[Bright & stylish]
No.109 "Will you marry me?" by Kumi Shoji
Hi. Today's song is "Will you marry me?" by "Kumi Shōji".
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1.Song data
| Title | Will you marry me? |
|---|---|
| Artist | Kumi Shōji |
| Album Title | ACT 2 ROOM 11011 |
| Catalog Number | CORR-10141 |
| Track No. | 6 |
| Duration | 5:33 |
| Released | 1995 |
| Publisher | columbia |
| Lyricist | Kumi Shōji |
| Composer | Kumi Shōji |
| Arranger | Kumi Shōji & Jerry Hey |
- About the creators
Kumi ShōjiLyricist & Composer
"Kumi Shōji" is a talented singer-songwriter, and often completes a whole song, namely lyrics, melody and an arrangement by herself without having a support from others.
This song too, but for this track, the maestro "Jerry Hey" has participated on the horn arrangement.
Anyway, we would like to come back on her in the later section "About the artist", since she is the singer of this track.
Kumi Shōji & Jerry HeyArranger
As mentioned earlier, Kumi Shōji had done everything including an arrangement on this track.
But the horn arrangement was done by a super arranger Mr. Jerry Hey. So, we would like to touch a bit on him in this section.
Topics on "Shōji" will come up later in the "About the artist" part.
Jerry Hey - A great horn player
Jerry Hey is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, session musician, and a former member of a known fusion band "Seawind" active since mid '70s.
His career on music might be started when he was a student of the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana).
In 1971, he decided to leave the college, and started a new life in Hawaii as a professional musician.
Before too long, he and 7 other members including musicians like Larry Williams or Pauline Wilson, teamed up a band called "OX".
They were showing a good performance at the various places in Hawaii. And one day, Mr. Harvey Mason Sr. suggested them to release an album in LA.
"OX" changed band's name to "Seawind", and the members of the band (except "Larry Hall") moved to LA in 1976. And released their first album "Seawind", which is a nice fusion (vocal mix) album, in the same year"
As a talented arranger
Jerry Hey left Seawind in 1979. But before departing from the band, he had got to know Mr. Quincy Jones.
After left the "Seawind", he started to work with Mr. Jones.
And from 1981 to 1991, he earned the Grammy award for 5 times. It is just simply amazing.
Happy encounter
Jerry Hey is actually one of the most prominent horn section arranger since the '80s.
And surprisingly, such talrented arranger could have supported the album production of various Japanese musicians to date.
We feel that is a kind of happy encounter between the musicians.
(Ref: hip-bonemusic.com, Jerry Hey Interview)
(Ref: discogs.com, Jerry Hey Discography)
Video clip
Finally, here is a clip of a recording session conducted by Harvey Mason Jr.
A grey-haired gentleman wearing an aqua stripe dress shirt is Mr. Jerry Hey.
* "Jerry Hey" as an arranger
Cover art today
- Sound impressions
Bright & stylish
This is a very smooth & stylish pop song in pleasant upper middle speed in 16th note rhythm.
The drums, bass, percussion, acoustic piano, keyboard, electric guitar and horns form an ensemble and begin the introduction.
Nice breezy melody and a lyric rhythm create a good vibration throughout the song.
In the bridge, the flute performs a beautiful solo play, and entertains us.
From beginning to the end, the arrangement of the brass section is superb.
Cute and cool
The voice of Kumi Shōji is like a blend of cute and cool.
It is fairly difficult to describe adequately, but certainly it is unique.
- Reference
- About the artist
Kumi ShōjiSoulful but pop
"Kumi Shōji" is a singer-songwriter, and composer active since 1990.
"Shōji" debuted in 1990 with single "Wander". or by the 1st album "Rhythm of Silence" which was also released at the similar timing. Since then, 7 singles, and 8 original, plus 2 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Kumi Shōji)
Mica music laboratory
She started her music career sometime in the late '80s by joining a school named "Mica music laboratory" which has been run by a famous arranger "Masataka Matsutoya" since 1986.
They say she was a good student at the school.
Perhaps therefore, she gained stronger support from "Masataka Matsutoya", and succeeded to debut in 1990 with her 1st album "Rhythm of Silence" and a single "Wander".
(MEG-CD is an order made CD, but baked on a CD-R by authorized distributors. Other item, like liner note is a scanned copy of the original.)
Hit song
In 1991, her 2nd single "Ano koro-no yō-ni"(Like those days), which was a nice ballad, was adopted as a theme song for a TV series, and became a moderated hit.
Talented musician
She is actually a brilliant singer and songwriter even in J-pop history, as long as we see.
She has written, composed, and arranged for the most of her songs released from the debut by herself.
And all of them are fairly high level.
Soulful singer
As a vocalist, her singing is also nice. Her charming, somewhat cute voice is in a sense more attractive when she is singing a rock-a-ballad or soul type songs. (It's a very personal view though.)
For example song like this.
heartache (1992)
(Kumi Shōji)
Yes. it is other charm of her.
Wishing her re-emergence
Although she released a best album in 2009, it seems she is keeping silence from around 2001.
As one of the old fan, we are waiting her return.
(Not contains today's song.)
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.6.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
AD : Free listening samples
Tower Records
hmv.co.jp
Amazon JP(No sample)
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Will you marry me? |
|---|---|
| Artist | 障子久美 (Kumi Shōji) |
| Album Title | ACT 2 ROOM 11011 |
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