[Mellow & soothing]
No.138 "Keshi (Poppy)" by Miyuki Hatakeyama
Hi. Today's song is "Keshi" (Poppy) by "Miyuki Hatakeyama".
Lots of field poppies are now blooming in the nearby park.
Then, our selection for today is this song, "Keshi" (Poppy).
This is one of the mellowest Japanese pop song we have ever come across.
If you like, please listen.
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.
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Thank you.
1.Song data
| Title | Keshi (Poppy) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Miyuki Hatakeyama |
| Album Title | Wild and gentle |
| Catalog Number | BFCA-84004 |
| Track No. | 3 |
| Duration | 5:37 |
| Released | 2003 |
| Publisher | Face Records |
| Lyricist | Takashi Matsumoto |
| Composer | Kei-ichi Tomita |
| Arranger | Kei-ichi Tomita |
- About the creators
Takashi MatsumotoLyricist
"Takashi Matsumoto" is a lyricist, and a former member of a legendary rock band "Happy end" active since 1968.
He has written many big hit songs since he debuted as a lyricist, and been a leading song creator in the J-pop for long time.
(* "Kaze-machi" is an imaginary place where "Matsumoto" once lived. But it was somewhere in the '50-60s Tokyo.)
Early times
"Takashi Matsumoto" started his music career by joining a progressive rock band "April fool" as a drummer in 1968.
This band soon broke up in October 1969, then "Matsumoto", and his band mate "Haruomi Hosono" gathered up 2 other members, namely "Ei-ichi Ōtaki" and "Shigeru Suzuki", and formed a rock band "Happy end", which later comes to be called as a legend.
"Happy end" accomplished many remarkable works, but it broke up in 1972.
"Matsumoto" then became a member of the other band, or worked as a producer occasionally.
But in 1974, he decided to be a professional lyricist from now on, after a bit of trial and error.
As a lyricist
In 1974, "Matsumoto" debuted as an independent popular song lyricist.
The first song he offered was "Pocket ippai-no himitsu" (A pocketful of secrets) to a popular idol star "Agnes Chan". And luckily, it became a smash hit.
Since then, he successfully wrote quite a few hit songs constantly by the late '70s.
Because of this achievement, "Takashi Matsumoto" became one of the most popular, and recognized as the most promising lyricist in the J-pop.
From the '80s onward
When the '80s began, "Matsumoto" even increased the pace of release, and produced more hit songs by offering excellent lyrics to the dozens of top singers, like "Seiko Matsuda", "Yoshitaka Minami", "Hiromi Ohta", Masahiko Kondō", "Kinki Kids" etc, etc.
And "Takashi Matsumoto" established an unbeatable popularity as a popular song lyricist by the end of the '80s.
Even now, he is writing a lot of nice lyrics to the various artists enthusiastically.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Takashi Matsumoto)
(Ref: oricon.co.jp,
Takashi Matsumoto interview)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, this is a short music video of "Kumiko"s 2017 song, "Frozen daiquiri".
A gentleman wearing black jacket, and appearing in the last part of this video is "Takashi Matsumoto".
And the other gentleman sitting next to him is the composer & arranger. "Kei-ichi Tomita".
Additionally, the duet partner singing next to her is "Ken Yokoyama", who is a well known, talented vocalist, and the leader of "Crazy Ken Band".
"Kumiko" is a long serving, experienced Chanson singer active since the early '80s.
She had been singing in the small stages for a long time.
But around the year 2000, "Kumiko" was suggested to sing a "Takashi Matsumoto"s song, since then, she came to attention.
After that, her charming singing is getting recognized more widely, and she became a popular vocalist in the popular music category now.
If you like, please listen.
* "Frozen daiquiri"by "Kumiko" with "Kaze-machi review"
Kei-ichi TomitaComposer & Arranger
"Kei-ichi Tomita" is a composr, arranger, guitarist, keyboardist, and music arranger active since 1988.
Early times
"Tomita" started learning the piano when he was a pre-school child.
At the elementary school, he began to learn the "Electone", and enjoyed to play screen music.
When "Tomita" became a junior high school student, he bought a guitar, and concentrated to play the Beatles.
And after entering the college, he started to work as a professional backing guitarist, as a part-time job.
Debut
In 1988, "Tomita" teamed up a 2-piece Electro pop unit "Kedge", and released their first album "Complete Samples".
But after a while, he was convinced that his primary interest was to arrange or produce music, not to perform as a musician.
Then, he suspended releasing his own album, and began to concentrate on arranger's job.
As a producer
In 1994, "Tomita" took part in "Mimori Yusa"s album "Aluhi-Halenohi" (One day, sunny day) as an arranger and co-producer.
He supported "Yusa" until 1997, and then, "Tomita" started to produce a pop duo "Kirinji" as a producer until 2003.
Around 2000, "Tomita" came to produce, or collaborated with the various artists on a one-song basis, than producing a whole album.
In 2000, "Tomita" produced a popular singer "MISIA"s song "Everything", and launched it as a single CD.
The CD sold more than 2 million copies, and awarded as a Gold disk. And by this remarkable success, "Tomita" established his name as a powerful producer.
Since then, "Tomita" collaborated with the artists like, "Mika Nakashima", "Yumi Matsutōya", "Ken Hirai", "Christal Key", "Hanare-gumi", etc, and has been producing many nice songs.
And in 2003, "Tomita" released his first compilation album "Shipbuilding" as "Tomita Lab.", and included the of above songs he produced.
Recent
After "Tomita" established a one-song produce style, quite a few of artists, including big names like "Taeko Ohnuki" or "Yukihiro Takahashi", have been collaborated with him.
And "Tomita" is constantly releasing new albums contain those wonderful collaborations.
At the moment, the latest album is "M-P-C 'Mentality, Physicality, Computer'" of 2018.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Kei-ichi Tomita)
Video clip
Finally, here is an album trailer of Asako's first album "fermata" released in Feb 2019.
"Asako" is a pop singer debuted in 2016 from an Indies label. But she is now releasing a new album from a major label "Victor".
This is a nice pop album, and "Kei-ichi Tomita" produced one track titled "Chocolate Box".
If you like, please listen.
* 1st album "fermata" trailer by "Asako"
Cover art today
- Sound impressions
Beautifully mellow
Sweet, smooth, and relaxing nice pop ballad, in a comfortable moderated speed.
Melodious
A melodious introduction is started by an ensemble of the electric piano, strings, cello, bass, drums and acoustic guitar.
In the main melody, soft and natural "Hatakeyama"s vocal joins, and an impressive phrase of the bass, a high-fret strumming of the acoustic guitar, and the high tone of the violin accompany with.
And in chorus, the melody becomes really dramatic, like expressing the pleasure of love in music.
Flower of the J-pop
The lyrics of this song is artistic, romantic, and almost erotic.
On top of that, the melody is carefully designed, in a way that each passages can reflect the images of the lyrics well.
As a result, the song achieved an exceptional quality, then we often see the praising comments on the internet, saying this is a flower of the J-pop.
And we fully agree with the people commenting so.
- Reference
- About the artist
Miyuki Hatakeyamalaid-back vocal
"Miyuki Hatakeyama" is a singer, songwriter, radio personality, and the vocalist of an acoustic duo, "Port of Notes", and was a vocalist of a cosmopolitan music band, "Double Famous" until 2009.
As a solo singer, she debuted in 2001 with a single "Kagayaku tuki-ga terasu yoru" (Moony night). Since then, 6 singles, and 7 original, 3 cover, 1 best album, and 1 live CD + 1 live DVD has been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Miyuki Hatakeyama)
Early times
"Miyuki Hatakeyama" started her music career in 1991.
In 1993, she teamed up a band named "Double Famous", who plays cosmopolitan music (but mainly Latin & African), but she calls it a "Dance hall band".
In 1996, she formed a new acoustic unit "Port of Notes" with a guitarist "Daisuke Kojima", and has been performing a stylish Jazz Bossa.
And also from 1996, she is occasionally taking part in a Gonzalez Suzuki's Acid, or nu-Jazz unit, "Soul Bossa Trio" as a vocalist, and showing a cool performance.
Solo debut
Since she began to sing in 1993, has participated in various units, and is pursuing her music style, though her core is somewhere in Latin and Vocal Jazz.
In 2001, "Hatakeyama" released her first single, "Kagayaku tuki-ga terasu yoru" (Moony night), and the first album "Diving into your mind" in 2002.
And by releasing this solo album, it seems she expanded her music world broader than before.
Tomita Lab.
In 2003, she took part in a music producer, Kei-ichi Tomita's album "Shipbuiding", and sung a mellow title, "Taegataku-mo amai kisetsu" (An unbearable, but romantic season).
Actually, "Kei-ichi Tomita" is a unique composer, as if he has been a top academic researcher of a "Mellow & Tranquil" sound.
Therefore, such "Tomita" melody, and the healing nature of "Hatakeyama"s vocal caused a chemical reaction, and formed a beautifully smooth & soothing music.
We feel this collaboration was one of the major turning point for her, since we have come to hear her name more often after this.
Flowers will bloom
Hatakeyama's vocal has a warm, gentle, and calming characters as a nature. And, we imagine the faint trace of her Northeast pronunciation might have some effects on it.
In 2011, a big earthquake and tsunami hit the Northeast region of Japan, and the hometown of "Hatakeyama", near the coast, was also badly damaged.
Sometime after the disaster, the national broadcaster NHK initiated a nation wide charity campaign for the recovery. And as a theme music for this campaign, a ballad titled "Hana-ha saku" (Flowers Will Bloom) was produced.
For the recording of this song, well-known actors, singers, or other personalities related to the affected region joined, and contributed to the song by their appearances, or the unique singing.
Then, the movie clip of this charity song has been repeatedly going on air by NHK even now.
And "Miyuki Hatakeyama" has participated in this song as a member of the singers representing Miyagi prefecture.
Recent
She has been constantly releasing nice original & cover album almost once in every 2 years.
In parallel, she is frequently performing small scale live stages, together with an acoustic guitarist, "Ryūhei Koike".
Or in 2016, she celebrated the 15 years anniversary since debuted as a solo artist in 2001.
As an anniversary event, she held some big scale concerts in several venues. And a symphonic orchestra of 55 members accompanied for her.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Miyuki Hatakeyama)
(Ref: tower.jp, Miyuki Hatakeyama interview, 06-04-2006)🇯🇵
(Ref: cdjournal.com,
Miyuki Hatakeyama interview, 13-DEC-2011)🇯🇵
(Ref: billboard-japan.com, Port of Notes×Polaris)🇯🇵
(Ref: natalie.mu,
Power Push Miyuki Hatakeyama)🇯🇵
(Ref: cube-music.com,
Miyuki Hatakeyama biography)🇯🇵
(Ref: hatakeyamamiyuki.com, profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, here is a music video of Miyuki Hatakeyama's 2013 song, "Yoru-to Ame-no waltz" (A waltz of night and rain).
This is a song from her 6th album "rain falls" released in 2013.
The lyrics and melody was written by her, and the arranger was perhaps "Nobuyuki Nakajima", a composer and pianist.
This piece has a sentimental Chanson like moist & quiet atmosphere, but it's an elegant nocturnal ballad.
If you like, please listen.
* "Yoru-to Ame-no waltz" by "Miyuki Hatakeyama"
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.3.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
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Free listening samples
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
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8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 罌粟 (Keshi) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 畠山美由紀 (Miyuki Hatakeyama) |
| Album Title | Wild and gentle |
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