[Relaxing & warm]
No.198 "Anata no soba ni" by Shigeko Suzuki
Hi. Today's song is "Anata no soba ni" (When I'm With You) by "Shigeko Suzuki".
Spring is actually an enjoyable season for us, since we can see quite a few of very beautiful pictures of birds and flowers when selecting a header image for a new post.
Once going out for a walk, we can see hundreds of colorful real flowers and blossoms blooming in the gardens of the neighbors.
And on the hills and fields, we can hear the lovely songs of familiar birds singing in there, though they are just ordinary scenes on a spring morning in a country side of Japan.
How are things at your end?
Today's track "Anata no soba ni" is a relaxing, slow vocal song almost sounds like a lounge Jazz.
The performer is a vocalist "Shigeko Suzuki", who is very popular for her slightly husky, and amazingly soft, soothing, and heartful singing.
If you like, please listen.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Anata no soba ni |
|---|---|
| Artist | Shigeko Suzuki |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | BVCJ-37595 |
| Track No. | 5 |
| Duration | 5:01 |
| Released | 2001 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Shigeko Suzuki Lyricist & composer
"Shigeko Suzuki" is the lyricist & composer, and also a singer of this song.
So, we would like to come back to her in "About the artist" section later.
"Shigeko Suzuki" is known by her excellent covers of the vocal Jazz standards, or classical pop songs. But she also occasionally creates ballad songs (daringly) written in Japanese, and sing them with an accompaniment of a simple piano trio, or just the acoustic piano.
This song seems to be a good example of her such creative works.
Kazuki Watanabe Arranger
"Kazuki Watanabe" is a Jazz pianist, composer, and arranger active since the mid '80s.
He has collaborated with a few of notable Jazz vocalists like, "Hatsumi Shibata", "Marlene", "Mieko Hirota", "Marica Hiraga", "Harumi Igarashi" or, "Shigeko Suzuki" as a member of a backing band.
Short bio.
According to some references, "Kazuki Watanabe" started his professional career in the mid '80s, (perhaps) by joining a backing band' "Whispers", for a popular Jazz singer "Marlene", as a keyboardist.
After working with her for few years, "Watanabe" left "Whispers", and newly became a keyboardist of a backing band for a Jazz & Pops vocalist "Hatsumi Shibata", (maybe) in the late 80s.
"Watanabe" later become a band master & arranger for "Shibata", and worked with her for 15 years.
In parallel, he has been supporting various Jazz vocalists like, "Mieko Hirota", "Marica Hiraga" (or Marica), "Harumi Igarashi" or, "Shigeko Suzuki" as a pianist for a long time.
Particularly to "Mieko Hirota", he had worked with her for nearly 30 years until she passed away in the last year. (2020)
Recent
"Watanabe" is constantly holding gigs in around Tokyo at the moment, though the schedule has been affected by the pandemic as in many countries.
According to his blog, "Watanabe" has been utilizing such unexpected spare time for taking pictures of flowers, since he is also a professional level photographer for flowers.
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a fine live clip of a joint Session between "Kazuki Watanabe trio" & "Noriko Satomi string quartet", featuring a Jazz & Bossa Nova singer, "Rio Osawa".
The video clip was filmed on the 17th Nov.2017 at a music restaurant & Bar "Studio Wuu", in Kashiwa-c, Chiba.
"Kazuki Watanabe trio" is a long stable Jazz trio of "Watanabe"'s. The trio has been collaborated with various Jazz singers in their history.
The members are,
- Kazuki Watanabe (pf)
- Kōichi Kokubu (b)
- Mitsutaka Uyama (ds)
"Noriko Satomi string quartet" is a string quartet lead by a prominent Jazz violinist, "Noriko Satomi".
In the latter half of the clip, there is an excellent violin solo of "Noriko Satomi", so please have a look.
The members of "Noriko Satomi string quartet" are,
- Noriko Satomi (1st vln)
- Yuki Nakajima (2nd vln)
- Eri Itonaga (vla)
- Katsunori Kabaya (Cello)
If you like, please listen.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Calm & warm
This seems to be a relaxing, and refined vocal ballad in lounge Jazz style.
lovely & poetic
An ensemble of the percussions, bass, classical guitar, and and acoustic piano plays a calm, sweet, and relaxing slow introduction, then began to play a main part.
In the main melody, soft, warm, and slightly husky vocal of "Shigeko Suzuki" sings a lovely, and poetic world of the lyrics.
In the bridge, the Blues harmonica performs a beautiful solo, and creates a nostalgic, and little sentimental atmosphere.
Players
The performing musicians on this track are as follows.
- Percussion
- Toyoji Kuriyama
- Bass
- Shinji Takemura
- Classical Guitar
- Yoshiteru Itō
- Acoustic Piano, Str-Syn.
- Kazuki Watanabe
- Blues Harmonica
- Chikara Tsuzuki
- Vocal
- Shigeko Suzuki
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Shigeko SuzukiA singer who weaves a harmony of lives
"Shigeko Suzuki" is a vocalist, and a "singer who weaves a harmony of lives" (Inochi-no hibiki-wo tsumugu utai-te), according to her profile, active since 1995.
Because of a vivid impression of her meteoric debut, fans often have understood her as a Jazz & Bossa Nova singer.
But in reality, she has been singing wide range of songs from Classic to Pops, as long as they are soft & gentle enough to the listeners, and meet her criteria.
"Suzuki" debuted in 1995 with her first album, "Premiere" . Since then, 1 single CD, and 12 original, 1 best, and 9 various albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Shigeko Suzuki)
Early times
According to some interviews, "Shigeko Suzuki"'s primary experience on music was her mother's lullaby.
"Suzuki" said in her talks that she still clearly remember the scene that her mother was singing a lullaby for her, a 3-4 years old, in the moonlight. And "Suzuki" thought, "What a good singer my mom is... Can I become like her?".
She began to learn the piano when she was 3 years old.
In elementary school, she started to sing in a choir, and continued being a member until the end of high school.
At high school, "Suzuki" also joined a school music circle, and teamed up a girl's band. And she performed rock 'n roll, or Fusion music as a bassist of the group.
Just before graduating from high school, she took and passed one of the most difficult entrance exams in Japan, and went on to the University of Tokyo.
"Suzuki" enrolled in the faculty of law, and began to study hard for a bar exam.
But at the same time, she began to join a music circle in a college, and began to sing as a vocalist.
She also started to sing in a Jazz club, partly as a part time job, and also as a training for herself to sing Pop songs better.
Struggles & awakening
As an elite student in a top university, she persevered in her effort to pass a bar exam which is considered as one of the most difficult national exams in Japan.
She failed once, but continued an effort for the next chance.
But the more she studied hard, the more she began to wonder whether she had been putting massive efforts in the wrong direction.
Since she could not be sure that she had really been wishing to be a lawyer, power elite, or one of the government officials, and continue to live a competitive & stressful, but challenging life.
Although she was feeling it might not be the right course for her, the expectations from the people around her was still a pressure for her at that timing.
On the other hand, "Suzuki" really had been feeling alive while she was singing in front of the audience.
One day, on the way back home from a Jazz club after her live stage, she was thinking about the good points, and points to improve on today's live stage.
Suddenly, she noticed the fact that she was truly enjoying being a singer, and she really could feel happy by singing good songs in front of the people.
"Suzuki" finally found the path, and made up her mind. She decided to finish trying a bar exam, but become a singer instead, after graduating from university, since she was already earning enough as a singer.
Debut
"Suzuki" became popular, and popular as a Jazz singer on the local Jazz scene, and soon, a general manager of an entertainment agency found her interesting, and began to recruit.
And in 1994, "Shigeko Suzuki" finally debuted as a professional singer before releasing the first CD.
Surprisingly in this year, "Suzuki" received a "Japan Jazz vocalist awards for new singer" before releasing a debut record.
Then in 1995, a recording session for a debut album of "Shigeko Suzuki" had just started.
The office, which "Suzuki" belonged to, gorgeously provided her an opportunity to record a new album in New York, accompanied by notable musicians like, "Kenny Werner" (Pf, Syn), "Jay Anderson" (B), "Tom Rainy" (Ds), "Vic Juris" (G), "Jamey Haddad" (Per), "Dave Ballou" (Tp), "Dick Oatts" (Sax, Fl), "Randy Brecker" (Tp,Frh) or "Toots Thielemans" (Hca).
Then she was debuted in 1995 with her first Jazz vocal album "Premiere" from BMG Victor.
Blue note
Fortunately, her first album attracted good reviews together with a slightly husky, but warm and attractive "Suzuki"'s vocal.
Just before the release of her debut album, luckily, she had a chance to perform at a famous Jazz club "Blue note" in New York in September 1995. And according to some references, she was the first ever Japanese Jazz vocalist held a debut concert at this prestigious venue.
Thanks to those, a little bit visible debut, "Shigeko Suzuki" quickly approved as a new brilliant "Jazz" singer.
Vocalist
Because her singing of vocal Jazz and Bossa Nova songs were so good, listeners recognized her as a Jazz singer.
But according to her, it was slightly different from her original intention, but she was thinking herself as just a "Vocalist", not necessarily a "Jazz singer".
Since then, she began to adjust her music style little by little, each time she released a new albums.
And her such attempt seems to have been completed on her self-produced 7th album, "A breath of silence" released in 2003.
It was a natural, simple, and soothing vocal album, with minimum accompaniment of the acoustic, piano, cello, flute, violin, and percussions. And well known standard pops, or nursery rhymes are performed in purified atmosphere, and there is no flavor of Jazz at all.
It is a unique, calm & peaceful world of "Shigeko Suzuki", and we imagine that the lullaby of "Suzuki"'s mother was just like this.
Breath for Peace
According to some interview articles, "Shigeko Suzuki"'s ultimate hope is "Peace in the World", and singing and praying for the day that there will be no victims of wars, or violences on the earth.
As a singer or a person, "Shigeko Suzuki" is keeping up various activities in her own way and pace. And "Breath for Peace" is also one of them.
"Breath for Peace" is a project promoted by "Shigeko Suzuki", for aiming at collecting songs born and sung in combat zones, or war-torn regions.
And possibly perform them in front of live audiences in different places.
Fortunately, her action gained fair acceptances and supports from a range of individuals or companies.
Since then, "Shigeko Suzuki" has been pursuing this activity like it is one of her life's works.
Recent
Under the circumstances of current pandemic, "Shigeko Suzuki" too, but has to postpone, or downscale the size of her concerts at the moment.
"Suzuki" is however, often forming a smallest session unit with her close pianist, "Wong Wing Tsan" (Pf, Syn)", and holding gigs in various live venues, or on-line concerts through streaming service on the inter-net.
-
(Ref: suzukishigeko.cocolog-nifty.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, we would like to introduce a trailer video of today's album "My Best Friends" by "Shigeko Suzuki".
Today's song "Anata no soba ni" (When I'm With You) is in track No.5.
If you like, please listen this relaxing melody.
Extra
Additionally, we would like to also introduce a song of "Shigeko Suzuki" titled "Breath for Peace", which was written in 2010 for a project of the same title promoted by "Shigeko Suzuki" herself, as we mentioned in the above section.
"Breath for Peace" is based on a hymn, "Laudario di Cortona: No. 37, Sia laudato san Francesco". According to a note on the video, this is also known as a base music for a theme song of an Italian-British film "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" (sang by Donovan) released in 1972.
"Shigeko Suzuki" wrote an original lyrics in Japanese, and created a theme song for her peace songs collection project, "Breath for Peace".
From 2010 to 2019, a government organization JICA (Japan International Corporation Agency) had conducted a domestic promotion called "Nantoka shinakya" (have to do something) project.
The project was aiming at increasing the awareness of the reality in developing, or least developed countries and promoting support for international relief and aid efforts.
"Shigeko Suzuki" has been participating in the project as a personality member since the beginning, and actually she visited Uganda in 2011, and reported as a special correspondent of JICA.
As one of the activities in this project, "Suzuki" held a special concert in Nagoya, and performed this song.
If you like, please listen this nice slow ballad in "Suzuki"'s Angel's voice.
Music Samples
5
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
hmv.co.jp
Neowing.co.jp
Tower records online
Amazon JP(en)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | あなたのそばに(Anata no soba ni) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 鈴木重子(Shigeko Suzuki) |
| Album Title | マイ・ベスト・フレンズ(My Best Friends) |
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