Blue Peppers -- Roku-gatsu no Yume feat. Shiori Sasaki（6月の夢）

I think for a lot of folks here, it's already past the point where they've had enough of the winter. It's bad enough that two out of the three groundhogs on the 2nd said that there would be 6 more weeks of this season, but Toronto has gotten another few centimetres of snow during the morning rush which caused a lot of traffic accidents on the roads. And in Japan's Fukui Prefecture, there are reportedly 1000 vehicles just plain stuck on one long stretch of road due to the heavy snow. Spring is probably desperately desired at this point.

Well, I can't really help out in the weather department. However, perhaps for those who come to the blog like barflies to the neighbourhood pub, I can perhaps serve up a bit of lovely sunshine tonight. I found out about these guys named Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）last night on YouTube. The two members, Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）and Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）from Keio University in Tokyo have created this music which spans AOR, Latin, jazz and fusion...genres that I do love. Plus when I read on their website that Fukuda digs folks like Steely Dan, Jay Graydon, Gino Vannelli (yeah, Canada!), Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）while Inoue likes Kirinji（キリンジ）, Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）, and Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）, among others, Blue Peppers instantly had my attention and affinity.

The song that I discovered came from their first release in October 2015, "Blue Peppers EP". It turned out to be their first track "Roku-gatsu no Yume" (Dreams of June) with vocalist Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）piping in here as well as providing the lyrics to Blue Peppers' melody. As I said, the song is breezy and summery, and it would be just the number to back up a picnic in a park or some brunch with friends. It's just the tonic for these wintry climes.

"Roku-gatsu no Yume" has also made it onto their first full album, "Retroactive" which was released in November 2017.

Mariya Takeuchi -- Mainichi ga Special（毎日がスペシャル）

Over here, my mornings are spent watching NHK's "News Watch 9" followed by local news channel CP24. However when I was living in Gunma all those years ago, I started my mornings with NTV's "Zoom In!! Asa!"（ズームイン!!朝!...Zoom In!! Morning!）but then some years later when I lived in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, I went with Fuji-TV's "Mezamashi Terebi"（めざましテレビ...Wake Up Television）. There's not all that much different between morning TV in Toronto and Tokyo aside from the facts that the broadcasters over in Japan are generally more formally attired and there's quite an interest in food there.

With "Mezamashi Terebi", there were the annual or semi-annual theme songs. I wrote about one by Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）, "La La Sunshine" which greeted viewers from 1996-1997. Well, I also remember another very sunny number by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）titled "Mainichi ga Special" (Everyday is Special) which was the program's theme song between 2001 and 2002.

As would be the case for a Takeuchi song, "Mainichi ga Special" is a gosh-darn cheerful and mellow melodic glass of orange juice to help get folks off on their way to work. It might be hell on the subways and JR trains in the mornings but Takeuchi helped to take the edge off. Furthermore, though I never had any anecdotal proof, I bet there were quite a few commuters who had the title playing over and over in their heads.

The song was Takeuchi's 30th single from September 2001, and according to the J-Wiki article, it was the 10th song to be used on "Mezamashi Terebi". The singer-songwriter took care of words and music while her husband Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）handled the arrangement. It peaked at No. 40 on Oricon. "Mainichi ga Special" first made its appearance though on Takeuchi's 9th studio album "Bon Appetit!" which had come out a month earlier in August. That album went to No. 1 and became the 18th-ranked album for the year, breaking the million barrier in sales.

Nyc Nyusa -- Sachiko（サチコ）

Back in the early 1980s when I was just getting started with my interest in Japanese popular music, there were a few Japanese magazines hanging about. There was one with Hiromi Go and Hitomi Ishikawa（郷ひろみ・石川ひとみ）on the cover that I remember quite well and it had the usual entertainment stuff along with news on singers and their songs. And in katakana, I saw one fellow's name on one of the pages. In fact, I think I even saw that same name in one of the issues of Akira Toriyama's classic "Dr. Slump"（ドクター・スランプ）manga (pre-Dragonball).

Now, considering that the name was in katakana（ニック・ニューサ）, I naturally thought that the guy was some singer from either Europe or America who was making it big in Japan since I had never heard of him before coming to the country. My assumption was that in romaji, his name was Nick Newser.

Let's blast forward by 3.5 decades. It's because of this blog that I picked up the chase again in terms of this "mysterious" Nick Newser. Only that this isn't the proper spelling for the name. Actually, it's Nyc Nyusa and it's not a person. It's actually a band from Western Japan. As for how this weird spelling came about, the members simply derived it from New York City, New York, USA.

The leader, vocalist and songwriter of Nyc Nyusa is Shuu Tanaka（田中収）from Fukuoka who first started his music career by being a member of the Group Sounds band, Shin Saegusa with Day & Nights（三枝伸とデイ＆ナイツ）back in 1967. With Nyc Nyusa, though, I found out that Tanaka and his band took things in an interesting direction. It was a fusion band except that it wasn't jazz and rock being involved but more like enka/Mood Kayo and rock and perhaps blues.

Their debut single was "Sachiko" which came out in June 1981. It's quite an atmospheric number that has that feeling of kayo rock. The guitars are in there but I can also envision a video involving lonely people hanging out in Ginza bars which is quite the Mood Kayo trope.

I also find Tanaka to have a voice similar to Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）of the Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）, and Kuwata is a singer that I think has an affinity for blues rock. The other fascinating thing about the J-Wiki article on Nyc Nyusa is that it was categorized as being "close" in genre to something called New Adult Music（ニューアダルトミュージック）.

Say what? Never heard of this one. I mean, as anyone who has read a number of articles on this blog and elsewhere about Japanese pop music, a particular song can be categorized over a few genres. But apparently this New Adult Music (it also has its own J-Wiki article) is a hybrid or perhaps blend of folk, New Music, rock and good ol' kayo. The article has a list of singers who belonged in this genre including Teresa Teng（テレサ・テン）and Marcia（マルシア）.

Perhaps then New Adult Music could be that European enka that I had once referred to when I was talking about Teng and some of her discography. I'd always thought that the late singer stood apart from other enka and Mood Kayo singers because her songs had that certain exotic class to them. I shouldn't be too surprised by the existence of this genre since at around the same time when Nyc Nyusa came on the scene, there was that Fashion Music genre which I've only associated Asami Kado（門あさ美）and Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）with. Speaking of the latter singer, some of her songs have also been quite bluesy with that wailing guitar solo and yet there was also that sense of old-fashioned kayo. Perhaps Kurahashi was also a part of the New Adult Music scene as well.

Anyways, Nyc Nyusa has continued to record music well into the 21st century with their last single coming out in 2015. Ah, incidentally, there was another "Sachiko" performed a couple of years before Nyusa's namesake song. That one is even mellower.

Katsuo Ono -- Main Theme from "Detective Conan"

Was listening to some anison last night when I came across a familiar song for which I hear an excerpt every Thursday night when I catch the show. The program is "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Detective Conan） about the pint-sized detective with attitude and whenever they show the "Next Time On..." segment, the super-charged horns led by a saxophone take charge for 30 seconds. It's probably the only time that fans usually can hear it since the anime likes to have an ever-changing lineup of opening and closing themes.

As it turns out, that is indeed the main theme for the show or the character. Not sure whether there is a specific title but it just seems to be titled "Main Theme". Whatever the case may be, it's got some pretty jazzy and funky oomph surrounding a kid tec...mind you, Conan is a genius who has, as far as I know, never lost a case. By the same token, he and his little friends disturbingly end up discovering a lot of dead bodies. It's a wonder that the relevant government ministries haven't sent in social workers to scoop up the Junior Detective League.

One thing that had been niggling at me about the famous theme song is its familiarity. There was something quite nostalgic about the arrangement. And then I realized who the composer was. It was none other than Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）, the same fellow who came up with the iconic theme song for the 1970s Japanese cop show "Taiyo ni Hoero"（太陽にほえろ）.

I think Ono probably even got all of the original musicians for that theme song to record the theme for "Conan". The kid should be properly flattered. Probably somewhere on YouTube, some enterprising person has made a video with all of the characters running around like mad around the city while the theme song is playing...just as in the opening credits of "Taiyo no Hoero".

Although I'm very late in the game when it comes to watching "Conan", I can assume that the main theme was recorded when the anime was released back in 1996.

Maiko Ito -- Sayonara no Calendar（さよならのカレンダー）

Once again with Maiko Ito（伊藤麻衣子）, an 80s aidoru who didn't quite reach the upper echelons of aidoru-dom like Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）or Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）but still carved out a niche for her fans and even got a reputation for playing really against type through a role as a gang girl.

I was listening to an old collection of 80s aidoru when I encountered her 5th single "Sayonara no Calendar" (The Goodbye Calendar) from March 1984. No tsuppari in this song, though. It's Ito being as sweet as any aidoru can be here with a gentle melody by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）under her alternate name of Mio Iwasato（岩里未央）and lyrics of longing by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/%E3%81%95%E3%82%88%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%AE%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%BC/1169459847?i=1169460254

(excerpt only)

"Sayonara no Calendar" was also used as a campaign song for Santen Eyedrops. After listening to it a few times, I kinda wonder if there was a bit of inspiration from Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）. In any case, nice to have a spring-like number for these very cold times.

Kanako Wada -- Suna ni Kakareta Document（砂に書かれたドキュメント）

Kanako Wada's（和田加奈子）2nd album was "quiet storm" from 1987 and it was the first album by her to get onto CD after her debut of "Tenderness" on LP (and as far as I know, LP up to the current day). I didn't get it until a couple of decades later but I just had to complete my collection.

Listening to it again, I thought that "quiet storm" (and no, it's not patterned after the US genre with folks like Anita Baker) was the release where Wada started to stretch her musical muscles across the genres in contrast to her debut album in which she kept things pretty much to pop/rock. Mixed results here with this album especially with her vocals.

However, one song that I did like was the first track "Suna ni Kakareta Document" (Document Written in the Sand) which was placed (on the original LP, I gather) on the "Martini" side. A nice go at bossa jazz, Wada's voice hadn't quite reached that mellow low at this point but it still worked well here and listening to it a number of times since then, I thought that perhaps that the melded genre would continue to do good by her. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, the melody was provided by saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）who also provided his solo here.

Even happier days to come for Wada.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Be Silent（美・サイレント）

Some years ago, I was listening to my "Momoe Yamaguchi ~ Best Collection"（山口百恵）, and I was still getting a handle on her hits since there were some that I had never heard before. One of the tracks near the end of the CD was "Be Silent" which was rather punny since if it were translated directly, it would be "Beauty Silent", but the folks behind the song Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子） probably wanted to dovetail that meaning with that on reading of 「美」.

The other noticeable thing was within Aki's lyrics. There are a couple of lines which go:

I want your XXXX
Because I like XXXX that is burning.

And those lyrics as they appear above and on the lyric sheet are official. Now the music by Uzaki has got some fire and heat in there right from the start although the first few bars sound like a gentle country & western number before rolling into an urgent Spanish-sounding tune with that oomph that her fans had probably come to expect from the husband-and-wife songwriting duo. Then Yamaguchi sings about getting all hot and bothered about her guy who seems to be playing hard to get for some reason before those two lines pop out with the horns succinctly and strongly emphasizing the unspoken words.

Of course, with my mind oftentimes having the maturity of a 12-year-old, when I first heard "Be Silent" the first few times, I started snickering and softly snorting like Beavis AND Butthead: Yeah...nyuk, nyuk...I know what she said, heheheheh...

Well, after a cold shower and several Gibbs slaps on the back of the head, I eventually found out from the J-Wiki article that what she meant to say but mouthed during any live performances were words like "jounetsu"（情熱...passion） and "tokimeki"（ときめき...palpitations） and "hitotoki"（ひととき...a short time）. Apparently the source of that was from an episode of "The Best 10" from April 26th 1979. And if you look at the performance above on Fuji-TV's "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）, you can see her at least mouthing something. Still, co-host Jun Inoue（井上順）in the introduction was also being a bit cheeky about those missing words just before Yamaguchi started.

"Be Silent" was released as Yamaguchi's 25th single in March 1979. It got as high as No.4 on the Oricon weeklies before ending up as the 34th-ranked single for the year. It is also a track on her 17th album "A Face in a Vision" that came out in April. That peaked at No. 3.