Maki Asakawa - My Man (1982)
マイ・マン [限定盤] / 浅川マキ

Label: Express / Universal Music
Catalog #: TOCT-27073
Format: CD, Album
Country: Japan
CD Released: 2011/06/15
Total Time: 00:38:09
Genre: Folk, Jazz, Blues

BIO

Maki Asakawa, born in 1942 in Ishikawa, Japan, was a japanese female jazz and blues singer, lyricist and composer. She sang at US Army bases in Japan before getting her big break in a series of concerts. Maki’s first album was recorded and released in September 1970. It came into being after an alliance with enfant terrible of the Japanese avant-garde Terayama Shuji (of Tenjosajiki fame).
Maki’s black clad and sugarless, petroleum dark coffee voice gets set against a folk-avant-jazz and psych backing. Between the tracks of each song, the listener gets treated to some filed recording like musique concrete insertions, that augment the overall atmospheric quality of this late night alcohol and nicotine stained recording. Stunningly fantastic female vocals and utterly rare.
Becoming popular in the 1970s, she made more than 30 releases by the end of the 1990s, after which she was mostly known for performing live. She collaborated with musicians such as Yosuke Yamashita and Ryuichi Sakamoto. In addition to writing and composing, she also released cover versions of US traditional folk and blues, translated to Japanese, such as “Asahi ni ataru Ie” (“The house of the Rising Sun”).
She continued performing live until the time of her death. Asakawa Maki was found unconscious in a Nagoya hotel room on the evening of Sunday , January 17, 2010 and declared dead on arrival at a local hospital,according to Aichi prefectural police, the cause of death was acute heart failure. She was 67. She had performed as scheduled the night before and was found in her room shortly before she was due on stage for the last of three nights.

REVIEW

Cardboard sleeve reissue from Maki Asakawa. Part of a 14-album Maki Asakawa cardboard sleeve reissue series featuring albums "ONE," "My Man," "Cat Nap," "Who's Knocking On My Door," "Maboroshi no Otokotachi," "Maki Asakawa Best (Selected by Maki)," "SOME YEARS PARST," "Chotto Nagai Kankei no Blues," "America no Yoru," "Koboreru Kin no Suna," "UNDERGROUND," "Maboroshi no Onnatachi," "Nothing at all to lose," and "Futo Aruyoru Ikimono mitai ni Aruite irunode Ensokatachi no OK wo Moratta."

浅川マキの紙ジャケリイシュー、第2弾! 80年代のアルバム14タイトルを一挙リリース! 過去発表された作品の再録音が半数を占め、また本多俊之、渋谷毅、川端民生ら、盟友のミュージシャンたちとレコーディングされた、これまでの軌跡を色濃く反映した13枚目のアルバム。(オリジナル発売日: 1982年2年21日)

TRACKLIST:

01. マイ・マン / My Man (4:01)
02. 港町 / Minatomachi (6:07)
03. ちょっと長い関係のブルース / Chotto Nagai Kankei No Blues (3:48)
04. 貧乏な暮し / Binbou Na Kurash (4:08)
05. グッド・バイ / Good Bye (5:20)
06. ふたりの女のうた / Futari No Onna No Uta (2:55)
07. 今夜はおしまい / Konya Ha Oshimai (2:26)
08. 夜 / Yoru (5:38)
09. ロンサム・ロード / The Lonesome Road (3:46)