Maki Asakawa, who died in 2010, was one of Japan’s finest singers. She had a cool, spine-tingling voice and a unique style influenced by black American music that ranged from pained blues ballads to R&B. Born in northern Japan, she quit her office job to move to Tokyo, started singing in clubs and US military bases, and discovered Billie Holiday. As this intriguing compilation shows, she was no novelty singer or mere copyist. Much of the best material is from the early 1970s, and includes an exquisite Japanese-language treatment of Bessie Smith’s Blue Spirit Blues, a drifting, bluesy lament Nemuru No Ga Kowai (Scared to Go to Sleep), and even a cool, sitar-backed Hare Krishna chant, Govinda, influenced by George Harrison. Elsewhere, there’s brass-backed R&B and a sad but swinging re-working of Oscar Brown Jr’s Rags and Old Iron. Well worth investigating.
