[Namie Amuro] The 101st Thread - WE ♥ NAMIE FOREVER -

[AJFmzk]

I just finished watching her Break the Rules Live Tour after not seeing it for a while. She looked like she had a good time, especially during the remix version of no more tears at the end. And her MC was adorably awkward lol. I'm actually kind of curious why her band was all American for her first couple tours. Wouldn't that make things more expensive than they had to be than if they just used local musicians? (Yes, I know Kenji Sano, Lynne Mabry and Sheila E all had a hand in writing songs for Namie, it was cool to see them live, but still it's added costs)

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I’m not saying this is the case, but particularly in the 90s and early 2000s, a lot of J-POP used foreign people to make things look more “authentic” , or to add a “cool factor”.

Avex has lots of money back in the day, so it wouldn’t have been an issue. But again, who knows what the actual reason was haha.

[AJFmzk]

^ ah yeah that’s a good point, I forgot about the “cool factor”, but it was definitely a thing, especially back then. Maybe Avex let Sano pick musicians he knew and was comfortable working with. Plus it was extra cool that she had some of her songwriters there too. But yeah, either way we’ll probably never know lol.

[Mina.]

It's kind of a coincidence that you're talking about this because very recently, Jetro da Silva has made a facebook post about Namie and his memories of being part of the band. I have myself decided to make a video to pay homage to this international band.

If you'd like to check it, it's there:
https://www.facebook.com/amurotoietmoi

Why did she have such an international band? First of all, I think that from the beginning, TK thought about the possibility of making her an international pop star. The factor of coolness and authenticity is part of it, but I definitely think he wanted to give her an international vibe that could both appeal to the Japanese audience and a potential international one.

If you take a look at SWEET 19 blues credits, you'll see that very famous musicians recorded the new tracks and remixes. Some of them participated in the 1996 summer tour. Sheila E. is almost the only that we see in the video, but she's not alone. Kenji Sano only appears in 1997. Even though he's the one who picked many of the musicians from 1997 (I'm not sure anymore, but I think that's Will Wheaton saying that Kenji Sano is "the reason why we are here"), this decision originated earlier.

As said previously, avex had money and many recordings were made in Los Angeles.
As for Sheila E. & Lynn Mabry, they actually wrote songs because they were already part of the band (not the other way).

I hope this reply appears in the thread. I've been registered here for years, but for some reasons, all my post need to be moderated and they usually appear in threads weeks later so nobody sees them...

[AJFmzk]

^ Thanks for the info. Very interesting stuff. Yes, I noticed some of the session musicians on her records, as well as her early lives, were very famous. Carlos Rios has worked for a lot of huge artists, Stevie Nicks, for example. Sheila E has worked with (and I think dated) Prince. Namie has been very fortunate to work with such awesome people. It would've been so cool if she HAD gone international, but I think her only public performance outside of Asia was her Hawaii charity show for Okinawa Ex Pats, part of Genius 2000 tour.

I'm not sure exactly when Kenji Sano started with Namie, but I know he directed vocal for her on a lot of her songs, at least according to liner notes. Also that's a very interesting point about Sheila and Lynn writing the songs. I really liked the live version of Mi Corazon that they did on Genius 2000. I love Lynn Mabry, she's such a talented vocalist and artist, she's one of my favorite band members from Namie's tours.
It's too bad they didn't re-unite for her final tour, I definitely would've loved to see that.

EDIT: I just checked out the Facebook post you linked, and it's very thorough. I loved the video tribute you made! Also - where is that band documentary footage from? If you still have it would it be possible for me to get it from you?

[Mina.]

It's from a 1996 documentary.

Here's a wetransfer:
https://we.tl/t-bWtwMgrTzb


I think Kenji Sano is very close to Namie. He has indeed been her vocal director for a long time. If I remember well, he's credited until Feel at least.

[AJFmzk]

Thank you so much for the Documentary, I really appreciate it.
Yes, I would imagine Kenji and Namie are close, and it's really nice. Reminds me of Ayu and some of her Band members.

[kotora]

miss her. Sad that she hurt her vocal cords 7 years ago and that is the main reason why she decided to retire...

[Mina.]

I'm still not sure this is the main reason why.

She asserted in previous retirement interviews that from the beginning of her career, she had decided she would retire after 20 years. Besides, the comments left by her former Super Monkey's co-members also suggested that she had said things like that before.

The vocal cords thing might have led her to stick to her decision, but I also guess that she realized the older she got the less she would be able to give the kind of performances she enjoyed (singing+dancing at the same time). She might have taken the same decision even without this accident. It just appeared as a key moment when she realized there was no true alternative anymore.

[AJFmzk]

^ she hasn’t exactly ever been secretive about wanting to retire. But also she’s given vague and conflicting statements in the past. I remember her saying she always wanted to close out her career with a huge show, but most importantly she wanted to do a big live in Okinawa, so in a way, the typhoon gave us 5 more years because she couldn’t do her Okinawa live.

[roddypii]

We can hear a HUGE difference on Namie's voice between BEST FICTION TOUR and past<FUTURE Tour.. the way she sang on both is totally different... and she had the vocal problems during those tours... on LIVE STYLE 2011 her voice just wasn't the same... and still she managed to sing better live on LIVEGENIC and LIVE STYLE 2016-2017 than on the previous tours like 5 Domes and LIVE STYLE 2014.. her voice was really bad on both... '-'

About Break the rules tour, I love it so much... besides her outfit on the opening act, the tour is incredible <3

[Xianghua]

random interruption of your conversation but the other night I had a dream Namie was starring in a movie about Snow White

[Spiral]

Just watch Neon Lipstick.

[AJFmzk]

Originally Posted by roddypii

We can hear a HUGE difference on Namie's voice between BEST FICTION TOUR and past<FUTURE Tour.. the way she sang on both is totally different... and she had the vocal problems during those tours... on LIVE STYLE 2011 her voice just wasn't the same... and still she managed to sing better live on LIVEGENIC and LIVE STYLE 2016-2017 than on the previous tours like 5 Domes and LIVE STYLE 2014.. her voice was really bad on both... '-'

About Break the rules tour, I love it so much... besides her outfit on the opening act, the tour is incredible <3

Y’know, I’ve never really thought about that, but it makes sense. I don’t think I’ve ever watched her tours consecutively so I don’t think the comparison was super in my face, but I have noticed she sounds different on different tours. Some sound more edited than others. P<F is a good example. But also I think her approach to singing changed during this time, I guess maybe to compensate for her damaged vocal chords. I noticed she kinda screamed a lot to hit the high notes more during those tours.

And yeah, I’ve been loving her early 2000s stuff lately, not sure why, but I’ve been super into Genius 2000 and Break the Rules, both cd and tours the last few weeks.

Originally Posted by Xianghua

random interruption of your conversation but the other night I had a dream Namie was starring in a movie about Snow White

Was Ayu singing Someday My Prince Will Come in the background? ;p

[Xianghua]

Originally Posted by Spiral

Just watch Neon Lipstick.

oh man I totally forgot about that!

Originally Posted by AJFmzk

Was Ayu singing Someday My Prince Will Come in the background? ;p

I forgot about that too haha!

[koumori]

Was the news about her damaged vocals in the documentary or something? I didn't finish watching it...

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by roddypii

We can hear a HUGE difference on Namie's voice between BEST FICTION TOUR and past<FUTURE Tour.. the way she sang on both is totally different... and she had the vocal problems during those tours... on LIVE STYLE 2011 her voice just wasn't the same... and still she managed to sing better live on LIVEGENIC and LIVE STYLE 2016-2017 than on the previous tours like 5 Domes and LIVE STYLE 2014.. her voice was really bad on both... '-'

About Break the rules tour, I love it so much... besides her outfit on the opening act, the tour is incredible <3

Yeah, I definitely had been noticing the difference over the tours that you mention. It's also why I don't like listening to Finally that much because her vocals sound much thinner on the re-recordings. It's not surprising to me at all that her vocal chords were deteriorating but most people didn't really seem to notice! I think because her use of back tracks became more and more as time went on.

[roddypii]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Yeah, I definitely had been noticing the difference over the tours that you mention. It's also why I don't like listening to Finally that much because her vocals sound much thinner on the re-recordings. It's not surprising to me at all that her vocal chords were deteriorating but most people didn't really seem to notice! I think because her use of back tracks became more and more as time went on.

I still think Finally was rushed... her voice does sounds great on the 90s album, but the 2000s and 2010s albums her voice is really bad and she kills some songs (a.k.a. GIRL TALK, SO CRAZY and some others).. but at least the 90s songs are way better than the original ones for me.

About the tours, I guess that's why she sings "Think of me" with all of her soul on past<FUTURE Tour, she sounds incredible and it really stands out as one of her best vocal performances ever. After LIVE STYLE 2011 she really runs away from almost every high note ("Love Story" I'm so sorry my dear) besides "Heaven" and "Stardust In My Eyes" (she really give life on those songs tho).. but I think she gave her voice a 'rest' for so many tours (from 2012 to 2015) that she managed to sing pretty well songs that demands vocal performances like Fashionista, Arigatou and she did a INCREDIBLE job on Dear Diary (that's probably why she only sang it during half of Live Style 2016-2017 tho ;-; ).
My conclusion is that: Namie still has some good voice there, but she can only use it really few times because it goes away too soon ;-;

[mi|kshake]

The Finally version of Dr came on my mp3 player today. I forgot how good it was! I think I may be hearing more of the changes now that I have new earphones too.

Think I'll need to buy some more of Namie's tours to compare the vocals. The only ones I have are Live Style 2006, Best Fiction, Live Style 2014, 20th Anniversary and Finally.

[AJFmzk]

Originally Posted by roddypii

I still think Finally was rushed... her voice does sounds great on the 90s album, but the 2000s and 2010s albums her voice is really bad and she kills some songs (a.k.a. GIRL TALK, SO CRAZY and some others).. but at least the 90s songs are way better than the original ones for me.

About the tours, I guess that's why she sings "Think of me" with all of her soul on past<FUTURE Tour, she sounds incredible and it really stands out as one of her best vocal performances ever. After LIVE STYLE 2011 she really runs away from almost every high note ("Love Story" I'm so sorry my dear) besides "Heaven" and "Stardust In My Eyes" (she really give life on those songs tho).. but I think she gave her voice a 'rest' for so many tours (from 2012 to 2015) that she managed to sing pretty well songs that demands vocal performances like Fashionista, Arigatou and she did a INCREDIBLE job on Dear Diary (that's probably why she only sang it during half of Live Style 2016-2017 tho ;-; ).
My conclusion is that: Namie still has some good voice there, but she can only use it really few times because it goes away too soon ;-;

I'm not so thrilled with some of the new song arrangements on Finally. For a lot of the songs it sounds like they maybe tried to beef up her vocals by doubling them or adding echo or reverb, but to me it sounds almost like a bit of an echo on a thin vocal. It almost sounds like she was singing in an unisolated room and all the room reflection were caught in the mic. Yeah those specific songs are highlights of those tours! I agree with what you're saying, however I would say that if she changed the way she was singing to be less strain on her vocal chords she shouldn't have to worry about her voice or her vocal chords. But after so long doing it the way she was used to doing it, if she couldn't change it then yes, she may be hesitant to use her full voice except at certain times. It's not to knock or take anything away from her since habits are ingrained and hard to change, but there are techniques for singing that don't put strain on your vocal chords. It's a shame that Avex didn't prioritize their singers learning proper technique, because it's really essential for longevity.