GOT THAT SWING
Japanese pop singer Juju returns to jazz with a third album dedicated to the genre. By KEVIN MA
JAPANESE SINGER JUJU – real name Jun Sonoda – is best known for her hit ballads and R&B songs, but her first love has always been jazz. She is so enamoured of the genre that her stage name comes from an album by saxophonist Wayne Shorter.
In 2011, the singer pursued this passion by releasing a jazz album, Delicious, which featured a mix of original compositions, covers of jazz standards and classic tunes given jazzy arrangements. It was by no means an unusual move for Japanese pop singers to venture into jazz – even Aki Yashiro, a legend who sang in the traditional Japanese style enka, has released two jazz cover albums – but Delicious
had a certain fun factor in its cross-genre experiments. She followed it up with
Delicious: Juju’s Jazz 2nd Dish in 2013.
Last year she did it again, releasing a third jazz album. It has the same producer, Kiyoshi Matsuo, as the first two Delicious
albums, and serves up another collection of jazzy covers, bookended by two original compositions. In addition to jazz standards such as I Didn’t Know What Time It Was and
Black Coffee – both previously performed by Juju’s idol, Sarah Vaughan – the album also includes covers of classics Walk On By, What a Wonderful World and My Favourite Things, all songs you might see performed in a classy Tokyo lounge.
The most interesting cover is the bluesy reinterpretation of Sting’s Englishman in New York, a duet featuring Japanese R&B pioneer Toshinobu Kubota. The song has already been covered umpteen times over the past three decades, but Kubota’s soulful voice elevates the material to new heights and makes me wish he would do a cover album of his own.
But of course the star of Delicious is Juju herself. The singer has a sultry voice that evolves along with the melodies she sings. It’s easy to hear joy and passion as she soars through the final verse of New York New York or navigates My Favourite Things in playful staccato. As an elegantly produced and enjoyable take on a familiar formula, the Delicious series proves to be more than just another vanity project.