Folks who have been reading my work for any length of time know I’m fond of Japan. Not only are they now a great ally to the United States (which my WW2-generation father and uncles found bemusing), but it’s a great place to visit: Clean, safe, the people are polite, the food and booze are fantastic. You can walk down dark alleys at 2:00 AM on a Saturday in Tokyo with 100,000-yen notes hanging out of your pockets, and nobody will bother you, not even if you’re a gaijin.
Another cool thing is the nightlife in places like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Sendai, those being the cities I’m most familiar with. You can hear a lot of great live music in Japan, and if you’re into a kind of hybrid of jazz and funk, you might enjoy the band Tokyo Groove Jyoshi. It doesn’t hurt that all the members are, frankly, attractive young women.
Their website describes the band (reproduced in the original, with the original wording, capitalization and so forth):
Tokyo Groove Jyoshi (TGJ) is an All Female Jazz/Funk Groove band formed in 2018 in Tokyo by their producer Koichi Kaneko (Neko) consisting of Top Japanese session Musicians. The band’s current lineup is Emi Kanazashi (keyboards/vocals), MiMi Kawakami (drums /vocals) and Rina Hoshino (bass/vocals). This threesome powerhouse has been a cohesive unit since Sept 2020 producing a unique groove/funk sound with their originals.
TGJ strives to be a powerful groove band with music beyond the generations, genders and genres.
Here are six songs by this lively and talented group that I liked best.
What Is Hip?: This take on an old jazz hit from Tower of Power (another band I have to work up a post about one day) features a really grooving performance by guest artist Shinobu Kawashima playing a traditional Japanese Shamisen. It’s a really neat combination of old and new, modern and traditional.
Read More: Start Your Weekend Right With Six Great Tunes by Japanese Singer Yuko Suzuhana
Time After Time: A cover of a Cyndi Lauper song from 1983. Cyndi Lauper actually did this piece beautifully; it was one of the first songs where she gave up the screechy “Girls Just Wanna Have Gun” voice for some serious vocals, and that’s when we realized what a lovely voice she really had. In this rendering, Tokyo Groove Jyoshi and gigabarTOKYO, featuring vocals by Yoshie, they really do this tune with full credit.
Hot Summer: A neat, jazzy, fast-stepping tune, this one is a toe-tapper, even for an older guy like me who hasn’t shaken up a dance floor in several decades. This rendition, sung in English, paints a vivid picture of a gal left by her fella, in the middle of a hot summer – and they have plenty of hot summers in Japan, and that’s for sure and for certain.Read More: Start Your Weekend Right With 5 Great Musical Laments
Liquid Sunshine: This is as smooth as butter. The guest guitarist, カワコウ (Kawakoh) has a smooth, quick-stepping style that almost puts one in mind of the later years of Jerry Garcia’s career. And the sax player, Harumo Imai, makes the song almost glow.
Tell Me Something Good: This seems an odd cover for a Japanese jazz band, but remember, Tokyo Groove Jyoshi describes themselves as jazz and funk, and this is where they pick up the funk side. Covering this old Rufus/Chaka Kahn tune from 1973, Emi Kanazashi delivers the English vocals flawlessly, in a deep, rich tone that’s a tad unusual among Japanese female vocalists.
Dance To The Music: Another cover on the funk side of the spectrum; this was originally done in 1967 by Sly and the Family Stone, and this song was at the very beginning of where American bands started leaning into the dark, dark time in the American music industry that we called “disco.” But Tokyo Groove Jyoshi put on their funk shoes for this one; I actually like it a lot better than the original.Funk Spirit: One bonus I couldn’t leave out, a fun, quick instrumental piece. More great, almost liquid saxophone work, great keyboards. I’m pretty sure I heard this tune emanating from a tiny neighborhood bar in Shinjuku one Saturday night, but those tiny bars are crowded even for Japanese people, much less a big, broad-beamed gaijin, so I had to listen from the sidewalk.This is one of the reasons that I still love Japan, and while now, at my age, I’m not as into the nightlife as I once was, if I find myself in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, or Sendai, even now, I know of a few places to hit for great live music, cold beer, and good company. A fella really can’t ask much more from a city.
If you get a chance, check out some more of Tokyo Groove Jyoshi’s work here, and let us know which tunes you liked best – as always, the comments are all yours!
