Tropical Dandy

Tropical Dandy
Studio album by Haruomi Hosono
Released June 25, 1975
Recorded Crown Studio
Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo
Genre Jazz fusion
Exotica
Label PANAM, CROWN
Producer Haruomi Hosono
Haruomi Hosono chronology

Hosono House
(1973)
Tropical Dandy
(1975)
Bon Voyage co.
(1976)
Singles from Tropical Dandy
  1. ""Silk Road"/"Honey Moon""
    Released: 1975

Tropical Dandy is Haruomi Hosono's second solo album. This album continues the tropical style of Hosono House (which would continue later on with Bon Voyage co. and Paraiso) and also features performances from "Caramel Mama" (who had, by this point, changed their name to "Tin Pan Alley"). This album was re-issued as part of a box set with bonus tracks taken from Tin Pan Alley albums by Crown decades later.[1][2][3]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
The Wire favorable[4]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Haruomi Hosono, except "Chattanooga Choo Choo", with music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon and lyrics translated by Hosono; "Hyōryūki", "Sanji no Komori Uta" & "“Yoimachigusa”'s Theme", written by Hosono with horns & strings arranged by Makoto Yano; "Choo Choo Gatagoto'75", written by Hosono, arranged by Tin Pan Alley with chorus arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita and "Yellow Magic Carnival", written by Hosono, arranged by Tin Pan Alley with strings arranged by Masataka Matsutoya. 

No. Title Length
1. "Chattanooga Choo Choo"   2:49
2. "Hurricane Dorothy"   5:46
3. "Kinukaidō (絹街道, Silk Road)"   3:32
4. "Nettaiya (熱帯夜, Tropical Night)"   4:55
5. "Peking Duck (北京DUCK Pekin Duck)"   2:36
6. "Hyōryūki (漂流記, Drifting Chronicle)"   3:08
7. "Honey Moon"   2:37
8. "Sanji no Komori Uta (三時の子守唄, Three o'Clock Lullaby)"   2:31
9. "Sanji no Komori Uta (三時の子守唄, Three o'Clock Lullaby)" (Instrumental) 2:26
10. "Hyōryūki (漂流記, Drifting Chronicle)" (Instrumental) 4:02

Personnel

References

  1. Powell, Mike (1 January 2008). "Found Sound 2007". Pitchfork. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Hosono deserves distinction for prefiguring stuff like Pizzicato Five and Momus and Stereo Total
  2. Bell, Clive (August 1997). "Sayonara Cruel World". The Wire (subscription required). pp. 33–34. Retrieved 10 March 2014. It combines Martin Denny's already outdated 'Exotica' and fake orientalism with Dr John-style New Orleans piano.
  3. Hosokawa, Shuhei (1999). "Haruomi Hosono and Japanese Self-Orientalism". In Philip Hayward. Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-war Popular Music. Indiana University Pres. p. 124. ISBN 9781864620474. Retrieved 11 March 2014. reminiscence of a childhood both overwhelmed and enlivened by Americanism
  4. Baxter, Ed (September 1995). "Haruomi Hosono: Tropical Dandy". The Wire (subscription required). pp. 53–54. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Infectious, veering towards kitsch, it mixes louche cabaret music, rock and traditional instruments with (for its time) state of the art synths, judiciously employed choruses and string sections, and ersatz environmental sound...