Naomi Chiaki
Three Hundred Club
Invitation (Japan) 1982
VIH-28089 (LP) w/obi, insert.
sleeve : NM-
media : EX/EX(some slightly noises. some very slightly hairlines that does not affect to sounds.)
One of Japan’s most iconic female singers, Naomi Chiaki, rose to fame in the early 1970s with her dramatic kayō hits such as Kassai, Gekijō, and Yakan Hikō. Even after that golden era, she continued to explore various musical styles, delivering numerous remarkable vocal performances before taking a hiatus from music in 1992. This album, released in 1982 as her second work after transferring to Victor, features American standard songs with Japanese lyrics. Highlights include B1, a Broadway number composed by George Gershwin, reimagined as an upbeat Brazilian arrangement; B2, a song famously sung by Nat King Cole, transformed into a relaxed calypso rhythm; and B5, one of Billie Holiday’s signature jazz standards, given a mellow Latin fusion treatment. With superb arrangements by Kan Ogasawara and Nobuo Kurata, perfectly complementing Chiaki’s ethereal vocals, this urban and sophisticated album is a highly recommended masterpiece.