[Song Review #122] "Conversations With Myself" by Monday Michiru
Hi. Today's song is "Conversations With Myself" by "Monday Michiru".
In the beginning of this post, we are introducing our trial of making dried persimmon fruits since our post No.118.
Please have a look if you like, but If you are in a hurry, please click the switch below to jump to the main article.
Thank you.
Persimmons 2
This is a latter half of our trial report. The first part is in our post No.118. So, if you like, please have a look.
How did the persimmons end up?
A neighbor of our farm gave us some fresh persimmons on the 11th Dec 2018.
They were look like this.
We peeled, strung, and scalded the persimmons, and hanged them to dry under the eaves.
These are the pictures of drying process.(Not beautiful though.)
(Size of pictures are 640p(120k).)
Not too bad?
A few days ago, they were done. And these are the pictured of made dried persimmons.
This amount of persimmons is about 1/3 of all.
A silver scale on the tray is 15cm length.
White powdery stuff coating the surfaces of the persimmons are fruit sugars. Naturally came out from fruits during drying.
And this is a reference photo of a well-made dried persimmon, which was done by some professional, and we used as a model.
So, how were they? We think they are not too bad.
Mouse feel is slightly chewy, but soft and moist like a center of a Jelly Bean. And taste wise, it has a rich natural sweetness, which is somewhere between a dried sweet potato and dried mango.
Ladies around us, including a madam gave us those fresh persimmons, all enjoyed them, and quickly finished 40 pieces up.
Seemingly, dried persimmons are women's favorite.
We wish to try again if there is a chance.
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1.Song data
| Title | Conversations With Myself |
|---|---|
| Artist | Monday Michiru |
| Album Title | Delicious Poison |
| Catalog Number | KTCR-1635 |
| Track No. | 11 |
| Duration | 6:05 |
| Released | 1996 |
| Publisher | Kitty records |
| Lyricist | Monday Michiru |
| Composer | Monday Michiru |
| Arranger | unknown |
- About the creators
Monday MichiruLyricist&Composer
Lyricist & composer "Monday Michiru" is also a performer of this song.
So, we would like to come back to her in "About the artist" section later.
unknownArranger
An arranger of this song is not clear, then there is no much information.
We would like to update if we can find information on this.
Cover art today
- Sound impressions
Cool & danceable
This song seems to be a nightly, Jazzy dance-pop in lightly rocking rhythm.
Tight but mellow
Dance-pop like tight rhythm by the drums starts an introduction, but a mellow sound of Electric piano (Fender rhodes?) with phaser quickly overlaps, and generate nightly atmosphere.
And the bass, synthesizer, vocal humming, and pizzicato by the violins join, and play a main melody.
From the introduction to the end, the strings section actively take part in, and adding some good taste to the song.
A harmony between the main and backing vocal is also beautiful, and making a sound impression much smoother.
The paradox band
A backing band performing this nice sounds is "The paradox band"
It seems the band was an exclusive special unit for this album of "Monday Michiru".
The members were,
- Bass
- Shin-ichi Ōsawa
- Keyboard
- Hajime Yoshizawa
- Drums
- Yasuo Sano
- Guitar
- Shōgo Fukuoka
- Percussion
- Tetsuya Yamazaki
- Reference
- About the artist
Monday Michirumulti-talented entertainer from the US
"Monday Michiru" is a singer-songwriter, actor, DJ, flutist and music producer active since 1987.
Her name "Monday Michiru" sounds like a stage name, but it is her real first name.
This cool first name is a combination of a Western word and a Japanese word, because she was born to a bilingual family.
For your reference, "Michiru" is a popular, and fairly gender-neutral Japanese name, means about "fill, full, fulfilling, high tide, full moon, round, mature...etc.
As a musician, she debuted in 1991 with the 1st album "mangetsu"(Full moon). Since then, 11 singles, and 23 original, 1 live(DVD), and 3 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Monday Michiru)
Before debut
"Monday Michiru" was born to an American-Japanese musician couple. Her father was a Jazz saxophonist "Charlie Mariano", and mother is a Jazz pianist "Toshiko Akiyoshi".
So, she grew up absorbing the music.
And she entered a music college to study more about the flute, which she had been leaning from 11 years old.
Debut
But, interestingly, she started her career as an actor "Michiru Akiyoshi" in Japan, and acted in a movie of 1987.
Surprisingly, she earned a "Newcomer of the Year" award of Japan Academy Prize (film award) on that year.
Since then, she began to appear on TV series or advertising.
Start singing
In 1988, she participated in a SF animation film project, and wrote, and sang a main theme for the first season of the video series, titled "Ginga Eiyū Densetsu" (Legend of the Galactic Heroes).
And in 1991, she wrote and performed a main theme again, for the 2nd season of the same series.
As far as we know, this maybe her first major work on music.
Constant release
In the same year 1991, she changed her stage name to "Monday Michiru" from "Michiru Akiyoshi", and released her first album "Mangetsu" (full moon) from Virgin records.
Since then, she has been constantly releasing albums almost every year.
(We would like to write some more about this part on other opportunities.)
And in 2015, she launched a collaboration album with "Toshiko Akiyoshi" as a kind of milestone.
Club Jazz
"Monday Michiru" is known, and often referred to as one of the pioneer, or "Diva" of club Jazz in Japan.
Actually, her earlier tracks tended to be more like club music, namely "Dance pop", "House", or "Acid Jazz" categories, and she was visible at the club scene, so that's maybe one reason.
Additionally, she has been frequent collaborating with a prominent music producer, "Shin-ichi Ōsawa" who is also a bassist, DJ, composer, and a leader of a popular club music band "Mondo Grosso", and releasing cool and stylish dance tunes.
So, those past achievements might be creating such impression.
But actually, she has been singing more wide range of music such as, Bossa Nova, Latin, Ethnic and Standard Jazz.
So, how about this one? Thank you.
"4 SEASONS"(2001)
by "Monday Michiru"
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Monday Michiru)
(Ref: billboard-japan, Monday Michiru interview)🇯🇵
(Ref: mondaymichiru.com, Monday Michiru)
Video clip
Finally, here is a video clip of "Monday Michiru Live at Java Jazz Festival 2013" posted by JavaJazzFest.
It is a gorgeous stage of Monday Michiru. Backing band is also jolly good. If you like, please have a look.
* "Java Jazz Festival
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.11.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
AD :
Free listening samples
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp) (Track No.11)
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Conversations With Myself |
|---|---|
| Artist | Monday満ちる (Monday Michiru) |
| Album Title | Delicious Poison |
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