Hirofumi Banba - "Coast" (1980)

In my last post, I briefly referenced the mutation of Japanese rock music from a largely Western-imported genre into what eventually becomes city pop. This glosses over much of the story about the evolution of Western-influenced music in modern Japanese history, which will require much more dissection in a series of future articles. Largely, this hinges on a tension between the Japanese folk music scene and the burgeoning 1960s rock and roll scene; the folk scene taking largely from Japanese traditional music and producing music sung mainly in Japanese, and the rock and roll scene being considered, perhaps derisively, an imitation of British and American rock and roll, with songs sung in English. 

This all changes in 1970, as the band Happy End released their debut album (roughly speaking, a folk-rock album) that combined Western rock and roll with Japanese lyrics. The release of Happy End's album sparked a controversy in Japan surrounding the sustainability of a Western musical genre being merged with the Japanese language. The "Japanese Language Rock Controversy" (日本語ロック論争, Nihongo Rokku Ronsō) ultimately ushers in a new era of Japanese music: the blending of East and West. This will be covered in detail in the near future, but it sets the stage for today's subject: Hirofumi Banba.

Banba began as a folk singer, and his first band, Banban, was formed in 1971. They achieved minor success throughout the early 1970s following largely in Happy End's tracks, musically. Banban's 1975 minor hit, "Ichigo Hakusho wo Mou Ichido," presents Banba's musical direction in exactly this way.

After the breakup of Banban, Banba branched off into the poppier sounds, incorporating even more Western influence into his music, such as on his 1978 album with the band Hot Stuff and in his million-selling single "Sachiko."

One can hear some of the semblances of yacht rock beginning to form in Hot Stuff's "Feels So Good." A Doobie Bounce even appears on his 1979 song "Good Luck Mademoiselle," which, once again, incorporates yacht rock feeder-genres like disco and R&B into Banba's repertoire, furthering the establishment of many of these musical inspirations into the nascent city pop.

Banba, for his 1980 album Coast, headed out to Los Angeles. He recorded Coast at Pasha Music House in L.A., in May of 1980, over half a year before parts of Al Jarreau's landmark album Breakin' Away were recorded there.

Promotional photo for Coast, showing Banba in L.A. Courtesy of Yahoo! Auctions.

 

Coast is filled to the brim with yacht rock cred. Guitarists in addition to Banba include "Peg" soloist extraordinaire Jay Graydon and former Little Feat guitarist/Nicolette Larson collaborator Paul Barrere.

Barrere's former bandmate, Kenny Gradney, provides the bass guitar for the album; Rick Shlosser and Mark Jordan, two other frequent Nicolette Larson collaborators (who we touched upon for their contributions to Larson's "Isn't It Always Love) play drums and keyboards.

Multi-instrumentalist and quasi-member of Steely Dan (perhaps the only person besides Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to appear on every album in Steely Dan's original run) Victor Feldman appears here as a percussionist. Synthesizers were programmed and played by Michael Boddicker, the same year he provided the synthesizers for George Benson's "Give Me the Night" (83.75) and a few months before he appears all over the aforementioned Breakin' Away by Al Jarreau.

Frequent horn player Ernie Watts provides flute and saxophone on three of the album's songs, giving an Eastern-mysticism vibe to parts of "Car Radio," a song built around what might be called an Eastern inversion of a Doobie Bounce. The conductor of the disco-esque string arrangement is William Kurasch, who had previously contributed violin to Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Back on the Road" (56.75).

Two other songs from the album that may in fact qualify as close to the boat — or indeed on it — are the title track, "Coast," and "Welcome to My Love," which contains backing vocals from Nicolette Larson.

As always, one can find certified yacht rock at Yacht or Nyacht.