Al Jarreau -- Breakin' Away

Al Jarreau's "Breakin' Away" is a touchstone song for me, considering my choices in music. I mean, not only does its namesake album have one of the most iconic covers in the AOR genre (I don't know of any person who could make pink and white look so cool as a fashion statement; he'd be perfect in Ueno Park in the spring!), "Breakin' Away" the single is an uplifting number whose first few bars can still elicit happy comfortable shivers up and down my spine. The entire song is one joyous walk in a city park with jazz in the fresh air and soul in my feet. And of course, there are the wonderfully velvety vocals from Jarreau who I still miss dearly some 3.5 years after his passing.

Since then, my love for Jarreau has grown through "Mornin'", "After All" and the theme song from "Moonlighting" among other highlights from his career. I may be exaggerating here, but I think that if it hadn't been for songs like "Breakin' Away", my entry into the world of Japanese City Pop and its own AOR genre wouldn't have been as easy (-listening) as it was. Indeed, there were people involved in the creation of "Breakin' Away" and the rest of the album who have had their own involvement in the urban contemporary scene of that time in Japan such as Airplay (David Foster and Jay Graydon), Jeff Porcaro from TOTO, and Jerry Hey probably among some of the other musicians. In fact, Graydon helped in the creation of the song along with Jarreau and Tom Canning.

The album was released on June 30, 1981. Strangely enough, my last ROY article was on Hall & Oates' "Private Eyes" which came out in late August that year around a month after my return from that fateful trip to Japan. "Breakin' Away" was released only a few days before I headed on out with my graduating class from Japanese Language School. It hit No. 1 on the US R&B and Jazz charts and broke into Billboard's Top Ten at No. 9.

Since it was released at the end of June that year, why not go with what was hot on the Oricon singles chart as of July 1st? Here are the Top 3.

1. Chiharu Matsuyama -- Nagai Yoru

2. Masahiko Kondo -- Blue Jeans Memory

3. Toshihiko Tahara -- Kimi ni Kettei!

To finish off, I will never forget Jarreau's appearance on Canada's venerable "SCTV" comedy show in a parody of "The Jazz Singer". Here he is singing another track from the album, "We're In This Love Together" which was also released as a single.

Jin Kirigaya -- Return to the Sky

It's after dinner as I write this and I need time to digest the Friday meal (especially with all of that fibre). Well, I don't really drink so no digestif for me.

However, I can get that effect to a certain extent thanks to a Jin Kirigaya（桐ヶ谷仁）number called "Return to the Sky" from his 1979 debut album "My Love For You". The album also has the melancholy "Yotsuya Yuumagure"（四ツ谷ゆうまぐれ）which involves a man dealing with perceived romantic betrayal. However, "Return to the Sky" is quite the opposite, thanks to that mélange of a bit of jazz here and a good dollop of bossa nova there within an AOR arrangement. Interesting thing I noticed was how Kirigaya's vocals sound like a combination of the voices of Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）from the band Off-Course（オフコース）.

Kirigaya took care of the music while Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）provided the lyrics. As I said in the "Yotsuya" article, I purchased that double-CD package "Complete Alfa Years - Jin Kirigaya" which consists of his first two albums, the aforementioned "My Love For You" and then his 1981 "Windy". While "Windy" is more solidly in the City Pop/AOR genres, I think "My Love For You" is a bit more free-wheeling as the singer-songwriter was probably exploring across the music spectrum which might explain some of the influences in this track especially.

Michiru Kojima -- Namaiki CINQ（なまいきCinq）

Another singer that I haven't covered in a while is Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. Just judging from the very first song that I heard from her, "Gypsy"（ジプシー）back in 1990, I simply treated her as a singer of moody pop numbers. It wouldn't be much later that I realized that she did have a past performing some pretty snappy urban contemporary fare.

My feeling is that I really should grab Kojima's 1989 album "Key of Dreams" if it's still available and not piled up on the dreaded hill of haiban. For one thing, the title track is a smooth-as-glass City Pop song for the late 1980s with all of that sophisticated pop goodness. You can listen to it again here as the above video is for the full album and the song "Key of Dreams" starts things off.

Right after that one, though, is "Namaiki CINQ" (The Audacious Five) which seems to refer to what any young lady of Tokyo needs for the good life, I believe. I heard things like luxury, a diary, and a history as some of those ingredients but not quite sure since I couldn't find the lyrics online. There's more of an active beat with "Namaiki CINQ" compared to the slightly mellower "Key of Dreams" as if Kojima is prepping for a night out on the town, and even the synths provide some semblance of jazzy instrumentation.

As with "Key of Dreams", Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）is the lyricist with "Namaiki CINQ" while Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, who arranged that title track, is fully behind the melody for the second track on the album.

Nanako Sato -- Koi no Ryuusei（恋の流星）

Happy Friday, and for my fellow Torontonians and folks in Peel Region, let's all welcome ourselves to Stage 3 of recovery, although I think that we will all need to straddle that tightrope between enjoying our return of lost freedoms and keeping safe from COVID-19. On the other hand, I'm hoping that somehow Tokyo and the rest of Japan get a handle on another wave of the pandemic that has been washing ashore for the past several days.

On a happier note, I've encountered another YouTube video, this time by Kimi no Station: The Home of City Pop, on which a Japanese talk-variety show covers the international appeal of City Pop that has been grabbing the attention of Japanese media over the past several months. Seeing these fellows voraciously browsing and buying up genre albums and CDs in areas like Shibuya has me reminiscing about the old days when I engaged in my pastime of frequently hitting Tower Records, Tacto, Yamano Music and RecoFAN for any of the good ol' stuff. I probably won't be able to head back to Tokyo any time soon but hopefully, when I do hit my old home, I will be flipping through the discs and LPs once more.

The amusing thing about the above report is how while one of the City Pop browsers holding the Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）LP actually sounds quite calm and collected about his potential purchase, the fellow providing the Japanese voiceover translation comes across as if he were about to experience his first orgasm.😤

In any case, it is a Friday so let's provide the first City Pop song of the day. It's actually been over a couple of years since Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）has made her last appearance as a performer on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I'm more than happy to bring her back. This time around, we have "Koi no Ryuusei" from her 3rd album "Pillow Talk" released in October 1978.

Written and composed by Sato and with co-composing help by Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）, "Koi no Ryuusei" (Meteor of Love) is a smoothly-running song of the genre, perfect for that sunset or early evening drive on the main thoroughfares of Tokyo. Sato's kittenish vocals are very enticing over the driving rhythms and the snappy percussion. It's almost as if the singer is beckoning us listeners by curling her fingers inward through her voice. Of course, there has got to be the sax solo.

Now, the title "Koi no Ryuusei" is very similar to the title of another City Pop classic "Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星...Shooting Star of Love） by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）who had introduced it the year before, so if you're searching for either, keep an eye out for those Japanese grammatical particles.

Vickeblanka -- Natsu no Yume（夏の夢）

In less than a couple of hours, Toronto will be going into Stage 3 of the re-opening of the economy which means that places like gyms and movie theatres will be opening back up, and restaurants can finally offer dine-in service again after months of closure. I hope things go well and smoothly but I think it'll still be a few more weeks before I'm willing to chance a meal out.

One piece of good news is that I've been back earning a real income again for the past couple of weeks after more than three months relying on emergency government benefits. I was busy on one project today, and of course, in the afternoon while I'm doing that, I like to inject some music through the headphones. Sure enough, I decide to listen to pop singer Vickeblanka's（ビッケブランカ）2018 "Wizard" album and come across another track that I do indeed like.

This would be "Natsu no Yume" (Summer Dream), his 2nd single as a major artist which was released in August 2018. I first heard about this happy-go-lucky pop singer-songwriter because of his performance of the ending theme for the anime "DOUBLE DECKER! Doug & Kirill"（ダグ&キリル）, "Buntline Special", a grinding rock thriller along the lines of "Born to be Wild". Then out of curiosity, I checked out some of his other songs on YouTube and found him to be quite the musical chameleon in a very good way which ultimately got me a copy of "Wizard" from my anime buddy who was also a fan of "Buntline Special".

"Natsu no Yume" is no different. It's the typical mellow pop summer tune with a bit of jazziness, but what gives it a bit more lift is that echoing piano which comes in and out throughout the number as if it were coming in from a different dimension. Listening to it on the hard drive, I checked on YouTube whether there was some representation, and luckily, Vickeblanka has his own channel and the official music video for "Natsu no Yume". As I see him prancing about in the video, I rather thought that if Doctor Who ever regenerated into someone Japanese, it would be this guy in that getup (well, him and seiyuu Mamoru Miyano).

A couple of days ago, commenter Michael and I were talking about underrated singer-songwriter Shin Rizumu（シンリズム）and were hoping that his career was chugging along nicely. I can also hope for the same with Vickeblanka.

Anyways, it'll be another big step for us in Toronto. Do wish us luck!👍

Mieko Hirota -- Kodomo janai no（子供ぢゃないの）/Nebusoku nano（寝不足なの）

Received some sad news via commenter Sentimental Vika earlier this morning that singer Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）had passed away on July 21st at the age of 73 due to heart failure, although the announcement wasn't made until the 27th. I hadn't known until I read the comment and I haven't seen any news announcement footage via YouTube which is somewhat unusual when it comes to the death of a Japanese celebrity. I had only written up the most recent article with Hirota a little over a month ago regarding her 1967 song "Nagisa no Uwasa"（渚のうわさ）.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the discography of Hirota but usually when her name comes to mind, her 1969 hit "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）is the song that pops up. As well, my image of her has always been the one that appeared when that song first made its presence known...the long-tressed 22-year-old woman with that smoky air of mystery.

However, Hirota made her official debut as a fresh-faced teenybopper singer the better part of a decade prior back in 1961 with the Japanese-language cover of Helen Shapiro's "Don't Treat Me Like A Child" (by John Schroeder and Mike Hawker) when Hirota was only 14 years old. For that matter, according to its Wikipedia article, Shapiro herself was the same age when she recorded the original. The Japanese lyrics were provided by Kenji Sazanami（漣健児）and the title was "Kodomo janai no" (I'm Not A Child).

Like a lot of teenage singers in those days such as Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）, Hirota had that twin-branched discography in her early years: covers of overseas pop songs and homegrown fare created by Japanese songwriters. One of the former was her own cover of Connie Francis' "VACATION". For both Hirota and Shapiro, I've marveled at how incredible they sounded at 14 years of age. Perhaps the one Japanese pop singer that I can compare with them in terms of her boomer vocal stylings and debut is Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）.

Hirota's first kayo single was released in June 1962, "Nebusoku nano" (I'm Sleepy), a giddy pop tune about not getting those 40 winks due to getting all hot and bothered over that boy she's fallen hard for. It's got quite the fun and jazzy beat, and Hirota gives some great brass in her vocals, although I'm not sure how local PTAs reacted on hearing those yawns on the record.😪 And it was the same duo behind the famous "Sukiyaki" song that was responsible for "Nebusoku nano", lyricist Hachidai Nakamura and composer Rokusuke Ei（中村八大・永六輔）.

I'll finish off here with Shapiro's "Don't Treat Me Like A Child". My condolences to Hirota's family on their loss. I am sure that there is a lot of her discography that I have to cover in the months and years to come.

Milk (pop duo) -- Last dance

Well, it's gotta be something to note when the Japanese music business can say that it had at least two female groups with the same name of Milk. One has already been featured on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and that was the aidoru trio including a pre-pubescent Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）around 1980.

However, there was also a couple of sisters who were also Milk from around the mid-1980s. Singer-songwriters Ritsuko Miyajima and Rie Miyajima（宮島律子・宮島理恵）from Saga Prefecture, the latter who would take on the name M.Rie, got together and put out at least one album "Milk" in 1987. I read in the J-Wiki article for Ritsuko (the original source being her own blog entry) that the two had been part of Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）backup band Natural & MILK as backing vocals and that was the inspiration for the sisters to go it alone.

One of the tracks on "Milk" is "Last dance", a pretty snazzy song by the sisters that has some urban sophistication and a feeling of some of that brassy 1960s downtown pop. Just from listening to this one alone, I'm curious as to what the rest of "Milk" sounds like and it's a pity that the sisters may not have extended their singing together to other albums. Again, according to Ritsuko's blog, "Milk" got its re-release last year in the autumn (so maybe I have a chance to acquire it!). She also mentioned that she and Rie had also backed up other singers such as Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）.

On reading that the Miyajimas had been backing Kawai made me realize that perhaps often enough backup vocalists have been in understudy mode until they get their big chance to shine in the limelight. J-R&B singer Harumi Tsuyuzaki（露崎春女）had done her stint as a backup singer when Sing Like Talking was on tour, and Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）had been backing up Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）until they got their big break in the early 1980s.

M.Rie already has a couple of entries up on KKP including the adorable theme song for Pingu the Penguin. In recent years, Ritsuko has composed songs for the alphabet aidoru groups such as AKB48, NMB48 and SDN48.