[Calm & acoustic]
No.226 "Tiny Tail (Bossa Ver.)" by Mami Horie
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Tiny Tail(Bossa Nova Ver.)" by "Mami Horie".
"Tiny Tail (Bossa Nova Ver.)" is a calm and elegant acoustic vocal Jazz, featuring the acoustic piano self accompaniment by the singer "Mami Horie".
"Mami Horie" is a long active Jazz pianist & vocalist who are known by those in the know, but really nice.
Actually, we were not really aware of the fact that this song was Jazz arranged version of a game music until we compose this post.
So, Anime & Gaming songs are already an indispensably important fields now for Japanese Pops and Jazz. We recognizes again.
If you like, please listen to.
By the way, the song title "Tiny Tail" must be "Tiny Tale" as long as we see, since its lyrics does not refer to any "tails", but tale.
But the track has been titled as "Tiny Tail" since the first release, so we would like to leave it as it is.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
Some contents have been put away in tabs with "▶" mark in each section, so please click it to see.
Notice
As announced in the separate note, we are sorry but we have to tentatively stop updating this blog, since our writer "Satusma" has no time to compose a blog post at the moment, because of his work.
He is now assessing when he can resume writing, but we presume he might have to leave from writing at least for next 3 months.
We are sorry for this sudden announcement, since we were not expecting this either.
We will sound off the restart on this site, (and Mastodon) once we are ready.
So, please allow us (and him) to take some time to prepare for restart.
Sorry again for our short notice this time.
Thank you.
Cover art today
Hanashirube – Atelier series arrange vocal album Feat. Mami Horie Vol.2
(Digital music, Amazon.co.jp)
Mami Horie, 2012.
Song data
| Title | Tiny Tail(Bossa Nova Ver.) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Mami Horie |
| Album Title | Hanashirube – Atelier series arrange vocal album Feat. Mami Horie Vol.2 |
| Catalog Number | GUSTCD-10006 |
| Track No. | 4 |
| Duration | 5:02 |
| Released | 2012 |
| Publisher | GUST incorporated |
| Lyricist | Kanae Aoki Mami Horie |
| Composer | Daisuke Achiwa |
| Arranger | Mami Horie |
About the creators
Kanae Aoki, Mami HorieLyricist
The Lyricists of this song are "Kanae Aoki" and "Mami Horie".
Among those, "Mami Horie" is also the singer of this song, and therefore we are going to come back to her in "About the artist" section later.
And actually, "Kanae Aoki" is an alias of "Daisuke Achiwa" who composed the melody of this song.
So, we would like to introduce him little in the "Composer" section coming up next.
Daisuke Achiwa Composer
"Daisuke Achiwa" is the composer of this song. He also has written the lyrics as well in one of his alias "Kanae Aoki".
Until 2012, "Achiwa" was a domestic songwriter at a game creating & distributing company "GUST CO.,LTD.", which has been famed with its "Atelier" Roll Playing game series.
And now, he has been an independent songwriter & arranger, and is writing songs for various games or anime films since he left the company.
Biography ?
As referred, "Daisuke Achiwa" is a composer, arranger, and lyricist active since the mid '90s.
Until 2012, He had been one of the domestic music creative staff of a computer game creating company "Gust". And therefore, his creative works had been almost solely employed in their game products.
So, his name was only only appearing in their game series.
Maybe for that reason, their are not much information about his biography.
So, we would like top place links to Wikepedia & discogs in "Reference" section just below.
So, if you like, please have a look.
We will update the section if we find any new references.
References
Mami Horie Arranger
The arranger, "Mami Horie" is also the singer of this song, so we would like to come back to her in "About the artist" section later.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Calm & acoustic
This is a calm, elegant, and acoustic Bossa Nova song in moderate tempo.
Breezy & relaxed
The acoustic piano, classic guitar, wood bass, conga drum, shaker, Cuíca, string synthesizer, and whistle begin a breezy & relaxed Bossa Nova introduction, and the main part starts.
The pianist of this tune is "Mami Horie" herself, and fine piano solo and her scat is coming up in the bridge.
Pitch and rhythm is somewhat slightly unstable on the vocal of "Mami Horie", but it already has been a character of her as a Jazz singer after a long period of time.
(So, it is mysterious, because the rhythm keeping in the piano is perfect.)
About the artist
Mami HorieExceptional Jazz singer
"Mami Horie" is a Jazz singer, pianist, songwriter, and arranger active since 1979.
"Horie" is knowns as a unique Jazz singer since the early '80s, particularly in the Standard Jazz category, while she had been collaborating with the big band Orchestras like "Toshio Mori & Blue Coats", or "New Sonic Orchestra", or, the prominent Jazz musicians like "Eiji Kitamura" (cl), or "Yuzuru Sera" (pf).
And her recent creative works in RPG game "Atelier" series, which we are introducing today, are also well known.
Mami Horie debuted in 1979 with a single, "Loving you". Since then, 1 single, and 15(?) original, and 1 best album have been released until now.
(Ref: www.momojazz.net, Mami Horie)
Moonlight suite Mami Horie [2015] [New CD]
Early times
According to some references, "Mami Horie" started to learn music by receiving lessons on the "Koto" (Japanese harp, Ikuta school) & traditional Japanese music from her mother in her childhood.
She also began to study the acoustic piano in this period, but it was a self-teaching as saying by her.
In high school, when she was sixteen, "Horie" joined a local Jazz band in her home town where was in Shikoku island, and started her career as a professional musician.
And at the same time, she voluntarily dropped out from high school.
While she was playing music as a brand new Jazz musician, a prominent musician named "Pedro Umemura" (of Pedro&Capricious) from Tokyo found her talent, and suggested her to go up to Tokyo.
After a while, "Horie" accepted his offer, and decide to come to Tokyo.
And she began to sing in various Jazz clubs in the capital city.
Debut
An excellent performance of "Horie" caused a buzz particularly among the people in entertainment business.
"Horie" received many offers from agencies and record companies.
And already in 1979, the debut of "Horie" was scheduled by a recording label.
The debut song provide for her was a lovely urban Pop tune "Loving you".
The lyricist of the song was "Machiko Ryū", and the composer was "Tatsurō Yamahsita" who both were brilliant, and the most popular creators at that time.
And on top of that, the backing musicians were the members of "Prism" which was also one of the most popular, and powerful Fusion instrumental group.
As a natural consequence for hiring those super creators, "Horie"'s debut song "Loving you" became an incredibly fine, stylish urban Pops in the world of the late '70s Japan.
And this was clearly proving the commitment of the recording label.
However, "Horie" was getting slight awkward feeling for this nicest tune, since she was believing that her ultimate direction would be Standard Jazz in the end, and not like this song.
Surprisingly, she decided to resign the label she had contracted, just after the release of her debut single.
This had an enough impact for popular music industry to shun "Horie". And she began to go underground for now for starting her own Jazz life.
By the way, her debut song "Loving you" have been very well known by Light & mellow fans in Japan because of the stylishness of the song.
But because of such complication, "Loving you" had not been available for a long time until recent.
But in 2014, this fine & rare tune "Loving you" was finally digitalized for the first time in 35 years, and released as one of the songs in an omnibus album "Light Mellow Avenue" which was launched in 2014.
The album is still available in major online music shops as a CD. (No digital music nor streaming at the moment).
If you like, please check.
You can find the song on Youtube as well. Please search for it by using key words like "Loving you", "Mami Horie".
This is the only CD so far contains "Loving you" by "Mami Horie".
Professional Jazz singer
"Mami Horie" did not chose to be a Pop singer, but decided to pursue the career as a Jazz singer.
After that, she began to sing with piano accompaniment by herself in various Jazz house in down town Tokyo.
While she was singing as a house Jazz singer in several Jazz places, some Jazz musicians again found out her talent, and began to show their interest.
And eventually, she became a front singer to Jazz big bands like "Toshio Mori & Blue Coats" or "Yutaka Toyo'oka & Cuban face", and still is until now.
Work with Dennis Bradford
Since around 1996, "Mami Horie" began to work with an American musician, Dennis Bradford, the former drummer of a famed Fusion instrumental group "The Jeff Lorber Fusion".
"Mami" teamed up a new unit called "Solid Ground" with Dennis, and the group released its first album "Attitude" in 2001.
According to a reference, some commercial advertisings and FM radio program used few tracks from this album.
Gaming music
Since around 2004, "Mami Horie" began to participate in an internationally popular RPG (Roll playing game) series "Atelier Series", produced by a game creating company "Gust Corporation", as a songwriter and singer for back ground music of the games.
She wrote a few songs for the series, and contributed to add some good taste to the series, and gain popularity.
In 2011, Jazz arranged version of the selected BGMs of "Atelier Series" were recorded by "Mami Horie", and released as an album titled "Cadena", by "Gust Corporation".
And in 2012, because of the popularity of the first album, "Gust Corporation" released the second album of the "Jazz arranged version" as vol.2 "Hana-sirube" (seems to be a coined term, but suggesting "flowers functioning as waymarks"), which we are introducing today, also asking "Mami Horie" to be a songwriter, arranger, and singer.
Peggy Hayama
In 2017, one of the most popular, prominent, and revered female Jazz & Pop singer "Peggy Hayama" passed away at the age of 83.
Some like-minded musicians generated an idea to have a memorial concert of "Peggy Hayama", and "Mami Horie" also received a request to take part in, since she was a known follower of "Hayama", as well as a singer shares a home town with Peggy.
"Horie" wished to reproduce the hit songs of "Peggy Hayama" in front of an orchestra, but she needed to have the original scores, which was used by "Peggy Hayama" herself, for that purpose.
"Horie" contacted to the former manager of "Peggy", and asked if she can borrow the original scores of "Peggy Hayama" for her to perform.
But "Horie" had no success at the beginning, since the manager could not remove a reasonable doubt at this stage.
"Horie" continuously talked with the manager, and eventually, she obtained a trust from him.
And some time later, "Horie" received a few box of originals scores of "Hayama" from her manager.
Thanks to those scores, "Horie" successfully performed the hit songs of "Peggy Hayama" like the way "Peggy" was singing in the past.
Since then, "Horie" is occasionally holding memorial concerts of "Peggy Hayama" in various places, by having a support from "Blue coats" Jazz big band orchestra.
Recent
"Horie" seems to be having busy days as a front singer of "Blue coats orchestra", and "Yutaka Toyo'oka & Cuban face".
In December 2022, "Horie" released a new album "Aitakute Aitakute" (I miss you, I wanna see you.) which covers famous old hit songs in Shōwa era.
"Horie" is singing those songs with the piano accompaniment by herself.
Reference
For more details on "Lemon Angel", please have a look at the references linked below.
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a music video of "Mami Horie".
Initially for your information, you can find today's song "Tiny tail" on Youtube, if you search the video by using the keywords like "Tiny tail" and "Mami Horie".
But we would like to refrain from linking to them at here due to the copy right concerns.
Instead of that, we would like to introduce a music video of her concert held in her home town Kōchi in 2022.
On this concert, "Mami Horie" performed in front of a prominent Jazz big band, "The BlueCoats Orchestra". And paid tribute to "Peggy Hayama", who passed a way five years ago, through singing "Hayama"'s well known standards.
Because, "Peggy Hayama" was a Jazz & Pop singer whom "Mami Horie" has a great regard for.
And this video more or less reflects recent music style of "Mami Horie".
If you like, please have a look.
Music Samples
4
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
music.apple.com (Track No.4)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Tiny Tail (Bossa Nova Ver.) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 堀江真美(Mami Horie) |
| Album Title | 花標 アトリエシリーズヴォーカルアルバム Feat.堀江真美 Vol.2(Hanashirube – Atelier series arrange vocal album Feat. Mami Horie Vol.2) |
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