[Breezy & relaxing]
No.137 "Shio-kaze no machi" by Michiru Kojima
Hi. Today's song is "Shio-kaze no machi" (Sea Breeze Town) by "Michiru Kojima".
It's a breezy, nice pop song with a pure & delicate vocal.
If you like, please listen.
"Koinobori" (carp streamer)
May 5th is the Children's day in Japan, and it is designated as a national holiday.
The families, particularly with boys, hoist a set of carp streamers in front of their homes, to pray for children's healthy growth.
Now, the households keeping that old tradition are getting less and less (there isn't enough space to set up a flagpole, possibly because of pavement.). But it is still an important cultural event.
Some links to the music shops offering song samples are located on the bottom of this page.
Few contents have been put away in a " ▼Memo " tab in each section, so please click it to read.
If the " ▼Memo " tab does not open, please enable the Java script in your browser.
Thank you.
Song data
| Title | Shio-kaze no machi |
|---|---|
| Artist | Michiru Kojima |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | CDSOL-1692 |
| Track No. | 1 |
| Duration | 4:35 |
| Released | 1986 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Yoshihiko AndōLyricist
"Yoshihiko Andō" is a lyricist, music producer, and a keyboardist to a legendary powerful fusion band "Parachute".
"Hold up"
"Yoshihiko Andō" debuted in 1978 as a member of a unique tropical pop-rock band "Hold up".
"Hold up" was doing a bit experimental type music, but known musicians like "Haruomi Hosono", "Ei-ichi Ōtaki" or "Horn Spectrum" were taking part in.
Later in 1980, one of their song, "Corazón de date" was luckily selected as a monthly song for "Minna-no uta" (Songs for Everyone), which is a short music program for children produced & on-aired by Japan's national broadcaster NHK.
Parachute
Back in 1979, "Andō" also participated in a newly formed fusion instrumental band "Parachute" as a keyboardist, and became an original member.
"Parachute" has been one of the most skillful, and powerful fusion group. And it was very popular in the early '80s.
But the band suddenly stopped its activity in 1982, and kept quiet until the members reignited the band in 2003.
Lyricist
In place of the stopped band jobs, "Andō" began to focus on writing lyrics for the popular songs.
The first hit song by a lyricist "Andō" was "Ippon-no ongaku" (One cassette tape of music) by "Kazuhito Murata" in 1983.
By the smash hit of this song, the name "Andō" became more well-known as a song writer.
In 1989, "Andō" received a request from the vocalist of a female 5-piece hard rock band "Sho-Ya" to write a fitting lyrics for them.
Because the vocalist, who was also a lyricist for the band, was struggling to create a lyrics with something new.
"Andō" provided a fine lyrics for them, and the band performed it very well.
The song was also chosen as an advertising jingle for a major petroleum company, and became a smash hit.
Since then, "Andō" has been a chief lyricist for the band.
And, his name became bigger with the growing popularity of the band "Sho-Ya".
(Ref: ann.hi-ho.ne.jp, Yoshihiko Andō)
Video clip
Finally, this is a video clip of an acoustic soul ballad, "Watshi-ha Arashi (I am a storm)" (Acoustic Version), sung by "Keiko Terada".
"Andō" is participated in this song as a lyricist.
"Keiko Terada" is the vocalist to a female 5-piece metal, or hard rock band "Sho-Ya"
There are many fans for her powerful, and soulful singing.
In 2016, "Terada" released her 7th solo album "Piece of my heart", and held acoustic concerts in several places.
And this clip is a part of it.
It is a real opposite of smooth, but simple, strong, and passionated.
If you like, please listen.
* "Watshi-ha Arashi" by "Keiko Terada"
Akira OkamotoComposer
"Akira Okamoto" is a composer and singer-songwriter active since 1978.
Singer-songwriter
"Akira Okamoto" initially debuted as a singer-songwriter "Issei Okamoto" with the first single "Moonlight singing" in 1978.
Since then, he has released 3 singles and 3 albums to date.
In parallel, he contracted with a music publisher as a composer at the early timing of his career.
Then, he has written quite a few song for the various artists.
Ichizō SeoArranger
"Ichizo Seo" is a long serving music producer, arranger and a singer song-writer active since the late '60s.
He has been particularly well known by his close work with a legendary folk singer "Takurō Yoshida" since the early '70s. And also known by his earnest musical support to a popular artist "Miyuki Nakajima" since the late '80s.
Early times
"Ichizo Seo" started his music career by teaming up a folk group in 1969.
In 1973, he debuted as a solo singer once, but soon he diverted his direction to the background work, like a producer.
In December the same year, "Seo" participated in a popular folk singer, "Takurō Yoshida"s live album as an arranger and co-producer.
This album "Takurō live '73" achieved a huge success, and "Seo"s name began to be recognized.
Soon after that, he took part in several new singles of the various artists, and led all of them to great success.
Through this miracle, he completely established his name as one of the most capable arranger &producer.
Since then, he has been involved in a produce of hundreds of songs to date.
Incremental music
On the other hand, he's written quite a few incremental music for movies and multiple TV series.
Among them, one of the most prominent work was a music production for a national popular school drama series, "Kin-pachi sensei".
From 1979 to 1987, he provided an excellent drama music, and contributed for make the series national hugely popular.
It is a coincidence that today's artist "Michiru Kojima" acted in this drama as a teacher, though the timing was not the same.
Miyuki Nakajima
Another notable work of "Seo" is his support to "Miyuki Nakajima" who is one of the most prominent singer-songwriter in Japan since the mid '70s.
"Seo" started his support to "Nakajima" from late '80s as a music producer. Since then, "Seo" has been the most important, and indispensable musical partner for her.
(Ref: livedoor.com,
Ichizo Seo interview)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, here is the trailer of "Miyuki Nakajima"s live DVD & CD "Ichi-e" filmed from 2015 to 2016.
"Ichizo Seo" has arranged all the songs on this album, and, involved in this concert tour as the music director.
If you like, please listen.
* "Concert "Ichi-e" by "Miyuki Nakajima"
Cover art today
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Breezy & relaxing
This is a breezy, and relaxing nice pop song in a slow 16 Beats.
Flowing
The guitar, keyboard, acoustic piano, drums, bass, and the strings play a smooth and thrilling introduction, and the main melody starts.
The vocal joins in the main theme, and the marimba sound adds an undersea atmosphere. The percussions also participate in and makes sound more rhythmic.
At the final part of the song, the soprano sax joins, and plays an impressive brief solo.
Powerful backing band
Powerful musicians played a part in the production of "Michiru Kojima"s albums, for example a guitarist "Masaki Matsubara", and percussionist "Nobu Saitoh", both from a five-star fusion band "Parachute". Or an eminent arranger "Hiroshi Shinkawa", and a guitarist "Shigeru Suzuki", and so on.
The excellent plays of these fine musicians supported "Michiru Kojima"s clear and delicate vocal, powerfully and gently.
So, these nice performances of the backing band are other interests of her albums.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Michiru KojimaMichille
"Michiru Kojima" is a singer, lyricist, and an actor since 1985.
She debuted in 1985 with a single "September Mono-gatari"(September story). Since then, 14 singles, and 8 original plus 3 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Michiru Kojima)
Debut
"Michiru Kojima" debuted as a singer in 1985 when she was a high school student.
Her debut single was "September Mono-gatari" (September story), which was written and composed by talented creators, "Takashi Matsumoto", and "Tetsuji Hayashi".
And soon in September 1985, her 1st album "Best Friend" also became on-sale.
On the other hand, she debuted as an actor by a Japanese film, "Sotsugyō proof" (Proof of graduation) in 1987.
In a good pace
Since debut, she constantly released albums almost once a year until 1995.
Single records were even more frequently launched in every 6 months.
The backing band who supported her recording, were composed of the most skillful musicians, including a few members of super fusion band "Parachute" in.
Thanks to those brilliant musicians, the albums of "Michiru Kojima" have been completed as high quality, stylish urban pop CDs.
"Kin-pachi sensei"
In 1995, "Michiru Kojima" was selected as a cast for one of the most popular school drama series, "Kin-pachi sensei" (Teacher Kinn-pachi).
The season 4 of its series was on-aired from Oct-1995 to Mar-1996, and "Kojima" acted as an English teacher "Megumi Iwasaki".
"Kin-pachi sensei" was one of the longest lasting, and the most popular school drama series, broadcasting various realistic episodes set in a public middle school.
The series was first televised in 1979. Since then, 8 regular seasons and a number of special one-off episodes have been sent off until 2008.
Moved to America
In 1998, "Kojima" paused her activities in Japan, and moved to the United States.
She has not been a person to talk about the private often. So, we don't know much about what she was doing there.
Come back
According to some articles on the internet, "Michiru Kojima" has restarted music activity since 2016.
It is a very good news for fans, since she is a very attractive singer, and we were hoping to see her again.
We would like to join her live concert sometime in the future if possible.
Video clip
We looked for some video clips relating to "Michiru Kojima", but there aren't suitable one so far.
So tentatively, we would like to post a concert digest of a fusion band "Parachute", since the backing band of today's song of "Michiru Kojima" is actually them.
And that is one of the big reasons why "Michiru Kojima"'s albums are so listenable.
This is a digest of the 35th Anniversary concert of performed by a Japanese super fusion band "Parachute" held in 2014.
On this video, "Yoshihiko Andō", the lyricist of this song, is also appearing in a white Jacket, and playing the keyboards.
The two guitarists are "Tsuyoshi Kon"(long hair), and "Masaki Matsubara" (Blue guitar, MD-Premier G1).
The drummer is "Tatsuo Hayashi", and the bassist is "Mike Dunn".
The keyboardists are "Yoshihiko Andō" and "Akira Ino-ue".
And, the emcee & percussionist is "Nobu Saitō".
If you like, please listen.
* "The 35th Anniversary live tour" by "PARACHUTE"
Music Samples
1
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Tower records online
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 汐風の街(Shio-kaze no machi) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 児島未知瑠(未散)(Michiru Kojima) |
| Album Title | Michille |
Comments