With an organically rooted acoustic sound true to the honored form, vocalist Osawa is joined by guitar on all six tracks, with additional wind instruments (sax, flute, harmonica), hand percussion, and occasional backup voices from the band adding call and response dialogue and accents to the music. The songs selected for this album are from four names recognizable as leading songwriters and producers of Brazilian music: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberto Menescal, Milton Nasciemento, and Caetano Veloso. Rio includes two songs each by Jobim and Menescal, and one each by Nasciemento and Veloso.

Starting off the short set is the song “Rio” by Menescal, and the reference to a gentle breeze on the obi sleeve immediately makes itself felt - it’s a comfortable groove from Osawa’s quartet of voice, guitar, sax, and percussion. Next is Jobim’s unmissable “O Morro Não Tem Vez” (“Favela”) with the slick upbeat of a dance feel and a sly smiling expressiveness in the singing.

Track #3 is Veloso’s “Desde Que O Samba É Samba”, with more of that sweet caress of a bossa swing beat. Next is Nascimento’s “Cravo e Canela”, invoking the spirit of a street party taken home to a calmer, controlled after-hours affair where the music doesn’t stop.

Track #5 is Menescal’s “Telefone” played with a vintage bossa feel that breathes with a swinging mod pop-ness, one that would fit nicely as a novelty tune in a humorous scene a la Austin Powers.

Finally, the last track is Jobim’s lovely “Sabiá”, played intimately by Osawa and Yuichiro Hiroaka as a vocals and guitar duet, and the saudade voice of longing and light sadness adds another dimension to the otherwise joyful album.

Obi Notes

やわらかな太陽の光の下で心地よく吹く風にきっと幸福感に包まれる!
ブラジル音楽を愛する大澤理央の待望の1stミニアルバム遂に発売!

Under the sun’s gentle rays and carried by a gentle breeze, you sure to be engulfed in a feeling of happiness!
Finally released, the long-awaited first album from Brazilian music lover Rio Osawa!

Audio and Video

• “Rio” from Rio Osawa: Rio (track #1):

• “O Morro Não Tem Vez” from Rio Osawa: Rio (track #2):

• “Cravo e Canela” (track #4) - live version:

• “Sabia” (track #6) - live version:

• “Corrida de Jangada” - live version:

• Excerpt from track #2: “O Morro Não Tem Vez”

Although this is a slightly older album, Hirota announced recently that this album and her earlier release Flea Circus (2015) were now available on streaming platforms, making this a good time to refresh this short article about the album.

Magical Moonlight is a full release on the shorter side, a quick play-through of eight songs that runs for about 36 minutes. It’s an easy-going affair, a stroll through good old-fashioned sounding jazz. The nostalgia is enhanced by the group’s format, a quartet made up of Hirota on piano, Daisei Mii on violin and viola, Yusuke “Kilin” Sato on bass, and Gen Date on conga/percussion. A fifth musician, guitarist Yuichiro Hiraoka, joins as a special guest on three tracks, adding more close-up tangibility to the group’s grounded sweetness.

The eight songs are arranged by pianist Hirota, and three were composed by her. Overall the songs have a pleasantly throwback feel. Track #1 “Pepe le moko” is a languid start with a Parisian atmosphere that leads to a cute waltz with #2 “Furuhon-ya no Waltz”. #3 “C’est si bon” is that well-known French chanson, and #4 “Doggy Rhumba” is an uptempo rhumba version of Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” (aka “Waltz of the Puppy”).

For track #5, the Japanese min’yō folk song “Tanko Bushi” gets the “Ahmad Jamal ‘Poinciana’” treatment. The old classic #6 “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” is simply cheerful. #7, Hirota’s “Ron Zaca Party” is played like a festive party arising from the wordplay of “Ron Zacapa”, a premium Guatamalan rum. Finally, the last track #8 “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is a sentimental stride piano with a dusty saloon vibe, smoky, sultry, and comfortable.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Yuri Hirota’s original Japanese liner notes.)

Notes on a moonlit walk.

1.Pépé le Moko - Yuri Hirota

A port city in a distant foreign country. A soft serenade can be heard from an alleyway bar. You have a nostalgic scent of Paris about you. I wish we could walk together a little longer. A song from Jean Gabin’s Pépé le Moko, a French classic film that I saw.

2.Furuhon no Waltz (Waltz of the Secondhand Bookstore) - Yuri Hirota

We re-recorded songs from the “Kurofune Lady and the Ginsei Orchestra” [黒船レディと銀星楽団, /a swing-pop-retro band that Yuri Hirota was a member of/] period as instrumentals.

“That book is still half-read
Left behind, sometime, forgotten on a train
Time flows on
The days of my youth are distant and hazy”
— lyrics Fumi Mizubayashi (Kurofune Lady) from Furuhon-ya no Waltz

3.C’est si bon - Henri Betti

It’s soooo wonderful. It’s chanson.

4.Koinu no Rhumba (Doggy Rhumba) - Frédéric Chopin

I throw a ball and they run at full speed to go snatch it. I love the sound of their nails as they grab at the floor. Of course, the original song is a waltz.

5.Tanko Bushi (Coal-miner’s Song) - Japanese Traditional

An homage to Ahmad Jamal, a pianist I love. It seems as if exotic music and Japanese folk songs are compatible.

6.Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall - Doris Fisher

A great song by The Ink Spots, a chorus group active in the 1930s. As long as we live, there are sure to be some rainy days. It’s just a spring rain… So why not get wet?

7.Ron Zaka Party - Yuri Hirota

Dedicated to the great rum from Guatamala. Drink it, and it’ll make you want to stomp your feet in high spirits.

8.Can’t Take My Eyes off of You — Bob Crewe & Bob Gaudio

A killer tune from the 1980s disco era done with a vaudeville arrangement. Don’t skip the shocking finale!

Audio and Video

• Audio for “ぺぺ・ル・モコ”, track #1 on this album:

• Audio for “古本屋のワルツ”, track #2 on this album:

• Full playlist (YouTube)

• Full playlist (Spotify)

• Excerpt from track #5: “炭坑節(Tanko Bushi)”

It’s a simple and sweet affair, a short set of four-to-five-minute songs based around Sakai’s classy, low-key, and easy-to-love delivery. A five-piece band starts strong with track #1 “Stolen Moments”, a combo sound that reappears on the attention-getting track #4 “I’ve Got Just About Everything”. Starting with a rubato vocal/guitar intro, this take then races along and includes a dynamic three-player solo section in the middle, bracketed by Sakai singing in her attractively laid-back, confident yet understated style.

The full band sound is balanced with small duo and trio moments such as on the brisk and good-feeling #2 “You’re My Everything”, where guitarist Hiraoka’s walking bass and chords fingerstyle shines. Elegantly powerful in their quiet simplicity are the romantic ballads #3 “I’ve Got a Crush On You” and the closer #6 “That’s All”, reminding us that sometimes all you need is uncomplicated jazz for a good feeling and a nice atmosphere delivered by great musicians and soothing vocals… that’s all.

(On a tangent, I noticed that Stolen Moments includes some song titles with mild wordplay-adjacent connections for a relatively short album: The two middle song titles start with the same words I’ve Got with #3 “I’ve Got a Crush on You” and #4 “I’ve Got Just About Everything”. Additionally, a different pair of song titles contains the word Everything with #2 “You’re My Everything” and #4 “I’ve Got Just About Everything”. Pure chance, most likely, but I wondered if adding other songs with similar titles could create an interesting concept. Add the standards “I’ve Got the World on a String”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”, “I’ve Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)”, and “I Got Rhythm”. Then for Everything, consider “Everything Happens to Me”, “Everything I Have Is Yours”, “Everything I’ve Got (Belongs to You)”, “Everything I Love”, and Chick Corea’s “You’ve Everything” with its song title already incredibly similar to #2 “You’re My Everything”. Maybe a title for the resulting concept album such as Everything I’ve Got, or I’ve Got Everything, would be the perfect wrapping. But I digress…)

Audio and Video

• Live performance of “You’re My Everything”, track #2 on this album:

• Live performance of “I’ve Got a Crush on You”, track #3 on this album:

• Live performance of “That’s All”, track #6 on this album:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Stolen Moments”

Buoyed by guitar chords and trumpet improvisation, Sakai’s voice emotes cleanly with a strong, whispering texture. She delivers lyrics with a romantic sincerity and gentle confidence, enticing with subtle mystery like a sly wink given with a sweet smile. Each of the songs clocks in at under five minutes and the album is a quick 25-minute play, a pleasurable coffeehouse break or dreamy escape.

Audio and Video

• A live performance of Sakai Layla Tomomi:

• Excerpt from track #4: “whisper not”

Sakai’s deep voice embraces the listener, dancing lightly through bossa novas and Latin-tinged music. The music is comforting, the musicians performing pieces that come and go in an uncomplicated manner, lulling the listener into a state of reassuring comfort. Sakai uses her voice gently yet confidently, producing an effect of sweet directness with an affectionate touch.

Suppressing tense energy and favoring intimacy, the album features vocal/guitar duo arrangements in traditional bossa nova fashion, with additional instruments (piano, saxophone, harmonica) sprinkled in lightly. Several songs feature Sakai singing simply with a guitar and one other instrument: Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Desafinado” and “Once I Loved”, as well as “Negaeri”, a ballad sung in Japanese as a gentle album closer.

While maintaining the calm atmosphere, three songs also feature Sakai singing with a jazz quintet: “Only Trust Your Heart”, “I Remember You”, and “The Island” all feature piano, guitar, horn, bass, and drums, coming together to create a wonderfully pleasant sound, like an island breeze drifting softly by.

Audio and Video

• Layla Tomomi Sakai performing live in 2017:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Only Trust Your Heart”