Lisa Ono -- Ipanema no Musume (イパネマの娘)

One of the other guests on the latest episode of "Uta Kon"(うたコン) a few nights ago was the wonderful bossa nova singer Lisa Ono（小野リサ）. She used to make a few appearances on the NHK program's predecessor "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）so it was nice of her to make a return trip.

In all honesty, I haven't been following her career like a die-hard fan although I like bossa nova and have bought a few albums by Ono. Still, listening to her vocals is like hearing those clear summer chimes in Japan called fuurin（風鈴）...she seems to bring a lovely coolness into the room. She may be just the thing to bring down air conditioning costs...almost.

Anyways, she performed one of the pillars of bossa nova that night, "Garota de Ipanema", otherwise known in English as "The Girl From Ipanema" and in Japanese as "Ipanema no Musume". And when Ono was performing that song, I knew I was in for a treat. Having an ice cream at the same time would have just perfected the moment. I tracked down her performance to an album that she released in November 2007, "The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim" (her cover of the song is Track 1).

I guess I have a soft spot for that girl from Ipanema since the bossa ballad by Antonio Carlos Jobim was one of the first songs that I remember hearing as a toddler. As far as I know, I don't think my father had the record as part of his collection but it was a tune that I heard quite frequently on radio and TV. Years later, it was required playing during my lone year of band class back in high school although I didn't quite have the appreciation for it that I do now (playing off-tune renditions of it on an old clarinet can take the buzz off). Realizing that the song has become possibly so ubiquitous to the point of kitsch, I think if "The Girl From Ipanema" is given its due respect, it can still be that wonderfully cooling song from 1964.

Anri -- Girls In Summer

It wouldn't be a "Kayo Kyoku Plus" summer without an Anri（杏里）song to throw into the mix. Here is "Girls in Summer" from her 16th album "Moana Lani" which was released in June 1992. I did acquire this album via the Eye-Ai mail order system, and "Girls in Summer" was one of the standout tracks, although the album as a whole hasn't really occupied that grand a place in my memories of Anri's discography.

The same trio behind Anri's late 80s full embrace of an earlier brand of American R&B, Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）, Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）and Anri herself, was also behind the production of "Moana Lani". However with "Girls in Summer", the three decided to go for the sound of a laid back Hawaiian sunset from the comfort of a lanai instead of the rambunctious horns. In fact, my impression has been that the singer-songwriter was melodically heading for the 50th State from the 31st State of California as the 90s went by. And basically my interest in her work was starting to wane as the decade progressed.

"Moana Lani" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 25th-ranked album for 1992.

Jun & Nene -- Aisurutte Kowai （愛するってこわい）

Doing my usual maintenance of the blog, I came across nikala's old article about "Taiyou no Wasuremono"（太陽の忘れもの）by the duo Jun & Nene（じゅん&ネネ）. Any presence of the song online disappeared long ago as of 2013 since I was the one who placed the unfortunate notice once the powers-that-be took down the lone video.

Feeling rather sorry for the forlorn article without a song (this will sound corny but I do treat all of the articles somewhat like my children), I decided to search for a Jun & Nene song that still has a presence. For example, there is "Aisurutte Kowai" (Falling In Love Is Scary) from July 1968. Nikala mentioned it in passing in her article, and this is the ladies' first single after making a reset of their name which had been Cookies (I guess the fans didn't bite....oh ho ho) but then changed into the more straight-ahead Jun & Nene.

This was the duo's first big hit as well as their most successful hit. It managed to peak at No. 13 and is probably the one song that gets performed all the time if and when Jun & Nene make an appearance on those old kayo shows. Written by Akari Yamaguchi（山口あかり）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）, there is a nice and innocent little tango feeling to the melody while the lyrics talk about the Charlie Brown syndrome of simply not being able to confess one's feelings to another person and having to settle for loving from afar. It's certainly one of those go-to tropes whenever a high school drama is broadcast.

As for basic information on Jun & Nene, you can check out nikala's article.

Keiko Mizukoshi -- Tokyo ga Suki （東京が好き）

The only song that I've known by Keiko Mizukoshi（水越けいこ）was the peppy "Hoho ni Kiss Shite"（ほほにキスをして）which kinda fell into my impression of what French pop sounded like. I've been meaning to find out a bit more about this particular singer-songwriter, and I think I have found a hook with this other song that I've discovered by her.

"Tokyo ga Suki" (I Love Tokyo) also seems to have a bit of that Gallic feeling as well but in a more mature and "sadder but wiser" sense. This was a track on her 3rd album "Aquarius" from 1979, and as that fellow blogger for the Japanese-language "Music Avenue" has put it, it's quite the chic tune about an embittered woman following the end of a romance, although she insists that she still loves her Tokyo (methinks that the cad brought her and then dumped her in the Big Sushi). The author, kaz-shin, feels that "Tokyo ga Suki" is perhaps the best track on "Aquarius"; I would love to find that out for myself if I can purchase the album.

Mizukoshi wrote and composed the wistful song, and perhaps I can place it in that rarefied genre known as Fashion Music which was coined by the media during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Plus I gather that I can indeed place Mizukoshi then with some of these other ennui-laden songstresses such as Asami Kado（門あさ美）and Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. With "Tokyo ga Suki", she can just lie herself down onto that chaise longue and guzzle down those multiple martinis while cursing her ex-lover.

August 6th 2020: Have a listen to the cover by Miyuki Kosaka （小坂みゆき）.

Yup, I love Tokyo!

Judy and Mary -- Classic (クラシック)

Y'know...I used to see the excerpt of the music video for this song all the time on shows like "Music Station" and "Countdown TV". And it was always the camera shot overlooking Judy & Mary's YUKI singing in that red gown.

The song is "Classic", Judy & Mary's 10th single from October 1996. Written by Tack & Yukky and composed by the band's guitarist, Takuya, it's got that nostalgic 90s melodic and twangy sound with YUKI's flowing high-pitched vocals. I guess in that way, Judy & Mary struck me as one of my musical memories of my early years in Japan during my Tokyo stint. And YUKI always reminded me of a poppier version of Bjork.

I'm glad to finally see the music video of "Classic" in its entirety. It turned out to be a "Star Wars"-like cantina scene with Judy & Mary making its farthest concert appearance, although I guess the round of indifference on that planet is what goes for applause.

Anyways, "Classic" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon. It was also a track on Judy and Mary's 4th album "The Power Source", released in March 1997. That album hit No. 1 on the charts and in fact became the 4th-ranked album of the year, selling over 2 million copies. And according to the J-Wiki article on the song, guitarist Takuya had originally created "Classic" as part of his own solo project, but YUKI really wanted to be the one to sing it so it became a Judy & Mary single. However, after the breakup of the band, Takuya has been able to perform at his own concerts now.

Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Hatsukoi （初恋）

TUBE and Southern All Stars might be the masters at Japanese beach pop in the good ol' summertime but when it comes to enjoying that drink at the top of a Shinjuku skyscraper in a beer garden in the middle of the massive megalopolis that is Tokyo during that same time, you may just wanna have Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）on the speakers.

My first sentence that had aspirations to become a whole paragraph is partially due to the buzz I've gotten from listening to Kadomatsu's 8th single "Hatsukoi" (First Love)...just like the buzz from having that first mug of beer. Kadomatsu could really pull out the funk but, man, am I enjoying this one! That beat, that boppy saxophone, that plump bass and a backup chorus which sounds as if it has included Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. It's all of that wonderful City Pop put into one song.

Kadomatsu's "Hatsukoi" is not to be mistaken (as if it really could) for Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）wonderful "Hatsukoi" from 1983. His 8th single was released in October 1985 and although I'm not sure whether it had a place on any of his original albums, it was also released as a 12" single paired with "Snow Lady Fantasy" a month later. Hopefully, it's on one of his BEST compilations.

When I first heard the first several notes of "Hatsukoi", I thought there was a swaying gospel blues sense about it but then Kadomatsu just took the dive into the disco pool and swam several lengths like Michael Phelps. I'm not sure whether some of those Future Funksters on YouTube like Artzie Music have already sampled this song, but I'd say that this would be an ideal palette to work from.

Sayuri Ishikawa -- Noto Hanto （能登半島）

One of the grande dames of enka, Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, made another appearance on last night "Uta Kon" (うたコン) during which she sang one of her classics, "Noto Hanto" (Noto Peninsula). Following up on her breakthrough hit as an enka singer, "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki"（津軽海峡・冬景色）which had been released in January 1977, her 16th single "Noto Hanto" came out in May of that year.

The ballad about that melancholy post-breakup trip to the famous peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Takashi Miki（三木たかし）, and melodically speaking, it is quite similar to "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki" (Aku and Miki were also responsible for that one), although instead of that really bluesy saxophone from that song, "Noto Hanto" has some of those old staccato 70s horns filling in. Still, the chorus provides that haunting backdrop and Ishikawa herself broadcasts those feelings of anguish.

Along with Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）"Kaga no Hito"（加賀の女）, Ishikawa's "Noto Hanto" is known as one of the enka symbolizing Ishikawa Prefecture of the 1970s. It reached as high as No. 10 on Oricon and finished the year as the 26th-ranked single. "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki" was the song that Ishikawa had sung on her debut appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen in 1977, but she was finally able to sing her follow-up hit for the first time on the year-end special some 26 years later in 2003.

One more benefit from the enka ballad was a sudden boost in tourism to the actual Noto Peninsula itself. However, I have no idea whether the tourists mostly consisted of single depressed women.