Hi-Fi Set -- Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no（土曜の夜は羽田に来るの）

 

This particular song here (along with any other kayo kyoku dealing with the titular place) has taken on a further poignancy considering that between the time of its release in 1975 and the last several years, the big boss airport for the Tokyo area had been Narita all the way out in the wilds of Chiba Prefecture for many many years while Haneda Airport was the faded glory as more of a domestic hub (although flights were there between Japan and Taiwan). However, up to around the mid-1970s, Haneda had been the mighty airport of destiny in many a song and it was my first entry into Japan in 1972.

"Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no" (I'm Coming to Haneda on Saturday Night) is the B-side to vocal group Hi-Fi Set's（ハイ・ファイ・セット）far more famous "Sky Restaurant"(スカイレストラン) that was released in November 1975 as their 4th single. Created by the same team behind the A-side: lyricist Yumi Arai（荒井由実）, composer Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）and arranger Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, "Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no" continues that dreamy urban and urbane atmosphere that began at that rooftop restaurant in downtown Tokyo and takes it Haneda Airport a few kilometres away. A woman goes there to remember an old flame who has long since headed for a place overseas perhaps with a new lady on his arm. I'm not sure if her visit to the airport is a one-off or something she does on a weekly basis; I'm hoping that at least she's taking the subway or monorail there instead of a pricey taxi.

As I stated earlier, there seems to be a musical link between the A and B sides but with "Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no", though the arrangement retains the wistful feeling, there is also a sweeter hope that sort of wins out over any bitterness. The lady in question is perhaps ready to move on with her life. In addition, there is also some fine harmonizing with the soft scatting among the Set. 

In the last thirteen years that I've been back in Canada, I've managed to visit my old stomping grounds in Japan in 2014 and 2017, and I've gone through the new-and-improved Haneda Airport which has become a bustling transportation centre once more. Restaurants and shops abound galore.

Mami Horie -- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

 

Happy Monday! And yes Virginia, there is snow on the ground right now and areas north of us will be getting pounded with a lot of the white stuff starting from this afternoon, so those odds of a White Christmas have gotten a lot better. Just hope that the drive up north to the lodges and cottages won't be too arduous.

Back in October, "Holly Jolly X'masu" highlighted jazz singer Mami Horie's（堀江真美）2010 album “The Swingin’ Christmas" which I found to be a delightful collection of the standards. If you have a chance, have a listen to Scott's review of the entire album since he goes into the background of Horie's history as a singer. Interestingly enough, I'd forgotten that Horie already has had a presence on KKP through a gushy City Pop song that she provided all the way back in 1979, "Loving You"; the track was part of the "Light Mellow" compilation CDs.

After listening to "The Swingin' Christmas", I immediately searched for anything of the album on YouTube, and I was soon rewarded with the presence of the first track, Horie's rendition of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" which has had the word mommy strangely misspelled as "mammy", maybe as a portmanteau of Mami and mommy. But that aside, Scott said it best when he refers to Horie's version as one of the better takes on the old Xmas song and describes it as a cute and playful tribute. I can say that it does sound like Mami was at a gorgeous Xmas party of friends and she suddenly decided to sing it with a trio of instrumentalists in the living room. Compare this version with the Big Band Swing take on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" by fellow jazz chanteuse Yasuko Agawa（阿川泰子）who I covered a few weeks ago after listening to her cover on "Holly Jolly X'masu" as well.

Scott mentions it in the podcast and I've mentioned a little bit of it in "Loving You" but just when Horie was about to get her big break in the music business, she and a music publishing company had a dispute in the early 1980s which unfortunately got her blackballed in Japan for several years. However, it seems as if her redemption began in the 1990s and her career has been in fine fettle for the past few decades. In fact, according to the Casio website, a voice training book that she published has become a bible for singers and in recent years, she has even become a tourism ambassador for her native Kochi Prefecture.

Hiroshi Takano & Taeko Ohnuki -- Silent Song

 

I gather that for this Xmas season on KKP, we've had a bit of a running theme coursing its way over the past several weeks thanks to Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）1997 compilation "Winter Gift Pops" album and Scott's podcast "Holly Jolly X'masu". I've already taken care of a couple of tracks there: Caoli Cano & Hiroshi Takano's（かの香織・高野寛）"First Flight" and Miwako Saito's（さいとうみわこ） cover of "Anata dake I Love You"（あなただけ I LOVE YOU）.

Well, it continues here as well with Takano coming back to do another duet...this time with the illustrious singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. Together they perform "Silent Song" which is a fairly languid and intimate tune about spending that special night. Another running theme within "Winter Gift Pops" is that Scott himself even mentioned that not all of the tracks on the album (45:26 on the podcast) strictly adhere to a Christmas theme (it's Winter Gift Pops, not Christmas Gift Pops after all), and "Silent Song" can also be considered to be a more general winter tune.

Still, despite there not being any mention of Christmas in "Silent Song", all sorts of romance can happen on Christmas Eve in Japan (hotels are very busy on the 24th) so why not have "Silent Song" be an honorary Yuletide tune? Takano was responsible for everything in the song with Ohnuki in charge of the chorus arrangement. One more point is that I think this might be the first tune that I've ever encountered that has both a euphonium and a didgeridoo being performed in a song.

Masamichi Sugi -- Rambling Bird

 

Over the last couple of days, folks have been streaming out of Toronto via plane, train and automobile, most of them presumably to much warmer climes for the Holidays. And it's no wonder...this morning, I woke up to -17 degrees Celsius with a -24-degree wind chill. Having cocktails on the patio didn't come to mind here. The good thing is that the weather forecasters have predicted something closer to zero on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day with some precipitation so that we may get that White Christmas plus something a little balmier.

This particular cheerful song will be coming up on the final Yutaka Kimura Speaks article for 2024 (and after that, there will be just ten more weeks of the series before it all comes to an end), and all I can say is that Kimura must really love the works of singer-songwriter Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）considering how many of them have appeared.

His latest entry is "Rambling Bird", a track on his 8th studio album, "Sabrina", from July 1986. Written and composed by Sugi, it's another musical trip to Margaritaville and the beach through the eyes of the titular avian as he flits all over the place witnessing the beautiful people enjoying surf and sun. The light tropical air with the combination of piano, percussion and synth-harmonica (?) along with Sugi's floaty vocals bring that all-is-right atmosphere of flying down to a warm vacation away from the Great White North. Helping out on chorus is Seishiro Kusunose（楠瀬誠志郎）.

Mika Shinno -- Shunka Shuutou Yakatabune（春夏秋冬 屋形船）

 

Unfortunately, this was one aspect of Japanese culture that I never got to participate in...but then again, I get seasick rather easily, so by not doing so, I may have saved my friends from disgust and the tatami on the boat from something rather noxious.

The yakatabune are boats that can be seen sailing in bays and rivers and they can be chartered for private dinner parties. They are regular sights in Tokyo Bay and along the Sumida River, and I would think that at around this time, they must be very busy because it is the year-end party season. Nothing like a traditional seaside cruise and dinner to finish off the year.

Considering how much I've seen enka singer Mika Shinno（神野美伽）on television via programs such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I'm surprised that she's only popped up once on KKP, so I must rectify this situation. The Osaka native appeared on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた） recently to perform a March 1989 single of hers, "Shunka Shuutou Yakatabune" (Yakatabune Throughout the Seasons) which was written and composed by Yoshikazu Fukano（深野義和）. It's a gentle and refined enka that emphasizes the gentle sailing of the boats hundreds of years ago with perhaps the only passengers being a romantic couple. No over-boisterous salarymen singing karaoke here. The song reached No. 47 on Oricon.

Yuzo Kayama -- Boku no Christmas（ぼくのクリスマス）

 

I managed to get through a wet snowy night last night to meet up with some friends for good hearty Greek cuisine about an hour away by bus. We don't get together all that often anymore but when it comes to the Holidays, we try to make our best efforts to gather and catch up on the year.

Scott from "Holly Jolly X'masu" introduced this one from one of his podcasts this year, but it was news to me that the entertainment legend that is Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）released some Christmas music. In November 1966, he put out a single, "Jingle Bells/Boku no Christmas" (My Christmas). "Boku no Christmas" is a friendly country-style Xmas ditty that was composed by the man himself under his songwriting pseudonym of Kosaku Dan（弾厚作）with Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）providing the lyrics. He somehow even got his buddies, Alvin & The Chipmunks, apparently to chime in behind the mike (really, some of Kayama's associates on helium).

So, Kayama-san doesn't always man a surfboard after all. He can ride the sleigh as well.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Makoto Saito -- LA-LA-LU

 

Number: 089

Lyricist: Makoto Saito

Composer: Makoto Saito

Arranger: Makoto Saito

From the 1983 album "LA-LA-LU"

"LA-LA-LU" is a gem of an acoustic ballad that is said to be a casual opening declaration by Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）in his debut album. Listening to it in his "Ballad's Best", I was once again surprised by its freshness and high quality that makes it hard to believe that it's more than thirty years old. With lyrics that have a universality and allows the listener to project his/her own thoughts on it, there is no doubt that this is one song that clears all of the conditions for it to become a masterpiece.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).