Dig Deep: Jun Mayuzumi – Angel Love – Capitol (1968)

Jun Mayuzumi – Black Room
Jun Mayuzumi – Miracle
Jun Mayuzumi – Answer To Me
Jun Mayuzumi – Yagi-Bushi

I’m not entirely sure where or how I first heard the sounds of Jun Mayuzumi. I thought it might have been from the Nippon Girls collection, but that wasn’t put out until 2009 and I’m pretty sure I must have at least heard this while I was still living in the Bay Area on KALX Berkeley (probably due to Mathew Africa…R.I.P.).

I do know for sure the moment I freaked out for the song and had to get a copy. I’ve actually mentioned it here already, back in 2010, thanks to Scott Craig at the old Records LA spot. “Black Room” is quite possibly the greatest dancefloor filler, break-beat champion sound to have ever been released out of Japan and its one of my top five favorite songs to dance too (which I was reminded of this past weekend when Soul Marcosa dropped it in his set, followed by Los Kifers “El Sol Es Una Droga,” almost resulting in murder on the Funky Sole dance floor at the Echo). It’s got the great drums courtesy of Akira Ishikawa, big heavy bass lines, snappy horns and this fantastic long call “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” from Jun with the drums only behind her at the start of most verses. Just a brilliant, brilliant tune.

A couple years ago, I found out that in addition to the 45, the song, along with 13 other tracks, was featured on this album from Mayuzumi, released in 1968 (I think, since I don’t read, speak or write Japanese). Most of these songs are also featured on 45s from Mayuzumi, and so instead of spending a small fortune tracking all of them down individually, I got this one as a birthday gift to myself. From what I can tell the cover of the record depicts Mayuzumi winning the Japan Record Award in 1968, sort of the equivalent of the Grammy’s here in the States. The same group that backs her on “Black Room” is featured on every track and while half of the songs are slower pop ballads, things still get soulful and funky just about everywhere else. There isn’t a lot of information on Jun in English on the interwebs, I know she also did a fair amount of acting, but not much more than that. One day hopefully I’ll be able to add her story here, but until then let’s just be thankful for the tunes.

Cheers,

Michael