Yoshiko Kishino -- Jenga

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What's not to love about Jenga? There is the suspense aspect to it trying to stack as much of those weird pieces on top of each other without having the whole thing collapse and then there is the comedy part of it when it does fall with that sense of catharsis afterwards. It is popular in Japan and I'm fairly confident that it has been used in many a bonenkai in December.

I just wouldn't have realized that the actual word would be used as a title for a lovely mellow instrumental as this one by jazz pianist Yoshiko Kishino（木住野佳子）. Yes, this track is apparently titled "Jenga" and is a track on her 1997 album "Rendez-Vous". I had never heard of her until a few nights ago when I came across this nice number.

"Jenga" is very pleasant to hear and I get this sudden craving for an Orange Mimosa. In fact, I also get some reminders of some of what Pat Metheny has done in the past. But although Kishino has been identified as a jazz pianist on J-Wiki, I don't think this particular track here would qualify as jazz per se. It's probably more along the lines of Smooth Jazz which is why I've categorized it as a J-AOR tune.

As for Kishino herself, she actually shares the same birthday as myself although five years older and hails from Tokyo. She made her debut in 1986 and has released about 17 albums ranging from 1995 to 2015.

One of the amazing things about Japanese music stores is that the genre of Western AOR (or is it called Yacht Rock now?) still has a large representation on the shelves. Folks like Steely Dan, Christopher Cross and the late Nicolette Larson could conceivably be on those shelves, and that would include Smooth Jazz folks. I mean, I've come across artists that I had never heard before since I collected a few of these compilations, and one of those folks was a lady by the name of Jaye P. Morgan who I had only known as a perennial game show panelist in the 1970s on American TV, notably on "The Gong Show".

I'm not sure what it is but the Japanese have certainly loved their AOR/Smooth Jazz, certainly during my time there. However, I'm not sure if Smooth Jazz can really be called a subset of jazz. I read a textbook on jazz once and the author mentioned that there were a few qualifications for a song to be classified as a jazz number. Two of them were syncopation and improvisation. Although I do like my fair share of Smooth Jazz, I don't think those qualifications are met here.

Perhaps it's the same thing as calling that certain brand of music Yacht Rock, knowing full well it isn't rock. Smooth Jazz may not be real jazz but at least on hearing the term, I know what I'm getting. Well, I'm open for any opinions on this.

MANISH -- Kirameku Toki ni Torawarete （煌めく瞬間に捕われて）

TGIF! Not quite as gloomy as it was yesterday but still fairly cool out there.

Now I have heard of the 1990s band MANISH which featured a couple of rock-out female singers but never really got into their music. However, over the past little while, I was able to find out some interesting information about they came to be. In 1991, the Japanese talent agency, Stardust Promotion, created a karate performance group (!) out of some of its members and called it Actions with periodic shows held at Arisugawa-no-Miya Memorial Park in Tokyo.

Well, four of its members, Misuzu Takahashi（高橋美鈴）, Mari Nishimoto（西本麻里）, Akira Nishizawa（石沢晶）and Sayuri Tsuchiya（土屋さゆり）became an aidoru unit to create just one song before disbanding (one and done, so to speak). The group was DALI and the song was "Moonlight Densetsu"（ムーンライト伝説）...the famous opening theme song for the original anime "Sailor Moon"（美少女戦士セーラームーン）. However, Takahashi and Nishimoto opted to keep the music going in a more powerful direction under the name of MANISH. As for the derivation of the name, both ladies had been called tomboys back in their childhood, although even the J-Wiki article about them pointed out that the word is actually spelled mannish. Another theory that has been bandied about is that the name was a merger of MAri NISHimoto.

MANISH had a good run of 6 years (1992-1998) which saw a number of hits come about, including their 10th of 12 singles, "Kirameku Toki ni Torawarete" (Caught by the Glittering Moment). I gotta say that I like the bass line on this one, including the chugging sound at the very beginning. Listening to it, I would never have thought Takahashi and Nishimoto were one-half of the group responsible for one of the most iconic theme songs in recent anime history.

MANISH's "Kirameku Toki ni Torawarate" was also the third ending theme for another long-running manga-and-anime series "Slam Dunk". I've never been a basketball fan either but even I had heard of this one through some of my students. And the song works well with "Slam Dunk" since it does have that progressing muscular beat. Plus, I gotta say that it does sound quite a bit like ZARD. I wonder whether the lot of Japanese female rock singers sounded like her at the time.

The song came out in February 1995 and became their greatest hit. Takahashi and Daria Kawashima (川島だりあ...who also came up with "Moonlight Densetsu") created "Kirameku Toki ni Torawarete" which sold over 200,000 copies. It hit No. 6 on Oricon and ended up as the 83rd-ranked single of the year.

Rajie -- HEART to HEART

I already identified the pop singer Rajie as Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）right in the very first article for "Hold Me Tight" some years ago. But what I didn't do back in that very brief June 2012 piece was how she came by her nom de guerre. According to J-Wiki, her name of Rajie came from a character named Raji (played by Sajid Khan) from the 1966 movie "Maya".

One of my other recent acquisitions from Tower Records Japan was indeed her debut album "HEART to HEART" from September 1977. I've listened to the album twice now and I am enjoying it. Two other albums by Rajie have already been covered in the blog: her 1980 "Mahiru no Hodou"（真昼の舗道）by nikala and "Quatre" from 1979 by me.

My overall impression of the album (and nope, I realize that two listenings are not going to provide the deepest insights) which was produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）is that unlike those two later albums, there isn't any sign of the technopop which would come out in varying degrees among the tracks in "Mahiru" or "Quatre". However, I'm starting to think that there was an interesting parallel between Rajie and singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. I mentioned it in "Quatre" and nikala also hinted at it in "Mahiru".

"Shizuka na Hitomi"（静かな瞳...Quiet Eyes） is a bluesy ballad written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Takahashi. It's a bit of musical introspection about a woman who is trying to figure out the man in her life since he's an unreadable fellow. The song reminded me of Ohnuki's output from her first two solo albums "Grey Skies" and "Sunshower" which were very much in the New Music genre. In fact, listening to "HEART to HEART" and then knowing what she did since then, her vocals and career direction has me thinking that she could have been Ohnuki if she hadn't veered that far into technopop and that European mood going into the 1980s.

"It's Me...It's You" sends my above point even further with its galloping melody and the chorus work. I actually thought it was Ohnuki lending backup vocals here but according to the liner notes, Rajie was responsible for those. And even though, Ohnuki doesn't provide any songwriting for any of the songs, I personally get a few echoes of her in Rajie's delivery and the surrounding music. Takahashi and Chris Mosdell took care of the lyrics here while Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）came up with the melody. The other point on this parallel between Rajie and Ohnuki is that the backup musicians and songwriters assisted both singers for their albums.

Along with "The Tokyo Taste" which has already been covered in a recent article, "Sarasara no Machi"（さらさらの町...Smooth Town） is my other standout favourite in "HEART to HEART". But unlike the former song which is quite the slick downtown City Pop tune, "Sarasara no Machi" is a much more whimsical non-City Pop happy-go-lucky song about life in the burg. I'm not quite sure where Rajie was referring to but I would like to know. I bet the residents skip to and from work there. Still, my old home in Ichikawa was a decent neighbourhood as well. Kisugi and Goto took care of the songwriting in this case.

My final track for tonight is "Suteki na Feeling"（素敵なフィーリング...Wonderful Feeling） which has Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）providing lyrics about a woman head-over-heels in love. There is even a shoutout to Cinderella in there. Composer Goto starts things out with a very 1970s atmospheric ballad feeling but it quickly switches to a pleasant Latin number.

There are a few more tracks in "HEART to HEART" but I will leave them for future articles. However, suffice it to say that Rajie's debut album has a little bit of most everything in terms of straight-ahead pop since quite a few top songwriters came and helped out. I'm a bit surprised that this album and Rajie herself didn't get more notice in the world of Japanese music, but then again, the situation lends a bit of attractive exclusivity as if I've come across a previously unknown delight that I'm sharing with a few others.

The Tigers -- Seaside Bound （シーサイド・バウンド）

I've been hearing about all of the hot and humid weather that has been barraging itself onto the Japanese archipelago over the past few days (and will most likely continue well into September). Well, those over there wringing their hands and their handkerchiefs will probably be swooning in envy since here in Toronto today, it's damp and the temperature may barely peak above 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). It was quite cool going out for that walk earlier this morning, especially wearing track shorts. But then remembering the sauna that was my experience of a Japanese summer, I was quite comfy.

"Uta Kon"（うたコン）had its summer song theme a couple of days ago and the first song up that night was an old 1967 tune by the Group Sounds band, The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）, Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）former unit. "Seaside Bound" was their 2nd single released in March of that year, and it was the tune that apparently cemented their status as hit makers. The cover performance on "Uta Kon" had me interested in the song and sure enough, listening to the original convinced me that there was nothing like the original to illustrate what the GS sound was all about.

"Seaside Bound" was written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）, and as performed frenetically by The Tigers, it was that Go-Go music which makes for an interesting comparison with the band's most famous single, the melancholy "Hana no Kubi Kazari"（花の首飾り）a year later. I gather that Oricon was still about a year away from charting the hits but there was no doubt about the success of the song since it sold 400,000 records and scored a No. 2 ranking through the "Young Music" magazine.

The above video is of The Tigers coming back for a concert in 1982. Sawada was already well into his glam rock days but it was nice of him to peel off the makeup and put on the cute suit again to do the ol' Group Sounds again.

Spitz/Sayonara Ponytail -- Sora mo Toberu Hazu （空も飛べるはず）

And here I thought that this was one of Spitz's（スピッツ）later songs. Well, there is a story here.

I got to re-acquaint myself with "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" (I Think I Can Even Fly Into The Sky), a song by the pop group Spitz but since I was just a casual fan, I never got to learn the title. However on hearing it again on NHK's "Banana Zero Music"（バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）music variety show last week, I remembered that it was one of the band's trademark tunes.

And it is a lovely tune filled with the usual Spitz sunniness and optimism, thanks to the writings of vocalist Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）. I'm convinced that he is incapable of creating a depressing ballad. Heck, the original music video for "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" has been compared by YouTube commenters to a laundry detergent commercial! So fresh and clean.

Now, getting back to the topic of the release date of this song. I had thought it was released relatively late in the 1990s so it was with some surprise that I discovered that "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" had actually been released as Spitz's 8th single in April 1994....several months before I even landed in Japan to start my second stint as English teacher there! I had assumed that it was a tune that came out a number of years after my arrival.

But as it turned out, Kusano had been approached by someone to write a theme song for a TV drama, and after looking through the scenario of the show, he was able to create "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" within a few days. After all that effort, though, the producers or whoever was in charge decided not to go with the song but Spitz decided to release it anyways as an official single. It did modestly well on the charts, hitting No. 28.

Still, the second time was the charm. The producers for the Fuji-TV drama "Hakusen Nagashi"（白線流し...Those Were The Days）, another one of those coming-of-age high school dramas that came out in January 1996, selected "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" as its opening theme song as you can see above in the credits. The single got a second pressing and did far better, earning Spitz its very first No. 1 chart-topper and even becoming a million-seller. I bet Kusano and company felt like they could indeed fly into the sky on that news!

It just goes to show how important those tie-ins can be between song and TV show in Japan. The song even became the 6th-ranked single of 1996. I think it's one of those tunes that can immediately put listeners at ease and get those nostalgic juices flowing. "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" became a track on the band's 5th album "Sora no Tobikata"（空の飛び方...How To Fly Into The Sky）, released in September 1994 which went Triple Platinum, peaked at No. 4 on Oricon and was the 46th-ranked album of the year. So even though the original release of that single wasn't a huge hit, Spitz was still doing pretty decently back then.

In 2012, the anime "Tsuritama"（つり球...Fishing Ball） premiered as a part of Fuji-TV's "noitaminA"（ノイタミナ）late-night programming for such shows. The show involved high school kids, aliens and fishing apparently and "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" was selected to be the ending theme.

The vocal group Sayonara Ponytail（さよならポニーテール）covered the Spitz classic, and the song was released as their first single under the Epic Record Japan label in May 2012. This version peaked at No. 56 on Oricon. I would have said that I had never heard of this group before, but I would be lying. Actually, I was just ignorant. This was the same group who took care of the second ending theme for the over-the-top anime "Kill La Kill" a couple of years later, and that was definitely a show that my buddy and I watched right to the end.

Akina Nakamori -- Standing In Blue

As I write this, it is now July 13th in Japan. So, of course, that means it is Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）birthday for which I wish the bonnie lass a Happy 52nd. I'm not sure what she has been up to lately and I don't even know where she is (Japan or the United States?) but I'm hoping that she is healthy and doing well.

I was thinking about which Akina tune I could write about today on this day this time. Do I go back to her aidoru roots or pick something more along her diva route much later in the 1980s and beyond? Well, I decided to opt for a track from her "Cruise" album from 1989. I had actually written about the album all the way back in 2012 but only for three of her ten tracks so there's plenty of stuff to choose from.

When I listened to "Cruise" the first number of times, I was somewhat uncertain about how to accept it. It certainly wasn't back to her mid-80s pop superstar days but neither was it what I considered to be her "weird" outings such as "Fushigi"（不思議...Strange） and "Crimson", although the latter album has gotten a bit more redemption in my eyes with the passage of time and the growth of my acceptance of various types of Japanese pop music in general.

"Bitter and Sweet" will always remain my very favourite Akina album but after having listened to "Cruise" again today, I'm beginning to think that this may become my second-favourite original album by her. And "Cruise" is such a different animal when compared to the pedal-to-the-metal pop feeling of "Bitter and Sweet" which had come out in 1985.

"Standing In Blue" is the song of choice for Akina's birthday today, and coincidentally, it is also the 60th article for her in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" (so a little applause here, if you please). As I mentioned in the "Crimson" article, I was still having trouble at the time letting go of Nakamori letting go of her Oricon-friendly music roots so my brain and ears weren't quite ready with her trying all sorts of things. Well, now in 2017, tracks like "Standing In Blue" are coming across loud and clear and appealing.

This particular languid song created by Show and Osny S. Melo keeps reminding me of Old Hollywood. In fact, I could imagine Akina-chan dressed up as Greta Garbo in her tux and tails sitting backwards on an old chair while crooning this. I mean, the song has an intro lasting over a minute almost as if it were intermission music to warn audience members smoking away outside to come back in since the star was about to sing. There is certainly an exotic cabaret feeling to the melody that could have come out of "Casablanca".

And when she does sing about reminiscing of old romantic times, she has that dreamy voice interspersed with perhaps some relatively quick drags on a well-worn cigarette. Of course, the ciggy would be attached to the end of a long holder. I really love my Old Hollywood. Since her "AKINA EAST LIVE INDEX-XXIII" concert video, I haven't seen any of her concert performances, but I'm pretty sure she must have performed "Standing In Blue". It lends itself well to a nice respite song between the more active numbers.

Although I realize that there is that grounding of modern instruments in "Standing In Blue", wouldn't it be quite something if Akina had performed this with just the musical instruments of the Jazz Age?

Towa Tei -- Brand Nu Emo

Came across this video featuring this song by enigmatic and charismatic Towa Tei（テイ・トウワ）a few nights ago. It's called "Brand Nu Emo" and although it has been listed as a single in Tei's J-Wiki profile, the YouTube video has branded it as Towa Tei as METAFIVE. I'm not sure whether this was meant to be Tei designing the song in the METAFIVE style or he's merely being cute with the prepositions.

But the supergroup that he is a member of is well represented in the video and song with the robotic version of fellow bandmate Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）centering the Mizuhara Sisters and the soulful voice of other bandmate Leo Imai helping out. As for those Mizuhara Sisters, they are Kiko Mizuhara（水原希子）, who is a popular young actress and model, and her younger sister Yuka（佑果）who is also a model.

The whole "Brand Nu Emo" thing comes off as being a mix of a European fashion ad and a rumbly ditty by an updated version of YMO. I kinda wonder with the sisters spelling out emo, if this was yet another shoutout to Takahashi's old unit from the late 70s and early 80s. METAFIVE has done this in the other two songs I've covered, and I believe I heard yet another old Yellow Magic Orchestra excerpt in this song. And there was even a visual tribute to a classic YMO album.

The single came out in March 2017 and is also a track on Tei's 9th album "EMO" which has so far gone up as high as No. 34 on Oricon.