Ongaku Cafe (The ’90s): Ozawa Kenji – Life (1994)

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Reviewed back in 1996
There are times when I don’t get the music of an artist or group earlier on and then become a major fan later on.  One such artist is singer/songwriter Ozawa Kenji.

No doubt brought up in an intelligent household, son of German writer Ozawa Toshio and psychologist, Ozawa Makiko, he grew up in Germany passionate about music and literature.

When he was in high school, he started a band but because his upbringing was strict, he had to study hard in order to get money from his parents.  But he would meet his friend Oyamada Keigo and both shared their passion for music.

And while in college, he was in the band Lollipop Sonic and when they debuted they were known as Flipper’s Guitar but quickly went from a five-person band to him and only Oyamada.  But with three albums the group disbanded in 1991.

While Ozawa would consider a solo career, Oyamada would become popular as the artist Cornelius.

As for Ozawa, he would release his first single “Tenkyomi” in July 1993.

But while Ozawa was know for his work on Flipper’s Guitar, he would appear with the hip hop group Scha Dara Parr for the single “Konya wa Boogie Back” which would gain a lot of attention, is especially during the hip hop boom (especially as hip hop was starting to become commercial) that was taking place in Japan.

And he would release a string of hits in 1994 with the fourth single “Aishiaisarete ikiru no sa/Tokyo Renaisenka” and his fifth single “Lovely”.  And while the three songs did not reach the top 10 on the Oricon Charts (they reached the top 20), Ozawa would be dubbed the “Shibuya Prince” and would be invited to the 1995 and 1995 “NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen”.

As for “Life”, it’s an album I listen to a lot, especially my favorite song “Lovely” and one thing you’ll notice about Ozawa Kenji songs, they are not 3-4 minutes long, most of his song on the album are 6-8 minutes long, “Lovely” is over six minutes.

It’s important to note that with “Konya wa Boogie Back”, both Scha Dara Parr and Ozawa Kenji released a single and both are different. Ozawa is more vocal, SDP’s is more hip-hop driven as can be expected.  But the SDP does have a cool live version, so that CD single version is definitely worth checking out.

As “Life” incorporates brass and strings, the song features a collaboration with members of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra for horns and while the album debuted at #5 on the Oricon Charts, it’s an album I do come to listen to frequently on my CD player.

Aside from the four tracks that were released as singles, the non-single tracks are very cool.  “Icho Namiki no Serenade” is a live acoustic track that I listen to a lot because it’s an uplifting song.

The next track “Door o Knock suru no wa dareda?” (Who is knocking on the door) is another uplifting, happy song with cool strings.

While “Bokura ga tabi ni deru riyu” (The reason why we go on a journey) is an interesting song, especially since it has the intro of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”.

And I don’t wan to spoil the rest of the album but just to say that this album is fantastic and if you are getting into Ozawa Kenji’s music, while he has a distinct vocal style, it starts to grow on you and his music grows on you.  “Life” is definitely recommended!

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