Instrumental Invasion, 4/26/23 April 27, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Anime, Audio, City Pop, Education, History, Idol, Internet, Japanese, Jazz, Language, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, VTuber.add a comment
The April 26 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP went on the air at the end of the station dinner for students and alumni. The dinner was held at The View Grill, located off Long Island Sound in Glen Cove. I listened to much of the first hour during a ride home from my parents. Mom took a photo of Dad’s infotainment system while tuned to 88.1 FM:
3:47 PM UPDATE: Here’s a photo I took with my camera:
I caught the rest at home.
I have a lot to say, so I’ll get the scoped aircheck out of the way here:
The show’s playlist was created on February 24, annotated on the 27th and 28th, scripted on the 28th and March 1.
For the first time since December 7, I recorded out of sequence. Segments 6, 1, and 3 were recorded on March 2, followed by segments 2, 4, and 5 on March 3. I wanted to get the last segment out of the way because of the mammoth talk break that expounded on my city pop discovery, including excerpts of “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki and of the Caitlin Myers English version. My hunch was right, but I only managed to go 69 seconds over, plus another three seconds in the first segment where I first discussed city pop vis-à-vis Casiopea. I had little trouble compensating, completely making up for the overage over the last four segments without remixing.
After recording a quick pickup for the second segment on March 4, I redid the entire last talk break on the 5th. Taeko noted in a 2017 interview that Stuff drummer Chris Parker played on Sunshower, her precursor to Mignonne. Eric Gale was in Stuff. Maybe it was him. I bought a 2008 CD reissue of Mignonne on Amazon, planning on scanning the presumably Japanese liner notes once it arrived on March 6 and translating the text in the scan. Hedging my bets, the full talk break record said the soloist was Eric. Then, I did an alternate tack-on where I said it wasn’t. I played part of the solo in each.
Served me right for not noticing Discogs’ entry for Mignonne‘s 1989 CD reissue with its English credits. Nope, not Eric. It was Tsunehide Matsuki. I canceled the Amazon CD order, cited the Discogs ’89 CD credit, tacked that onto the earlier redos, and called it a night. I did one more pickup for this redo on March 7 because I was unsure of whether or not Caitlin Myers had more city pop adaptations in the pipeline. I did a separate pickup for the first segment on the 7th, with the precise Japanese transliteration of Casiopea, and a pickup for the top of hour 2.
For posterity, here was the original last talk break with all my nervous energy:
The redo where it was Eric Gale (and the Caitlin YouTube channel plug):
The redo tack-on where it wasn’t Eric:
Read about my early city pop journey in this blog post.
I’ll still include the relevant city pop videos, starting with the original “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki (or Ohnuki):
As Lou Monte would say (in “Lazy Mary”), the “British” version by Caitlin Myers (from the U.S.):
And T2norway‘s video about Casiopea:
[Removed on 5/3]
April 15 portion joined in progress:
Caitlin’s anime dubbing background inspired me to sign up with CrunchyRoll and watch select anime series. I started with the second season of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, featuring Caitlin as the introverted Shioriko Mifune, who slowly comes out of her shell as the season progresses. At first, I wondered “why the hell am I watching this?,” but by the third episode, I was hooked. So, now I can add idol/virtual idol to my diverse musical interests. (What I play on Instrumental Invasion remains my primary interest.) Incidentally, the English dub does not account for songs, meaning episodic numbers and the opening and closing themes are sung by the original seiyuu (Japanese voice actors).
On March 28, YouTube recommended a Ruri Ohama video, which led to a recommendation of a compilation video by JapanesePod101.com. After watching several of those compilations, I took the plunge by subscribing to the site itself and taking various courses. JapanesePod101.com is a division of the Franklin Square-based Innovative Language Learning. I always feel a sense of pride when I come across a Long Island-based company, past or present. Concurrently, I subscribed to Mochi real Japanese (Mochi Sensei) to learn Japanese from her videos. The teaching styles differ, but that’s okay.
[Removed on 5/3]
Back to what I wrote on March 3:
Ever since I watched Cronkite Remembers on DVD in the 2000s, I’ve had the introductory narration to Walter Cronkite‘s You Are There in my head. “We Were There” by Jazz Funk Soul always jogs my memory, but I never thought to play it on Instrumental Invasion until this show. The way I did the talk-up is how I’ve said the title to myself.
“Knee Deep in Rio” by Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau was the song I moved from last week after realizing I wrongly placed it in the 1985-97 segment.
Robben Ford‘s “Magic Sam” was originally played on October 19 before I knew of the eponymous blues musician. Back then, I assumed it was about a magician, and I said that he “disappeared” as Jay Mirabile’s liner played on the fade out.
Tomorrow, I travel to Milford, Connecticut, to attend and photograph Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Wish me luck.
6:11 PM UPDATE: [Removed on 5/3]
Instrumental Invasion, 4/19/23 April 20, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sports.add a comment
The April 19 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was another 4-2 recording with four segments recorded on February 25 and two (plus pickups) the next day, on the 26th.
The playlist was created on February 11, but tweaked on the 13th when I inadvertently put a 1998 song in the first 1985-97 segment. That song will be part of next week’s show. Annotations started on February 14, but weren’t completed until the 22nd. The talk break script was drafted on the 21st and 24th.
There were three retreads, all from 2020:
- David Benoit‘s cover of “Eye of the Tiger” dates back to May 20, but I had more background information on the original this time. I also referenced my WGBB past, since I was introduced to the song in the mid ’90s by Halftime Howie on his high school sports-centered radio show, and I was his lead-in late in The Instrumental Invasion‘s run. When I promoted the show on Facebook yesterday, David complimented me for playing this song. “Wow that’s a real oldie! Going back to the AVI days!” After I said I’d digitized it from a Waves of Raves cassette, he added “very cool!” I told him “I appreciate that.”
- Jeff Lorber‘s cover of “Ain’t Nobody” was recycled from October 7, with more background info.
- “Unified” by Brian Simpson and Steve Oliver was first played 156 weeks ago (another of those) – April 22. Once again, I referenced the home remodeling contractor‘s harmonious jingle. I thought about playing the jingle, going so far as clipping from a commercial on Unified’s YouTube channel. Fearing legal action, I held back. After all, WCWP staff were recently warned against references to Michael Buffer’s iconic (but trademarked) catchphrase.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
And why not post the Unified jingle?
Instrumental Invasion, 4/12/23 April 13, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Astronomy, Audio, City Pop, Computer, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sci-Fi, Technology, Video, Video Games.add a comment
The April 12 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on February 22, the day after my city pop journey began.
The playlist was created February 8, except for the last segment on the 10th. Annotations started on February 14 and finished on the 15th. The talk break script was drafted on the 21st.
This is the third week in a row with two Chick Corea songs, and second where the first song was followed by an Earl Klugh song.
I expanded my Maynard Ferguson collection with three of his latest albums, debuting this week. Maynard and Will Donato covered different songs with the same title: “I’ll Be Around.” One was the Alec Wilder standard, the other by The Spinners. Of course, last week, I played two versions of the same song: “Sunrise” by Chet Atkins.
Fourplay‘s “Aniversario” was originally played on December 30, 2020, and Najee‘s “Bounce” was first heard on August 10, 2022.
I had the opposite problem of last week, ending up two minutes and 30 seconds under after five segments! Thus, I filled the void with an extra song and reworked the final talk break. That song was David Murray’s 8-Bit Keys arrangement of “The Unknown Planet” by John Keating (or Johnny Keating), as adapted by Rob Hubbard for the video game Warhawk. In my haste, I forgot I played a Cedar Walton song (“The Early Generation”) in the first segment that featured Freddie Hubbard, so I didn’t emphasize Rob’s first name. Here is the accompanying 8-Bit Keys video:
The plan worked too well and I had to give back five seconds in the fourth segment. Either way, the last segment was the longest I’ve ever produced: 20 minutes and 45 seconds, breaking the old record set on January 4.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 4/5/23 April 6, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
The April 5 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on February 19 (four segments) and 20 (two segments). Pickups were recorded on the 20th and 22nd.
The playlist was created hour by hour on February 3 and 4. Annotations didn’t come until February 14 and the talk break script was drafted on the 18th. I made two one-minute timing errors that escaped my eye until recording, a combined two minutes over. As the playlist PDF shows, I was able to break even after much maneuvering.
“Sign of the Times” by Bob James was first played on June 2, 2021, and “Drive Time” by David Benoit was recycled from the second Wednesday night show – April 8, 2020, 156 weeks ago.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
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