[Thrilling & lively]
No.146 "Airport Lady" by Toshiki Kadomatsu
Hi. Today's song is "Airport Lady" by "Toshiki Kadomatsu".
The first song for July is an exciting up-tempo track "Airport Lady" by the ace of city-pop, and Funk, "Toshiki Kadomatsu".
It would be perfect for a sunny summer day.
If you like, please listen to.
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Song data
| Title | Airport Lady |
|---|---|
| Artist | Toshiki Kadomatsu |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | BVCR-1520 |
| Track No. | 3 |
| Duration | 4:20 |
| Released | 1984 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
- About the creators
Toshiki KadomatsuSongwriter & arranger
"Toshiki Kadomatsu" is the lyricist, composer, arranger, and singer of this song.
So, we would like to come back to him later on the "About the artist" section.
Cover art today
- Sound impressions
Thrilling & lively
This is an exciting, thrilling, and stylish pop song in a comfortable up-tempo rhythm.
Just like flying to a resort destination.
Pleasant and breezy
The introduction begins with the powerful sound of jet engines. Then, the synthesizer, electric piano, drums, bass, electric guitar, and the brass section join.
From the beginning to the end, a lively and hi-speed slapping bass, which was played by a super player "Tomohito Aoki", creates a very funky rhythm, and making this song groovy,
Young "Toshiki Kadomatsu"'s clear voice is pleasant and breezy.
- Reference
- About the artist
Toshiki KadomatsuSea Breeze
"Toshiki Kadomatsu" is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and a competent music producer active since 1981.
One of the most prominent music creator in the Japanese popular music scene, particularly in Urban-pop, Disco funk, and Fusion instrumental categories.
"Kadomatsu" debuted in 1981 with a single "YOKOHAMA Twilight Time". Since then, 34 original, 2 live, and 6 best albums, plus 40 singles, plus 16 DVDs have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Toshiki Kadomatsu)
Early times
"Kadomatsu" began to learn the piano & organ when he was a child.
He set about playing the guitar at 10 years old. And formed a band after entering a middle school.
"Kadomatsu" continued band activities throughout high school years, and carried it on after went to college.
While "Kadomatsu" was a member of a music circle in college, a music producer he knows suggested him to enter a contest.
"Kadomatsu" could not win the contest, but some other producer found him interesting, and offered an opportunity to debut.
And finally in 1981, "Kadomatsu" debuted as an up-and-coming pop singer with his original song "YOKOHAMA Twilight Time".
Urban pop
"Kadomatsu" released his first single, and the first album "Sea Breeze" on the same day in June 1981.
This "Sea Breeze" was a very good stylish "City-pop" (Urban-pop) album which was enough to surprise the fans.
Actually, quite a few of boys and girls around us quickly became earnest fans of him from this album.
In 1982, he release another superb album "Weekend fly to the sun" as his 2nd release.
This album was recorded in Los Angels, and Abraham Laboriel, Nathan East, or Don Grusin like super musicians took part in the album production.
As a result, this record achieved an amazing high quality in terms of music and sound.
Thanks to these nice albums, "Kadomatsu" was recognized as a promising new singer-songwriter.
(Interestingly, he was feeling a frustration for these albums. Since his performances were not good enough compared with the perfect plays of the backing bands, according to him. That feeling he retained drove him to create the remix albums of those later in the '2000s.)
As a producer
"Kadomatsu"'s talent for music creation was already well known among the industry.
In 1983, he began to participate in an album production of a rising pop singer "Anri".
"Kadomatsu" wrote 5 songs for her 5th album "Bi・Ki・Ni", and from the 6th album, he became a music producer for her.
Coincidently, Anri had released a super hit song "Cat's eye", which sold more than a million copies, immediately before this.
Even in such a high-pressured situation, "Kadomatsu" managed to produce a nice pop tune "Kanashimi-ga tomaranai" for her as a new song, and Anri made it into the top 10.
"Kadomatsu" also succeeded to make Anri's 6th album "Timely!" become a chart topper.
By these achievement, "Kadomatsu" became a vital staff for Anri's music.
The artists that "Kadomatsu" produced are not only "Anri".
He produced, or offered songs to the singers like, "Akina Nakamori", "Hideki Saijō", "Hiromi Iwasaki", "Jadoes", "Sora-to Umi-to Kaze-to", "Miho Yonemitsu" or "Miho Nakayama" and so on.
But a big success case brought by his produce for "Miho Nakayama" is well known.
Disco funk
On the other hand, "Kadomatsu" began to shift his music from past urban-pop to more funky and danceable disco sound.
Actually, today's album "After 5 Clash" is often referred as the first clear-cut examples.
"Kadomatsu" then moved to New York to absorb the latest funk music.
And after return to Japan, he released funky but stylish albums, like his 1986 album "T's special", continuously.
These series of albums achieved a very good success, and helped him to be one of the most popular singer-songwriter in the J-pop.
Because of these albums, his funky numbers are still the choices for the club DJs.
Fusion instrumental
"Kadomatsu" is known as a talented singer-songwriter, but he is also an excellent guitar player as well.
Since debut, he has been playing with first-call musicians like "Shūichi 'PONTA' Murakami", "Nobu Saitō", "Yoshihiro Tomonari", "Shigeharu Mukai", or "Tomohito Aoki"...etc. And has established a good relationship with them.
So, it was a a natural consequence for him to start creating instrumental albums with those super players.
In 1987, "Sea is a lady", and in 1990, "Legacy of you", he's released 2 instrumental albums so far.
And in 2017, "Sea is a lady" of 1987 has been retaken, remixed, and newly released as "Sea is a lady 2017".
If you like please listen to.
Vocaland
In 1993, "Kadomatsu" suspended his music activity as "Toshiki Kadomatsu" to recharge his energy.
It had to be a resting time, but he soon began to work hard for producing many of other artists.
"Vocaland" was also a type of project launched by him and a record company "Avex".
It was aiming at discovering vocalists (mostly women) with potentials, and promote them by the produce of "Kadomatsu".
More than 10 artists released songs from Vocaland project, and the singers like "Anna", "Rie Yoshizawa", and "Tomoyo Yoshida" launched their solo album later.
Actually, the songs from "Vocaland" are pretty nice, and the is a lot we would like to introduce.
But they are not easy to access, since the albums are only available as a second hand, not sold in digital music shop like Apple or Amazon either.
We are hoping if some of them become available at digital music shops soon.
Wa-ni natte odorou
In parallel, "Kadomatsu" formed a mysterious undercover band with his tour musicians, and name it "AGARTHA".
On this band, members were called in numbers from 001 to 008 instead of their names.
"Kadomatsu" himself even used an alias, and was called as "001 Tarō Osha-manbe". Because he had suspended his performance under the name of "Kadomatsu" since 1993.
But more importantly, it was actually a experimental project to see what would have happened if they released an album from Indies without opening up who were they.
After launched 3 albums, "AGARTHA" then released a bouncy & danceable pop tune, "ILE AIYE - Wa-ni natte odorou" (Let's dance in a circle) in 1997.
And luckily, this song was chosen as a monthly spotlight (actually, 2 months) for a popular short music program "Minna-no uta" (Song for everyone) broadcasted by NHK.
The broadcaster received unusual amount of response from the audience, who were mainly children and the elderly.
(There is no sample of AGARTHA's original version as far as we see.
We checked a few of cover versions of this song for a replacement, but all of them are a little far from the original, so probably better not to introduce.
Please check the websites like Youtube. There are possibly some.)
Interestingly, quite a few of those messages were suggesting to use this as a theme song for a forthcoming Winter Olympic game in "Nagano".
And eventually, it was selected as a official song, and "AGARTHA" was requested to perform this song at the closing ceremony.
At the very end of the closing ceremony, just after the fireworks were finished, the members of "AGARTHA" appeared on the center stage, and began to play this funky dance pop powerfully.
Soon, all the athletes from various countries rushed to the main stage, and start dancing very happily with a big smile on their faces.
Not just the athletes, but the spectators in the arena also began to step.
So, it was like a huge disco floor appeared suddenly in the Olympic stadium.
We have seen the closing ceremony of the Olympic games more than a dozen on TV so far.
But "Nagano" seems to be one of the happiest, because of this special live performance.
Recent
In 1998, "Kadomatsu" announced his come back from a break of 5 years.
Since then, he's been releasing challenging new albums constantly, and enthusiastically.
And from around 2010, he has begun to release remix, or totally new recording of his earlier albums. He is calling it as a "Revenge".
His earlier albums like, "SEA BREEZE" (1981), or "SEA IS A LADY" (1987) are already fine quality for the listeners like us.
But according to "Kadomatsu", he is not perfectly happy with them, because his performances were not good enough.
Therefore, the newly released albums are perfect in terms of both performance and audio quality.
We can feel the the artistic spirit of "Kadomatsu".
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Toshiki Kadomatsu)
(Ref: sundayfolk.com,
Toshiki Kadomatsu interview, 15.05.2019)🇯🇵
(Ref: tunegate.me,
Toshiki Kadomatsu Sea is a lady 2017 interview, 09.06.2017)🇯🇵
(Ref: 110107.com,
Toshiki Kadomatsu x DJ OSSHY, 29.06.2018)🇯🇵
(Ref: machico.mu,
Toshiki Kadomatsu interview, 24.05.2017)🇯🇵
(Ref: stereosound.co.jp,
Toshiki Kadomatsu interview, 16.03.2016)🇯🇵
(Ref: tower.jp,
Toshiki Kadomatsu, 24.08.2006)🇯🇵
(Ref: diskgarage.com,
Toshiki Kadomatsu interview, 01.05.2017)🇯🇵
(Ref: entertainmentstation.jp, Toshiki Kadomatsu, List of Equipments, 04.08.2016)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, this is a music clip of "Tōkyō Shōnen Shōjo" (Tōkyō boys & girls) from his latest album in the same title.
It's a nice funky dance pop in the latest sound style. The overall impression is not so electro, but warm, energetic, and human touch.
If you like, please listen.
* Tōkyō Shōnen Shōjo" by "Toshiki Kadomatsu"
- 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)
hmv.co.jp
Tower records online
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Airport Lady |
|---|---|
| Artist | 角松敏生(Toshiki Kadomatsu) |
| Album Title | After 5 Clash |
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