[Song Review #217] "Watermelon" by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Watermelon" by "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra featuring Yukihiro Takahashi".
As you might imagine from the song title ("Watermelon"), this is a light & bouncy pop song good for summer.
The song was written and performed by a team of a popular SKA band "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" and a leading Pop song creator "Yukihiro Takahashi".
"Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra", or "Suka-Para" is an internationally popular 9-piece SKA big band formed in 1989.
"Suka-Para" has been actively collaborating with various musicians since debut.
And this song was also one of the brilliant outcomes of the collaboration done by "Yukihiro Takahashi" and themselves, on "Suka-Para"'s 5th album "Grand Prix".
If you like, please listen to.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Watermelon |
|---|---|
| Artist | Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra |
| Album Title | Grand Prix |
| Catalog Number | ESCB-1591 |
| Track No. | 8 |
| Duration | 5:37 |
| Released | 1995 |
| Publisher | Epic |
| Lyricist | Hiroshi Takano |
| Composer | Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra &Yukihiro Takahashi |
| Arranger | Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra &Yukihiro Takahashi |
About the creators
Hiroshi Takano Lyricist
"Hiroshi Takano", the Lyricist of this song, is a popular singer-songwriter, guitarist, arranger, and music producer active since 1986.
We have posted an article about one of "Hiroshi Takano"'s songs to our blog in the past. And it might give you a brief introduction about himself.
So, if you would like to see some more information about "Hiroshi Takano", please have a look at the article mentioned, by clicking the link below.
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra & Yukihiro TakahashiComposer & Arranger
The composers & arrangers of this song are "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" & "Yukihiro Takahashi".
This is one of the collaborations by themselves.
With respect to "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra", we would like to talk about them in "About the artist" section later, since the group is the main cast for today.
Regarding "Yukihiro Takahashi", we have posted an article about one of his songs in the past. And it might give you a brief introduction about himself.
So, if you are interested in him, please have a look at our past article on "Yukihiro Takahashi", by clicking the link below.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Bright & bouncy
"Watermelon", a song for today, is a comfortable up-tempo tune with light, bright, and joyful sound.
Joyful & sunny
The bass, electric guitar, glockenspiel, percussions (tambourine), Clavinet, twin drums by "Tatsuyuki Aoki" & "Yukihiro Takahashi", and an groovy horn section begin a joyful & sunny introduction, then main part starts.
In the main section, an acoustic sound of the piano, and a clear backing chorus accompany a slightly wistful vocal of "Yukihiro Takahashi".
Yukihiro melody
A bright, sunny, and rhythmic atmosphere of this song sounds to us like a typical melody of "Yukihiro Takahashi", than a song of "Suka-para".
Even so, a backing ensemble by "Suka-para" is simply great, and is supporting "Yukihiro"'s performance perfectly.
Reference
Google translate(en)
Wikipedia JP, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
About Google translate
About the artist
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra A powerful Japanese Ska band
"Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" (or Suka-Para) is a Japanese, 9-piece, all male, SKA big band formed in 1989. (Initiated in 1985 by a unique percussionist "Asa-chang".)
As a pioneer & leader of the Japanese SKA music, "Suka-Para" has developed the category, and keeps on energising it for being an exciting place.
The group is already internationally popular, and has been one of the bands represents Japanese music scene.
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra debuted in 1990 with a single, "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Suka-Para TōJō (Monster Rock(". Since then, 47 singles, and 23 studio, 4 mini, 5 live, and 5 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra)
Early times
According to some references on the internet, a professional percussionist "Asa-chang" conceived an idea in 1985, to form a nostalgic, big-band style band, but performs "SKA" music instead of Jazz.
They say that "Asa-Chang" also came up with an excellent band name "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" at this time.
"Asa-Chang" began to gather new members one by one. And in parallel, "Asa-Chang" and members performed a guerilla street live over and over in various places.
Their thrilling & high-level performance attracted the audience. And the band gradually gained popularity and fans.
By mid 1989, the band successfully collected 10 members.
Then, in November the same year, the group released their first album "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" at last from an indies label.
"Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" or "Ska-para" seems to have had momentum.
In April 1990, the band finally released their first single "Monster Rock" from Epic Sony, in other words, a major label.
And in May 1990, the first album, "Suka-Para Tōjō" (Advent of Suka-Para) was launched from the same label.
Surprisingly, the album was ranked 10th on the hit charts, even it was just a debut album, and an instrumental album which usually sell far less than the albums with vocal.
Nippon Budō-kan
What's amazing with this band was the fact that they successfully packed one of the Japan's biggest concert venue "Nippon Budō-kan" with 10,000 audiences in 1991, in other words, that was just the second year of their debut.
At the point of the early '90s, "Nippon Budō-kan" was a "Goal", "Target" or "Just a dream" for the vast majority of musicians, as the place to hold a concert.
Because "Budō-kan", which accommodates some 10,000 audience, was one of the biggest concert hall in Japan at that time, and only big-name musicians could book this place to hold their concerts.
Therefore, to use "Budō-kan" was a real status for musicians and bands around that time. (Now, there are few more bigger stadium or arena available for music concerts.)
"Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" had been focusing on live performances since they formed a group.
They performed a really enjoyable, groovy, and exciting concert every time, and gained a little bit of fans and popularities fairly rapidly.
Then, we presume those efforts and their unusual power of performance enabled them to hold a concert at such a high-status hall so quickly.
Members
Current & Ex members of "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" are as follows.
Current
- Trumpet
- NARGO
- Trombone
- Masahiko Kitahara
- Tenor Saxophone
- GAMO
- Baritone saxophone
- Atsushi Yanaka
- Keyboard
- Yūichi Oki
- Bass
- Tsuyoshi Kawakami
- Guitar
- Takashi Katō
- Percussions
- Hajime Ōmori
- Drums, Vocal
- Kin-Ichi Motegi
EX
- Soprano Sax, Flute
- Yūhei Takeuchi
- Guitar
- Masayuki Hayashi
- Band master, Percussions
- Asa-chang
- Frontman, Vocal
- Cleanhead Gimura
- Guitar
- Tōru Terashi
- Vocal
- Rui Sugimura
- Drums
- Tatsuyuki Aoki
- Alto saxophone, Agitator
- Tatsuyuki Hiyamuta
GRAND PRIX
"Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" successfully established their name as a professional instrumental band featuring SKA, and able to deliver really enjoyable time to the audience.
On the other hand, "Ska-para" was not yet totally a house hold name, since they were still an instrumental band, and therefore the main stream pop music fans, who listens to vocal songs most, did not know their name yet.
Then in 1995, "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" released a new concept album "GRAND PRIX" as their 5th album.
On this album, "Suka-para" performed more vocal Pop songs, by collaborating with a leading Pop song creators like, "Sayuri Ishikawa", "Misty Oldland", "Steve Etoh" or "Yukihiro Takahashi".
Those songs were catchy enough, and a few of TV advertising and Variety shows used them as them as jingles or opening & closing themes.
Resultantly, this album caught the popular fancy, and contributed to make "Suka-para" more famous.
"Suka-para" took a similar approach in 2001 as well. They invited prominent vocalists from outside, and asked them to sing their songs.
Then they began to launch those songs as a "Vocal song" series.
"Suka-para" collaborated with three vocalists on these three songs.
Namely,
- "Mekureta Orange" feat. "Takao Tajima"
- (A partially peeled orange)
- "Canary naku sora" feat. Yusuke Chiba
- (A canary is singing in the sky.)
- "Utsukushiku Moeru Mori" feat. Tamio Okuda
- (A beautifully flaming up forest)
"Suka-para" released each songs as their singles. And all of them became a smash hit.
And by good fortune, their 9th album "Stompin' On Down Beat Alley", which contained above three songs, finally topped the charts for the first time in their history.
Luckily, "Suka-para" became a house hold name by this success.
No Border (International)
"Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" has been committed to perform powerful & enjoyable concert since debut, and holding many concerts every year in all over Japan.
They are also keen to have concerts in overseas as well, and often visits overseas for tour, under their slogan "No Border" since mid '90s.
Since 2000, they have started Europe and South America tour as well, and as a result, the members of "Suka-Para" have visited more than 30 countries to perform in concerts.
Fortunately, "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" won popularities for their music and performance in overseas as well.
And successfully established their name as one of the excellent Japanese Ska bands.
"Suka-para" has also participated in big, or high-status international music events like,
- Glastonbury Festival (UK)
- Eurockéennes (FR)
- Montreux Jazz Festival (CH)
- Vive Latino (MX)
- Lollapalooza Chile (CL)
- Pal Norte (MX)
- Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (US)
- SXSW (South by Southwest) (US)
etc, etc.
Like this way, "Suka-para" is actively performing cool Ska music in all over the world now.
Keep rolling
In 2019, "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" celebrated the 30th anniversary of their debut.
Now, "Ska-para" is one of the most popular, and established Pop & instrumental group.
But according to some references, the band has experienced major turmoil at least several times in its history.
In 1993, the band master "Asa-chang", who was also a percussionist & originator of the band, suggested the break-up of the band to the members, since he was feeling that the band completed its original purpose.
But the other members did not agree with his suggestion, since the band was already fairy popular among music fans, and the members had a strong sense of attachment and passion to "Ska-para".
For that reasons, members chose to continue the band that break-up, and as a result, "Asa-chang" left from the band.
Or in 1995, the band frontman, vocalist, and emotional pillar "Clean-head Gimura" passed away due to illness.
The band again experienced a testing time, but they decided to have a new member, and continued the band.
In this way, "Ska-para" faced a testing time fairly regularly.
But they overcome challenges as they arose, and have made the band what it is today.
So, the members seem to think that "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" is a band too precious to loose from any point of view, and it seems to have been a consensus among the members of "Ska-para".
Members are enjoying playing in "Ska-para", and therefore, they have a passion keep "Ska-para" always interesting and attractive.
That might be the most important driving force of the band to Keep "Ska-para" rolling, we imagine.
Recent
In 2019, "Ska-para" celebrated the 30th anniversary of their debut.
For commemorating the anniversary, the band released a new 3CD album, "TOKYO SKA TREASURES - The best of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra".
And also held several anniversary concerts.
And in 2022, "Ska-para" seems to have scheduled more that 30 concerts across Japan under the tour title "BEST OF LUCK".
Fans were waiting this news since many concerts were cancelled in the last two years because of that.
References
For more details about "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra", please have a look at the references linked below.
-
(Ref: https://www.tokyoska.net,
profile)🇯🇵 -
(Ref: sonymusic.co.jp,
puffytokyoska/interview)🇯🇵
Video clip
A music clip of today's song seems to be available at Youtube.com.
Please search for it by using song title (Watermelon), and the name of performer (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra) as query words.
(We cannot put a link to it here, due to copyright concerns. Sorry.)
Instead of that, we would like to introduce a nice music clip of "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" titled "Great Conjunction 2020".
(Included in their recent album "SKA=ALMIGHTY" [2021])
This is an electrifying instrumental track of "Suka-Para", and we imagine that you can find the excellent playing skills of the members, and a beautiful groove of the band from this tune.
If you like, please listen to.
Music Samples
8
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
music.apple.com (Track No.8)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Watermelon |
|---|---|
| Artist | 東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ(Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra) |
| Album Title | Grand Prix |
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