she was probably around my height, and I don't consider myself to be tall at all). I didn't really become a fan of "Naruhodo!" but I knew the basic premise of the show's reporters going all around the world to come up with questions to stump the celebrity panel. "Naruhodo!" was a show of its times in Japan, when even before the Bubble Era of hedonism, folks were getting really itchy to board planes and travel to those far-flung destinations, spending all that yen.
There was also a similar quiz show on rival network NTV called "Sharp World Quiz Kan Kan Gaku Gaku"（SHARPワールドクイズ・カンカンガク学）which had a much briefer time on air (and fairly late at night, coming on at 10 pm) at only a little over a year between 1984 and 1985. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any evidence of it on YouTube, but apparently, the premise was more on the law, presumably on the more arcane rules and regulations within society. There's a bit of a pun in the title with it being translated as "Sharp's World Quiz Clang Clang Shake Shake" or "Sharp's World Quiz Clang Clang Shake Study" because of that final kanji.
But putting the game show itself aside, the theme song was rather interesting. "Stardust no Umi"(Stardust Sea) by the vocal group Circus（サーカス）is a pretty classy and soaring tune that has hints of Bobby Caldwell thanks to the horns, and the group itself has always struck me as being imbued with the sophistication of the Manhattan Transfer, so "Stardust no Umi" sounds like something to accompany an outing to a pricey bar up in a skyscraper and not necessarily to a game show about legalities.
Hey, I'm not complaining though. It's smooth City Pop and I'm always all for that. Anyways, "Stardust no Umi" was written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. This was Circus' 18th single from May 1984.
I'm taking a little tangent away from City Pop for this article only to note that it's been close to six months following the passing of singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）. In 1976, Kosaka and his group Ultra created a theme song for an NTV family drama titled "Kimagure Tenshi"(Capricious Angel) which was notable among other things for having an animated opening credit sequence directed by Tsutomu Shibayama（芝山努）who directed a lot of the "Doraemon"（ドラえもん）series of films. "Kimagure Tenshi" was all about a somewhat goofy employee at a lingerie company who ends up engaged to a young lady working in a different department of the firm.
The theme song, also titled "Kimagure Tenshi", was an October 1976 single for Kosaka, and it has that folksy and comforting arrangement by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the type of music that would welcome a tired salaryman from another 12-hour day at the salt mines. As well, there also seems to be a hint of 1970s soul inhabiting the music. Hiroshi Matsuki（松木ひろし）, who came up with the script for the show, was also responsible for the lyrics.
It's been about a couple of years since singer Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）passed away and during her time, she was known as the Queen of Pops. From the 1960s onwards, she was one of the kayo stalwarts with one of her standard-bearers being the 1969 "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）.
But her discography extended into the first half of the 1980s, too, with four singles and two albums coming out. For instance, her 38th single from March 1983 is "Ai no Nokori ga" (Remains of Love) which is a swinging combination of some old-style jazz and the new City Pop. It rather feels like going out on that high-flying and high-paying night out in Shinjuku, Akasaka and Ginza.
We can thank Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the same fellow behind the famous "Lupin III" theme song, for all that jazz in "Ai no Nokori ga" while singer-lyricist Mebae Miyahara（宮原芽映）under her pen name of Yu Chino（茅野遊）took care of the words. "Ai no Nokori ga" can also be found on Hirota's album "Touch of Breeze" which came out on the same day as the single.
Happy Saturday and at least here in Toronto, the weather is perfect for Halloween...all rainy and dreary, but at least tomorrow on the 31st, it should be clear for the trick or treaters. I checked out the live camera for Shibuya on YouTube and it appears that the crowds did return with many in cosplay mode but my impression is that the Halloween vibe is still not quite as high as it was before the pandemic.
I haven't been a keen purveyor of the "Lupin III" franchise but I do know about the romance between Lupin and femme fatale Fujiko（不二子）. Although I've heard that the pair eventually had their kids, I've always thought that there was a Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt and the football relationship underlaying that relationship albeit there was a whole lot less malice between Lupin and Fujiko. The former would always go to "kick the football" so to speak only for the latter to pull it back at the last moment through some teasing flirtatious moment to end things until the next time.
Earlier this year, I wrote up on "Love Squall"（ラヴ・スコール）which was one ending theme for the second anime run for "Lupin III" which had an epic three years of comedy, intrigue and adventure between October 1977 and October 1980. Today, I give you the first ending theme, "Lupin the 3rd Ai no Theme" (The Love Theme for Lupin the 3rd).
Initially an instrumental created by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）through his You & Explosion Band（ユー&エクスプロージョン・バンド）, the smooth-as-Bailey's Irish Cream featured that disco/soft rock flute and the main instruments of harmonica and bluesy guitar, a combination that pretty much screams 1970s detective voiceover with the private eye nursing a tumbler (and maybe a black eye) at his favourite watering hole. I haven't forgotten the silky strings, though, which always lent a touch of class. Not sure whether variations of this instrumental were used during any interactions between Lupin and the love of his life.
About six months into the run of that second season so early 1978, the ending theme was switched into a vocalized version of "Ai no Theme" with seiyuu/singer Ichiro Mizuki（水木一郎）handling the tenderhearted delivery thanks to Kazuya Senke's（千家和也）lyrics. I noticed that the arrangement changed a bit with the harmonica taken out and the bluesy guitar put back a bit more into the background.
I'm sure that with the jazziness and class of Lupin's love theme, it's been covered many times in the years following. In fact, I did find one cover by bohemian band Ego-Wrappin and the Gossip of Jaxx via a March 2010 tribute compilation to "Lupin III" titled "Club Jazz Digs Lupin The Third", and yep, listening to the band and the steamy vocals of Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）, I thought that the perfect setting would be a smoke-filled underground jazz club in the heart of Shinjuku...namely Shinjuku DUG. There's something more introspective and distant in this arrangement, though.
Kinda wonder if a couple of folks did dress up like Lupin and Fujiko in Tokyo tonight.
I always like it when a YouTube browsing unearths something marvelous.
Case in point, this would be the duo Casamila which has been around since the late 1990s but has only put out three albums and at least one maxi-single in 2000, including a promotion album that was never meant to be put onto the market. Casamila consists of Yasuyo Kashima（鹿島やすよ）, vocalist and lyricist from the city of Fukuoka, and Tadashi Shirakawa（白川雅）, keyboardist, composer and arranger from Osaka.
Their most recent album was recorded and released in 2016 titled "Noites De Luar" which translates from Portuguese into "Moonlit Nights", and from what I've heard so far, it sounds like a mix of everything that has been Japanese urban contemporary over the past 30 years including the return of Shibuya-kei with Kashima sounding reminiscent of the Divine Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）from Pizzicato Five. The title track which starts things off has got that languid Burt Bacharach feeling from the past and what can I say about that electric organ solo?
"Cotton Candy" has a hint of that Shibuya-kei but is otherwise more of what Neo-City Pop would sound like right now. Despite the title, it comes across as the theme for some kakkoii film noir set in any of the major neighbourhoods of Tokyo. There's even some synthesized form of sophisti-pop in the instrumental bridge.
"By Oneself" is another dynamic tune that seems to be ready-made for the car stereo as we go driving over the Rainbow Bridge at Tokyo Bay. Of course, there's gotta be a beefy sax solo along with the piano toodling away like crazy.
One more track that I'll provide you is a cover of "Love Squall" which was originally done by Sandra Hohn, aka Sandii of Sandii & The Sunsetz for Season 2 of the iconic "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）anime back in the late 1970s.
Now that I'm writing this on May 1st, it is International Workers' Day and a few days into the Golden Week holidays in Japan but here in Canada, it just means the day that we commiserate after filing our tax returns on time the day before. At least this year it's a Saturday so we can watch sports on television.
I was looking for a May-themed song as such and it didn't take me too long before I found this lovely mellow tune by the late supremely voiced Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）. "Furusato no Go-gatsu"(May in the Hometown). This was Ozaki's penultimate single released in April 1995, and I gather that this was perfect for Golden Week since in normal years, people would be heading back to the old hometown by planes, trains and automobiles. "Furusato no Go-gatsu" was created by a couple of vets, lyricist Akira Ohtsu and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（大津あきら・鈴木キサブロー）, and there is something indeed very 70s folksy and homey about it, despite its 1995 release date. Not surprisingly, it was used in NHK's"Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series for children.
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For a complete change of pace, I've actually got a song by Ozaki that I had unfortunately forgotten to include during the Xmas period last year since it is indeed a song for the Yuletide. "Christmas Etranger" rings all sorts of bells of memory whether they belong to Frank Sinatra, the Manhattan Transfer and maybe even any of the swing jazz that Seth MacFarlane has performed within his characters in "Family Guy". This is indeed one song that illustrates how much I love jazz and Xmas together.
Written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）,"Christmas Etranger" was originally included in the November 1992"Lupin the Third in Christmas" album for the long-running anime franchise. However, the song was also inserted as a bonus track in Ozaki's March 1980"Kaze no Graffiti"（風のグラフィティー）probably because Ohno was actually the producer for that album.
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.
Hope your weekend is getting off to a great start. Unfortunately, my province has had to be locked down for the next 28 days once more due to skyrocketing cases. Over 3000 and change in each of the past couple of days so I'm hoping that there is some light coming over the horizon eventually.
On a happier note, it also looks like the blog's "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）file is growing as well. I found one of the ending themes for the second series of the legendary anime which had its run between October 1977 and October 1980. This is "Love Squall" that premiered from the 52nd episode so I'm surmising that this may have been in late 1978. This was sung by Sandra Hohn, which was another alias for Sandii of Sandii & The Sunsetz fame.
Sounding like a jazzy and snazzy accompaniment to a lazy cruise down the Riviera, the whimsical "Love Squall" is just the song that the title character would appreciate playing with a successful wooing of the buxom Fujiko. The horns including the saxophone and the silky strings all enhance the atmosphere of one classy caper somewhere in the south of France. Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the master behind the music of "Lupin III" was once again behind the music here with Sanaho Maki（槇小奈帆）providing the lyrics. "Love Squall" also made its presence known on the 1984 "Lupin the 3rd ~ Perfect Collection" album.
In 2011, there was another entry in the "Lupin III" franchise with "Lupin III ~ Chi no Kokuin - Eien no Māmeido"（ルパン三世 血の刻印 〜永遠のMermaid〜...Blood Seal of the Eternal Mermaid）, a TV special that was originally broadcast in December 2011, and with it came a cover of "Love Squall". This time, it was performed by Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）, vocalist for the jazz/avant-pop group Ego-Wrappin', with Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Five, and although there is a good dollop of jazz in this version, too, the arrangement this time has more of a funky disco sheen, and there's even a repeated riff that has been lifted from Julio Iglesias' Spanish take on Cole Porter's"Begin The Beguine" from 1981.
Nakano and Ohno have collaborated before via "Lupin III". In fact, it was the actual iconic theme.
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）.
