Hiroshi Itsuki -- Nagisa no Onna（渚の女）

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I was watching a recent episode of "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Don't Sleep Through Life）, that hit NHK information variety show starring the all-knowing 5-year-old Chiko-chan, and none other than enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）was one of the guests, albeit remotely due to the pandemic. And one of the questions posed by the CG girl was "Why do people put their hands in their pockets?"

Chiko-chan was apparently more than happy to use Itsuki as an example since it seems that many of the covers for his singles feature the singer with his hands in his pockets such as the one for his February 2015 maxi-single "Nagisa no Onna" (Woman on the Beach). Incidentally, the answer, which of course followed Chiko's customary admonishment of not falling asleep at the wheel in terms of knowledge (no matter how arcane), was that putting one's hands in one's pockets had to do with physically assuaging doubt or anxiety. Not quite sure whether Itsuki in the cover above ever seemed especially anxious about something.

In any case, as for "Nagisa no Onna", it's a mix of enka and dramatic classy pop that reminds me of some of the material that his fellow enka singers brought out during the late 1970s going well into the 1980s. Perhaps I could even categorize it as a hybrid between the traditional genre and the Fashion Music that Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）and Asami Kado（門あさ美）sang.

The music was created by Itsuki with lyrics by the late Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）who had passed away in 2014. According to the J-Wiki article for "Nagisa no Onna", Itsuki laid down the melody to the lyrics that Yamaguchi had written back in 1989 in tribute to the singer's hometown of Mihama-cho, Fukui Prefecture. And in fact, the number itself had been recorded in that year as the coupling song to Itsuki's single "Omokage no Gou"（面影の郷...Town of Shadows）. On hearing about Yamaguchi's death in September 2014, he decided to release a new version of "Nagisa no Onna" and its coupling song was a new version of "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはまたそがれ）, arguably Itsuki's most famous classic and also another song for which Yamaguchi had provided the lyrics back in 1971.

Miki Imai -- Haru no Hi（春の日）

Ever since I heard my very first Miki Imai（今井美樹）song, "Natsu wo Kasanete"（夏をかさねて）, in that relaxing lodge-style café in Gunma Prefecture over 30 years ago, the usual reaction template was set whenever I hear one of her ballads: exhalation. Yup, just like walking through a forest or watching an ASMR video of someone getting a scalp massage, I exhale in relaxation and stress seems to slowly melt away.

(very short version)

"Haru no Hi" (Spring Days) is one of those Imai songs that does just that. A track from her July 1995 9th album "Love Of My Life", perhaps the timing is a bit off here, but putting this one up right now makes me forget that we're approaching the dog days of summer (albeit the weather was somewhat cooler today).

With lyrics by Imai, music by Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）and arrangement by Yoko Kanno（菅野よう子）, the singer's soft vocals, the resonant piano and what sounds like an accordion immediately puts me at ease, and I feel like returning to that mountain café for a cup of coffee. As much as I've not done too badly under the COVID-19 restrictions for the past few months, a song like "Haru no Hi" does make me pine a bit for a visit to a stylish coffeehouse with one or two buddies.

Hiroshi Suzuki -- Shrimp Dance

Last night, JTM and I were having a good conversation over Skype on a number of different topics, and one was on past shows that perhaps deserve a redux since "Hawaii Five-0" and "Magnum P.I." have gotten their second lives. I was suggesting anything from the Quinn-Martin productions of the 1970s such as "The Streets of San Francisco" and "Cannon". But then JTM came up with a great suggestion of his own..."Mannix".

Ahhh...good ol' Joe Mannix. I still vividly remember the opening credits from my childhood. Armed with street smarts, charm, fists and a great theme song, he could thank Lalo Schifrin for that last one. Yup, Schifrin is the same fellow behind another legendary theme, the one for "Mission: Impossible". As much as "Mission: Impossible" the theme was all about the action and derring-do of the IMF, the "Mannix" theme was all class and cool (although I've been reading about how violent the show was) as if the song was relating Joe going for dinner and dancing with his date after a resolution of a case.

Earlier today, I wrote the article for Koh Suzuki's（鈴木こう）"Sa-Ra-Vah Street" in which I mentioned another Suzuki, trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木弘）. He's already gotten some representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" through "Romance" from his 1975 album "Cat". Then, I decided to try out some more of that album and thoroughly enjoyed the first track "Shrimp Dance".

I read one comment on YouTube for the entire album in which the person felt like that the album would be the ideal song to walk to during a foggy day in his/her native San Francisco. Well, listening to "Shrimp Dance" on its own, I felt as if that song would be perfect for a TV show featuring someone as tough as nails as Joe Mannix. Despite that title, "Shrimp Dance" sounds totally landbound in a grimy downtown somewhere where the cynical private eye loves his booze ice-cold and his jazz volcano-hot...and he has an insatiable appetite for garlic shrimp. Unfortunately, that would make any attempts at romance rather tenuous...unlike Mannix's situation. Joking aside, all those instruments together (sax, bass, trombone, trumpet, etc.) help make that gumshoe character and his dogged attempts at justice.

Anyways, also have a listen to the full version of the theme from "Mannix". Perhaps someone from Hollywood might read this and make JTM's dream come true.

Mika Kaneko -- Hold Me Slowly, Kiss Me Suddenly

Will always love coming face-to-face with a catchy pop song for the first time, and so it goes with actress/singer Mika Kaneko's（金子美香）"Hold Me Slowly, Kiss Me Suddenly" from her debut album "Catch Me" in July 1987. That opening synth passage grabbed me right from the get-go and then Kaneko comes and shows that she's got some pop/rock chops there. Written by Mei Miyahara（宮原芽映）and composed by Shoji Nakamura（中村昭二）, I think the song got some more of that secret earworm sauce (OK...maybe not the most palatable description) via Etsuko Yamakawa's（山川恵津子）arrangement.

Born in Chiba Prefecture, according to her J-Wiki profile, she appeared in 1983 on the audition show "Star Tanjo"（スター誕生）and was then scouted by entertainment company Watanabe Productions. She appeared in a number of TV shows and movies, and debuted as a singer earlier in 1987 with "Teenage Blue"（ティーンエイジブルー）. Kaneko released a total of 9 singles up to 2004 and 7 original albums up to 1991. She also helped establish a couple of rock bands in the 1990s, Betty Blue and Paradise Lost.

Koh Suzuki -- Sa-Ra-Vah Street

It was actually quite refreshingly cool when I went out to get the paper this morning. That's a pleasant contrast with the blast furnace that we'd been receiving for the past couple of weeks, but of course, the summer is still young.

I've had this in the backlog for some time now. This would be singer-songwriter's Koh Suzuki's（鈴木こう）1982 album "Sa-Ra-Vah Street", and I'm not sure whether there is any connection between this and Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）1978 release "Sa-Ra-Vah!" but I can say that Suzuki's creation has now gotten my interest and attention following a listen to a few of its tracks.

Pretty much no information on Suzuki himself and just a little more with "Sa-Ra-Vah Street" in terms of who helped out. It's fortified with City Pop/J-AOR goodness thanks to certain people such as Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）who produced it, Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）who was behind the vocal arrangements and chorus, and musicians such as Akira Inoue（井上鑑）on keyboards and Tsuyoshi Kon & Masaki Matsubara（今剛・松原正樹）on guitar.

The first track "Welcome, Tokyo Night" bodes well for my listening pleasure. Starting off with Mike Dunn's bass groove which reminds me of the intro for AB'S "In the City Night", Suzuki (who sounds a bit like Al Stewart at the beginning) greets us with some sultry summer City Pop in early 1980s Tokyo. I can go for some of those hotel bar cocktails right now on the patio (although at the time, I was only eligible for Calpis) with that flowing sax solo. Man, to listen to this while I was walking the streets just outside of the Tokyo Prince Hotel back then.

"One Night Chance" is actually the first track that I heard from "Sa-Ra-Vah Street" and it was the one that got me to bookmark it. It's more on the rock side of AOR and is ideal for that midnight bombing down on the highway in the sports car (without attracting police attention). I do love that guitar work.

One more track that I will provide here is "Tameshi ni Dou Dai?"（試しにどうだい...How About Giving It A Shot?）, a happy-go-lucky hybrid of Doobie Brothers Bounce and City Pop chords. This also seems to be perfect for car stereo heaven, day or night. Maybe you can try it on a J-Utah YouTube driving video for Tokyo. By the way, although I couldn't confirm the songwriting details with "One Night Chance", the other two songs here were written and composed by Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木浩）according to the JASRAC database. That first name kanji can also be pronounced as "Koh" so I'm assuming that is indeed the performer who's behind the songwriting, and he's not to be confused with Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木弘）the trombonist who has his own article on KKP.

The above is the video for the entire album so give it a shot and tell me what you think. I will have to put this up on my Xmas wish list.

Akina Nakamori -- The Heat ~ musica fiesta ~

It's a little more than four hours into July 13th over in Japan as I type this, and July 13th on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" signifies that Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）is having her birthday so all the best to her wherever she is right now.

To commemorate this, I'm going with something a bit more recent (relatively speaking) and seasonal as we here in Toronto are in the middle of a heat wave. "The Heat ~ musica fiesta ~" is Akina's 41st single from May 2002 and is the song coming from her 20th studio album "Resonancia" which was released a few weeks later.

The J-Wiki writeup on "Resonancia" has the album taking on the theme of Latin-infused R&B, and aside from bossa nova, I'm not too knowledgeable on my Latin music, but I think "The Heat" is done like a samba (?). Over her career, Akina has dabbled in a lot of Latin music with examples like "Caribbean" and "Milonguita", and so I wonder if the singer could be born again whether she would choose to come back as a Spanish, Cuban or Brazilian chanteuse. It's just my opinion but my impression has been recently that she she's been at her happiest when she tackles the music of those nations.

"The Heat" was written by Adya and composed by URU. Adya is someone that I just mentioned in the previous article as the vocalist for Seikou Nagaoka's（長岡成貢）"Dancing Until Dawn" so I'm assuming that this is the one and the same person here. The single peaked at No. 20 while its source album "Resonancia" hit as high as No. 15.

Once again, if I've gotten the genre wrong here for "The Heat", let me know. Heck, if Ms. Nakamori herself reads this, I'd be really happy for the correction!

Seikou Nagaoka feat. Adya -- Dancing Until Dawn

Did my fair share of karaoke and disco-hitting back in the late 1980s with university friends. When I look back at how late I slunk back home and how Mom chastised me for smelling like downtown Toronto on a bender, I rather marvel at how I managed to do that now that I can barely stay up past eleven at night. Dancing is longer an option for me because I would be breaking a hip instead of being hip.

Still, I can shimmy up a storm in my comfy chair as I listen to "Dancing Until Dawn" which is a track on Seikou Nagaoka's（長岡成貢）2009 album "Romantic Gold" with singer Adya. I usually don't wish to become younger again but when I hear stuff like this, it would be nice to go out with my de-aged pals and hit the dance floor once more. I get all sorts of really cool urban contemporary vibe in Japan here. I hear BLU-SWING and Mondo Grosso. As well, there is a nice shoutout to Bobby Caldwell's classic "What You Won't Do For Love" near the end.

But I was wondering about that name Seikou Nagaoka since I believe that I'd heard it before. In fact, I did. Nagaoka has been around for decades and he's a composer, arranger and music producer that has done everything, and I knew him as the fellow who came up with the majestic theme for the anime "Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard"（神秘の世界エルハザード）back in 1995, and even earlier, he composed SMAP's "SMAP" in 1988 (he's come up with many SMAP tunes). There's a long list of his compositions for many singers including Mika Nakashima（中島美嘉）and Chemistry at his J-Wiki file.

Listening to "Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard" again and then coming across "Dancing Until Dawn" is like imagining John Williams or Alan Silvestri creating one of his amazing movie scores before taking off the turtleneck sweater and putting on a T-shirt and baseball cap to man the turntables at his favourite dance club beyond the midnight hour.

Nagaoka hails from Mie Prefecture and he taught himself the basics on orchestra and composition before heading up to Tokyo to fulfill his dream of creating movie soundtracks. He has done that and much more.