[Joyful & fancy]
No.141 "Nobara" by Mishio Ogawa
Hi. Today's song is "Nobara" (Wild rose) by "Mishio Ogawa".
It's a joyful, but touch mysterious interesting song, performed by a unique and excellent vocalist "Mishio Ogawa"
If you like, please listen.
Image of wild roses might different from country to country.
In the place we live, they bear many white flowers at a time when bloom.
They look like the below picture, but a little smaller (5-6cm) as far as we see. Maybe a different species. (Wikipedia-jp, No-ibara).
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 | Nobara |
|---|---|
| Artist | Mishio Ogawa |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | MHCL-30131 |
| Track No. | 4 |
| Duration | 4:18 |
| Released | 1991 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | Tae Inoue |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Tae InoueLyricist
"Tae Inoue" is a popular song lyrcist active around 1990.
She has offered a few lyrics to the singers like "Mimori Yusa", "Marina Watanabe" & "Mishio Ogawa".
But there are no useful summary pages about her on the internet as long as we've seen.
We will update if we find new information about the lyricist.
BA NA NAComposer
"BA NA NA", "BaNaNa-UG", "Banana Kawashima" etc., are actually aliases of "Yūji Kawashima" who is the keyboardist of an experimental rock band "EP-4".
So, we would like to write "BA NA NA" as "Yūji Kawashima".
Debut
"Yūji Kawashima" debuted in 1980 as a keyboardist & synthesizer player of a 10-pieces brass funk band "Jap's Gap's", which was founded by a famed drummer "Hiro Tsunoda" in 1979.
"Jap's Gap's" was formed to play funk, but featuring the horn section.
The band was trying to perform the fashionable latest pop funk.
Their sound was cool, but perhaps too cool, and too ahead of the time.
"Jap's Gap's" broke out in 1983.
Work with Yōsui Ino-ue
In parallel, "Kawashima" began to work with a talented singer-songwriter, and super star "Yōsui Ino-ue" around 1981.
"Kawashima" initially participated in Ino-ue's' team as a member of the backing band traveling with him for concert tours.
But soon, "Kawashima" emerged as a competent arranger, and already in 1981, he arranged 1 song in Ino-ue's new album.
Already on the next album of Ino-ue, namely "Lion & Pelican", he scored 4 songs, then on the following album "Ballerina", a whole lot was arranged by him.
In this way, "Kawashima" became a leading arranger, and a backing keyboardist to "Ino-ue" for up to the mid '90s.
But, he is still frequently working with "Ino-ue" on his live as a keyboardist even now.
Actually, this backing band to "Yōsui Ino-ue" in the early '80s' set up for themselves as,"Anzen Chitai" (Safety zone) later. And launched many big hit songs.
"Kawashima" was virtually a keyboardist to them by force of circumstances, though he didn't became a member. And contributed to their success.
"Uzumaki-mazuu"
Since then, "Kawashima", in fact mostly as "Banana", has been collaborating with a dozen of various artists to date.
Sometime in mid '00s (unclear), he took part in "Mishio Ogawa"s band "Uzumaki-mazuu", and released an album in 2008.
Like that way, he is actively working as a competent keyboardist.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yūji Kawashima)
(Ref: discogs.com, Yūji Kawashima)
(Ref: ameblo.jp/gami1972, entry-11771168553.html)
Video clip
Finally, here is a music video posted by Yūji Kawashima.
He once had been posting a series of experimental instrumental music to Youtube. And this is one of them.
The series contains different taste of music, and this is a smooth, and ambient music like track.
If you like, please listen.
* "H.Cooper(86)08_by_BANANA_UG" by "BANANA UG"
BANANA & the BandArranger
The main arranger is "Banana", who is also the composer, then please have a look at the above section for the details.
The name "BANANA & the Band" perhaps means that the each player of the backing band shared the role of arrangement for individual part, we guess.
Cover art today
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Cheerful & fancy
This song seems to have a joyous, but mysterious unique melody.
In a sense, this is the pop music of "Mishio Ogawa".
Curious rhythm
The drums, bass, synthesizer, electric guitar, and percussions play a shiny and joyful introduction.
When uniquely designed main melody starts, a cheerful part and mysterious part appear simultaneously, and create a curious rhythm.
Unique beat
At a glance, this song seems to have an ordinal 8th note rhythm, but funny feeling remains.
This is just a normal 4 beats to a measure song. But the percussion is playing some beats in triplets, and the drums is playing by freely changing the timing.
Those little bit of techniques might be adding this unique groove to the song.
"Mishio Ogawa" is singing this song really naturally in relaxed mood.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Mishio OgawaFlower of Chakra
"Mishio Ogawa" is a pop singer, lyricist, composer, narrator, and voice actor active since 1980.
Her beautiful voice and excellent singing skill is widely known.
And she's been one of the most popular vocalist, together with the singers like "Illya", or "Jun Togawa", among the progressive rock bands debuted around the early '80s.
"Ogawa" debuted in 1980 with single "Fuku-no tane" (Seed of fortune) as the vocalist of a progressive pop-rock band "Chakra". Since then, she's released 1 single, 4 solo albums, and participated in 29 various band's albums as the main vocalist until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Mishio Ogawa)
Early days
"Mishio Ogawa" was vaguely thinking to be a singer, or actor when she was a middle school student, according to an interview.
From high school age, she began to audition. In 1978, she attended a vocalist audition of a rock band, and adopted.
The band welcomed her, then started the recording. And in 1980, the group debuted as a unique 5-piece progressive pop-rock band "Chakra", with their first album "Chakra".
Just for your information, but their band name "Chakra" comes from Hindi, or Buddhism, and means internal hubs of the body energy flow, according to some websites.
For more details, please check with a Wikipedia article about "Chakra",
A lot of "spiritual" or "Yoga" related articles may appear if you search the word "Chakra". But they are likely not relevant to this band.
Chakra
From late '70s to the early '80s was a period, which a lot of exciting pop, rock bands appeared on the Japanese pop music scene, riding on the crest of "Techno-pop" (Electro-pop), or "New-wave" rock wave.
Among them, the bands like "Hikashū"(1977), "P-Model"(1979), "Plastics"(1979),"Ippū-do"(1979), or "Juicy Fruits"(1980), which feature electronic sound, were often categorized into "Techno-pop" (Electro-pop, synth-pop) group.
Interestingly, our "Chakra" also was put into this team, even their sounds were not really a Techno-pop, but more like a refined oriental progressive rock using a bit of vocoder.
It might be because their oriental sound on some tracks, and the members of "Chakra" were wearing China dresses at the beginning, like a Techno-pop giant "Yellow Magic Orchestra" once did.
Just a joke.
No matter what groups it is included, "Chakra" was one of the uniquest "New-wave" rock band, created many refined progressive rock tracks.
"Bun Itakura", a member of "Chakura", is a talented melody maker. He created a good melodies, and an excellent singer "Mishio Ogawa" sang in her characteristic, but beautiful voice.
In spite of that, a general impression of "Chakra" is slightly different.
It is perhaps because their debut song "Fuku-no tane" became a smash hit.
"Fuku-no tane" (Seed of fortune) had a "Min-yō" (a traditional Japanese folk song) like rhythm and melody. (No samples are available. Sorry.)
It might be a reason that the song became a hit song, but it was also a cause giving an incorrect band image to the listeners.
Anyway, we suppose they were the band worth listening.
If you have a chance, please try.
Solo
"Mishio Ogawa"s unique, but charming and very skillful vocal was known among the Japanese pop music scene.
While being a member of "Chakra", she was also taking part in the short-lived bands like "Akira Sakata"'s "Wha-ha-ha", or "Kiyohiko Semba"'s "Haniwa all-stars" as a vocalist, and creating surprisingly unique, and stylish music.
"Geta" - Traditional Japanese sandal made of wood.
(Please click to see en.Wikipedia.org)
In 1983, her first band "Chakra" broke up.
Then, next year in 1984, "Mishio Ogawa" released her first solo album, "Mishio Ogawa", which is basically a "New-wave", but also has a "World-music" like impression.
But, she soon returned back to the band activities with several different teams, and focused on them until 1991.
She restarted the recording of her solo album in 1991, and released her 2nd solo album "4 to 3" which we are introducing today.
And, for the following 2 years, she launched 2 nice solo albums every year.
Bands again
Seemingly, the band is not a thing to hold "Ogawa".
She is almost always a member of the multiple bands since debut, so they might be like music sessions for her.
Even after 1994, she released 10 albums as a band, or session vocalist.
In 1997, this time "Ogawa" became a core, and started a pop band "U-zu-ma-ki-ma-zu-u". (a palindrome, when written in Japanese letters. The meaning of "Uzumaki" is a spiral, or vortex.)
There were 8 members gathered at the end of the day, including "Bun Itakura", a core member of "Chakra", or a powerful keyboardist and the composer of to day's song "BaNaNa-UG".
The band focused on their activity on the live stages, and was holding a concert at their own pace.
And in 2008, they finally released the first and currently only album "Uchū-jin" (Spaceman), which remind us the sound of "Chakra".
But the band seems to be keeping quiet in these days.
Recent
"Ogawa" also formed another band "Sproutraups" in 2006, and started to perform more Jazzy, and acoustic music.
The band name "Sproutraups" is again a palindrome when it is written in Japanese letters. The material word is "sprout" apparently.
"Sproutroups" released their first album "Okite-kudasai" (Wake Up Please) in 2011.
But interestingly, the band was reborn as "Fu-tautafu", (palindrome, the material sentence is "Uta utafu" [sing a song].), by adding 2 vocalists, namely "Michi Kuzuoka" and "Sachiko Watanabe".
Because "Ogawa" was wishing to chorus with other singers to perform songs with beautiful harmony.
"Fu-tautafu" released their first album "Tafutafu-to" (or Tōtō-to) in 2016. It seems that the album is cuttently only available from "Mishio Ogawa"s site (www.mishio.com), or this music distributor. (galabox.jp).
If you like, please try.
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Mishio Ogawa)
(Ref: allabout.co.jp,
Mishio Ogawa, 28-Nov-2011)🇯🇵
(Ref: futautafu.jimdo.com,
Mishio Ogawa, futautafu)🇯🇵
(Ref: uzumakimazuu.blogspot.com,
Mishio Ogawa schedule)🇯🇵
(Ref: youtube.com,
K.Senba & Haniwa all-stars)🇯🇵
(Ref: www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~shiho, Mishio Ogawa)🇯🇵
(Ref: reryo.blog98.fc2.com, 4 to 3, Mishio Ogawa)🇯🇵
(Ref: musicnightwhisper.blog.fc2.com,
Chakra - 1980.07.21)🇯🇵
(Ref: www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~sarvana, Wha-ha-ha)🇯🇵
(Ref: miyako.s17.xrea.com,
Mishio Ogawa, Sproutroups)🇯🇵
(Ref: www.mishio.com,
Mishio Ogawa home)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally here is a movie clip of "Live in Sapporo Streetcar" performed by "Mishio Ogawa and Sproutraups".
On this video, the members of "Sproutraups" play an accompaniment, and "Mishio Ogawa" sings.
By the way, "Sapporo Streetcar" is a tram service operated in Sapporo, which is the capital city of the northern island "Hokkaidō".
The movie was perhaps filmed by a handy camera, so the picture isn't excellent.
But her beautiful singing is still there.
If you like, please listen.
* "A sprout" by "Sproutraups"
Music Samples
4
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
4
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 野ばら(Nobara) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 小川美潮(Mishio Ogawa) |
| Album Title | 4 to 3 |
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