John Book wrote:
> Anyone familiar with bird? When I got Mondo Grosso's
> MG4, hearing "Life" was the first time I had heard her
> sing, and I want to hear more.
I concur with a previous post on this. Indeed she's not a Port of
Notes, but she exemplary of some of the top talents out there, Japanese
or otherwise - no surprise some of the most highly regarded veteran
artists are from Japan, which is always nurturing young musicians with
creativity minded areas like Club ROOM, thus continuing the cycle of
pioneering output.
bird composes a couple of her own tracks, and does a lot of the
writing. Take the whole package, and you've got a well-rounded, true
musician. She's no Sarah Vaughn. And she's certainly no Monday Michiru
- who is? - , who's flights above Vaughn, McCrae, and whomever you may
namecheck. So rather than comparing to only vocal legends, dead or
alive, place her with the rest of the current selection of young artists
in the globe - Japan, UK, USA - and bird needn't worry 'bout where she
stands.
Osawa Shinichi produced her 1st 2 albums, and composed most of the
matierial. Her first album, 'bird,' is the best place to start. It's
got a focus and delivers on it, whereas, 'MindTravel,' is more about
individual selections. 'bird' is more jazzy, and 'MindTravel' is
notably more on the dancefloor beat and feeds on some of MJ Cole's
stylish 2-step stylings, as Osawa and Cole DJ'd together in 2000.
Monday Michiru handled some of the vocal and backing vocal arrangements
on album #1. Now, she's still on Sony, but she will no longer be
produced by Osawa-san as she explains that she wants to try out
different sounds; and Osawa's already given her a wide range of genre
picking. All the Maxi-Singles are worth getting of course. These
aren't filled with half-ass remixes: Osawa's hooked her up with London
Elektricity, MJ Cole, Nozaki Ryota, Osawa does some fine remixes, and
MAW/Vega. However the Nuyorican and or MAW remixes aren't much for
brain exercise, the others play very well with new rhythms, juxtaposing
tons poly-rhythms, and bringing in everything from drum n' bass to
Brazilian beats.
Live, she's not as vocally fluid as on record but with her years of
gigging in jazz joints, she's able to hold up well, with her full band
or just acoustic guitar.
And the Mermaid 3000 track is as XLR8R noted, a solid track. MG4 is far
from being a 2-step album, same is true of 'MindTravel.' You have few
names more versatile than Osawa Shinichi - producer, composer (hey,
yeah, someone's got some actual instrumental and theory knowledge, so he
operates the board as well as he does playin the bass or sending of
sheets of Original music to artists), arranger, DJ, remixer, musician.
Unlike so many who tell others to play this or sample this and that,
Osawa plays the stuff (everyone's getting lazy these days) and composes
it so the Osawa production imprint says much more than say a MAW
producing Nuyorican Soul; you don't have a record without someone
creating the music. There's where the real 'music-maker' sits.
-- w I'm very leery. If they have thirteen ho's with no clothes on in their video and they're there pouring champagne, that's not someone I can really see myself having any kind of wholesome relationship with. The video test is a good barometer. I want people around me that have good hearts. [RollingStone 01.08, Alicia Keys]
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