[Laid-back & stylish]
No.237 "Good music wo kikasete" by Wild Flower
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Good Music wo kikasete" (A good music please) by "Wild Flower".
A laid-back, and soul-taste Light & mellow pop song "Good Music wo kikasete" was created and performed by an urban soul group "Wild flower" in 1996 .
Due to its short active period, "Wild flower" has been a band of someone knows in general. But their only album "mooneater" is widely known among the fans of Light & mellow category because of its lovely sound.
If you like, please listen to.
We dare to post this song even we are aware of the non-availability of song samples from music vendors at the moment. Sorry about that.
The reason for that has been written in the section below, so please have a look. Thank you.
No sample
One persistent issue we are having since the beginning of this blog is "unavailability of the song samples".
As a basic rule for ourselves, we are selecting the songs for posts as long as the samples are available through music vendors.
In other words, we have so far not posted songs if we could not find proper samples provided by the music shops.
But we are feeling recently that the availability of such samples are getting less and less in terms of variety and usable period. And it is significant for us since we are not always posting the songs of big-name artists.
Under the circumstances, we would like to take out our self-rule like this now, and allow us to post the songs if we find alternative samples at least on the internet-site like Youtube.
And would like to leave it to the listeners how to access to the samples, if necessary.
Because of many reasons, a lot of good songs have been kept in "Out-of-print" status, and therefore, some music videos on those video sharing sites are only sources for those songs in reality.
So, your strong responses to those songs might wake the management of the record companies up, and possibly push them to reissue those.
Hope this explain the situation.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page. (Not for this week. Sorry.)
Some contents have been put away in tabs with "▶" mark in each section, so please click it to see.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
If you find anything odd, please kindly let us know.
Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Good Music wo kikasete(A good music please) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Wild Flower |
| Album Title | mooneater |
| Catalog Number | FHCF-2312 |
| Track No. | 11 |
| Duration | 5:21 |
| Released | 1996 |
| Publisher | Fun House(Rhythm Suite) |
| Lyricist | Michiko Koyanagi |
| Composer | Kei Matsu'ura |
| Arranger | Kuninori Tamamori |
About the creators
Michiko Koyanagi Lyricist
"Michiko Koyanagi" is a popular song lyricist, and music director, producer active since the mid '90s.
She is known as one of the lyricists who were writing for a boy's pop group "SMAP" which was once nationally popular, but broke up in 2016.
References
For more details on "Michiko Koyanagi", please have a look at the references linked below.
The articles in discogs.com seem to be separated into two parts, namely, lyricist era and business person era.
Kei Matsu'ura Composer
"Kei Matsu'ura" is a composer, arranger, music producer, music instructor, and a member of an Adult contemporary rock group "Terry & Francisco" active since the mid '80s.
References
For more details on "Kei Matsu'ura", please have a look at the references linked below.
Or, please have a look at "About the artist" section in this article, because there is a slight more detailed profile of him.
Kuninori Tamamori Arranger
"Kuninori Tamamori" or "Kuni" is a trumpeter, composer, arranger, music producer, and a member of a 6-piece Jazz Funk instrumental group "Sly Mongoose". active since around the early '90s.
References
For more details on "Kuninori Tamamori", please have a look at the references linked below.
Or, please have a look at "About the artist" section in this article, because there is a slight more detailed profile of him.
-
(Ref: www.kuneye.jp,
profile)🇯🇵 -
(Ref: www.slymongoose.jp,
profile)🇯🇵
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Chill & Stylish
This song seems to be a light & stylish soul taste pop song in laid-back atmosphere.
Unfussy & cool
The semi-acoustic guitar, bass, drums(machine), Rhodes piano, steel pan (maybe synth), and voice begin a laid-back, and jazzy introduction, then the man part starts.
In the main part, the marimba(maybe synth), percussions, and synthesizer also join, and support a cool. relazed. but accurate vocal of "Emiko Nishiyama".
In the bridge, an excellent solo performance by the electric guitar and trumpet appears alternatively.
Musicians
The musicians performed in this song are as follows.
- Vocal, Chorus
- Emiko Nishiyama
- Trumpet
- Kuninori Tamamori
- Electric Guitar
- Masato Ishinari
- Alto Saxophone
- Kazuhiko Kondo
- Tenor Saxophone
- Makoto Oka
- Bass, Rhodes, & All Other Instruments
- Megumi (Kei) Matsuura
About the artist
Wild Flower Urban soul
"Wild Flower" was a 3-piece Pop group focused on Soul & Adult contemporary music, or refined urban light and mellow pops in the mid '90s.
Music style wise, "Wild Flower" was just like one of the preceding models of a later band "JiLL-Decoy association".
But it seems "Wild Flower" appeared a little too early, and therefore they were only active for a little over one year, for that reason, "Wild Flower" has been a pop group of someone knows.
"Wild Flower" debuted in 1996 with a single, "parade". Since then, 2 singles, and 1 original album have been released until now.
(Ref: discogs.com, Wild Flower)
Brief introduction about the group
Due to the short active period of the band, the information about them is scarce on the internet at the moment.
Consequently, we would like to introduce the group by bringing up fragmented topics collected from various sources.
And to set off its shortness, we are also injecting profiles of the members briefly.
A 3-piece urban-soul unit "Wild Flower" was formed in 1996, by three talented musicians, namely "Emiko Nishiyama" (Vo), "Kuninori Tamamori" (Trp), and Kei(Megumi) Matsu'ura (B, KB, and others).
Uniquely, the unit was consisted of Vocal, Bass, and Trumpet. So, the rest of parts like the Keyboards, or drums were played, or programmed by "Matsu'ura". And the guitar was outsourced.
At the point of debut, "Nishiyama" & "Tamamori" were almost rookies as a professional.
Contrastingly, this was the 3rd major debut for "Matsu'ura" [PRISSY TONGUE(NA) - gleeps(1993) - powder(1995) - Wild Flower(1996)], so, we imagine he might take some initiative to design the music and concept of this group.
The sound style of the "Wild Flower" was basically a mixture of Urban soul, Jazz, Electronic, and light &mellow Pops with laid-back & stylish atmosphere.
In spite of such a complicated formula, the produced sound is fairly orthodox & natural, and spot on to ideal style of its kind.
And another notable feature of the group is the level of performance of each members and guest musicians.
All participating members are fairly skilful, and showing excellent performance in the album.
As a proof, all the members involved in this disk became leading studio musicians, or instructor later.
A good performance is adding absolute value to this album, and has been helping to catch the ears of connoisseurs for years since release.
Members
The character of the group seems to arise from the personalties of the three members.
So, we would like to introduce the profiles of each members briefly at here.
- Emiko Nishiyama (Vo)
-
"Emiko Nishiyama" is a vocalist, voice trainer, chorus arranger, and keyboardist active since around the early '90s.
In recent days, she is also known as a leading voice trainer to a shining women idol pop group, "Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku" (Ebisu Private Junior High School).
Some reference explains that "Emiko Nishiyama" began learning the piano when she was three.
It might not be too early if she was a child of a music family (Not known), but still quite an early start.
And thanks to her talent and effort, she surprisingly earned a certification of Piano instructor when she was a senior child at an elementary school.
It seems she was also good at writing music.
"Nishiyama" entered a music composition contest hosted by a leading newspaper company when she was a student of an elementary school. And amazingly, she became a champion.
So, it was natural for "Nishiyama" to begin as amateur musician when she became a high-school student, but unexpectedly as a vocalist.
She continued to learn singing after graduating from high school. And when she was 19 years old, "Nishiyama" happened to know a prominent music producer, and promoter "Moichi Kuwahara", known as an originator of "Snakeman show" project.
"Kuwahara" offered "Nishiyama" to sing songs in a compilation album he was producing at that time.
"Nishiyama" accepted his offer, and this became the first job for her as a professional singer.
Since debut, she began to participate in various recordings as a vocal, or backing vocalist mainly in soul, and urban contemporary field.
And finally in 1996, "Nishiyama" and two other members teamed up a new urban soul band, "Wild flower", and debuted from a major label "Fun house".
After ending the band activity, "Nishiyama" became an independent singer, and worked with various artists on their recordings or concerts as a solo, or backing vocalist.
And after entering the 2000s, "Nishiyama" opened a voice training school of her own in Tokyo, and became a voice trainer by herself.
In 2014, "Nishiyama" was asked to assume the role of a voice trainer to a 10-piece shining top idol group "Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku".
Since "Nishiyama" began to teach, the singing performance and expressiveness of the idol group have been improved dramatically. Naturally, the group earned a reputation as an idol group good at singing.
"Nishiyama" also established her name as a good vocal trainer, and she is still in charge of the idol group "Ebichu" at the point of 2022.
For more details about her, please have a look at references listed below.
(Ref: natalie.mu, Interview to Emiko Nishiyama & Ebichu)
(Ref: www.emikonishiyama.com, Emiko Nishiyama profile)
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Christmas Urban Tunes Various(incl. E. Nishiyama) [2006] [Collector's item]
- Kei Matsu'ura (Bs, Rhodes, Pf, Music programming)
-
"Kei Matsu'ura" is a composer, arranger, music producer, music instructor, and a member of an Adult contemporary rock group "Terry & Francisco" active since 1986.
Some articles on the internet say that "Kei Matsu'ura" was debuted in 1986 as a member of a pop duo, "PRISSY TONGUE".
Regrettably, the group could not last long, then he began to engage himself in various jobs in music until the mid '90s.
Sometime before 1996, the details are not clear but "Matsu'ura" met with two other musicians namely, "Emiko Nishiyama" and "Kuninori Tamamori" in somewhere.
Three of them agreed to form a new urban soul group "Wild flower", and eventually debuted in 1996.
The group launched three singles and one studio album, but they could not create a movement.
And the unique band "Wild flower" came to its end in 1997.
"Matsu'ura" returned to his old job, and maintained an active involvement in music until around 2005.
In 2006, "Matsu'ura" teamed up a new stylish pop duo "TERRY & FRANCISCO" with a new music peer "Terry Fukuyama", and launched their first mini album "TERRY & FRANCISCO".
Since then "TERRY & FRANCISCO" has released two mini albums until now.
And in 2020, the duo launched a best album "Galaxy" contained one newly recoded track.
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Terry & Francisco Terry & Francisco [2006] [Digital music]
- Kuninori Tamamori (Trp)
-
"Kuninori Tamamori" or "Kuni" is a trumpeter, composer, arranger, music producer, and an active member of a Jazz-Funk instrumental group "Sly Mongoose" active since around the early '90s.
According to some references, "Kuni" entered "Berklee College of Music", a reputed music college in Boston, as a scholarship student in 1988.
After graduating from the college, "Kuni" became an assistant to a top trumpeter "Terence Blanchard" in the US, and studied the trumpet further.
Some time later, "Kuni" came back to Japan to begin his career as a musician. And fortunately in 1996, "Kuni" debuted as a member of a 3-piece Soul & urban pop group "Wild flower".
"Kuni" contributed to the group as a skilled trumpeter and an arranger. But the band could not last long, and ended its activity within a little over a year from the beginning.
Since then, "Kuni" began to pursue his music career as a solo musician, and has collaborated with, or participated in various musicians or groups, like "Yukihiro Fukutomi", "Vividblaze", "Coco d'Or", "Roy Davis Jr.", or "Junko Onishi" until now.
In 2009, "Kuni" joined a 6 piece instrumental group "Sly Mongoose", which is chasing a cross-category dance-groove music since 2000, as a trumpeter uses sound effectors effectively.
Afterwards, he is actively participating not only sessions inside the group, but also many derived sessions outside the group as a member of "Sly Mongoose".
In 2013, "Kuni" decided to move to "Ishigaki island" in ."Yaeyama", Okinawa, since the place is actually his hometown.
Since then, he is ardently collaborating with many unique musicians in Okinawa to promote & activate local music scene more.
(Ref: piratsuka.com, Kuninori Tamamori)
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Wrong Colors Sly Mongoose [2011] [Digital music]
"mooneater"
Although the group could not last long, "Wild flower" left a gem like excellent album "mooneater".
We believe it is worth to listen to
If you like, please try.
References
For more details about "Wild Flower", please have a look at the references linked below.
Video clip
As mentioned in "Greeting" section, music vendors do not seem to provide samples for today's song "Good Music wo kikasete" by "Wild flower" at the moment.
As long as we know, you might be able to find some music videos at the site like "Youtube" if you search for words like "Wild flower" & "Good music".
Due to copyright concerns, we will refrain from putting down the links though.
Possibly, you come across to a "Wild flower"'s maxi single "Tsuki to Bench" (The moon and bench) instead of their album "mooneater".
It contains the other version of "Good Music wo kikasete", and it is also pretty nice.
If you like, please listen to, and compare.
Music Samples
No music sample seems to be available from the internet sites of music vendors at the moment. Sorry about that.
We will update once the status has changed.
So, please check the site like Youtube for the music for the time being.
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Good Musicをきかせて(Good Music wo kikasete) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Wild Flower |
| Album Title | Mooneater |
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