Biography
In 1957, Izumi “Mimi” Kobayashi was born and raised in the seaside city of Funabashi located in Chiba, Japan. Before Izumi launched her musical career she was mostly known as a prodigious piano player. While attending the Tokyo College of Music, Izumi formed a group called Asoca and won Yamaha’s prestigious Grand Prix songwriting contest in 1977, landing on a record contract in doing so. Going under the name Mimie-Chan Super Band, CBS Sony released her first EP (My Summer Samba).
Just months later, Izumi would rebrand her group as the Izumi Kobayashi & Flying Mimi Band and release two wicked funk-influenced albums that showed Izumi’s own interest in latin and soul music. Buoyed by the likes of future Mariah members — Yasuaki Shimizu on sax and Mario Watanabe on bass — songs like “ハロー・ハロー・ハロー” and albums like Sea Flight and Orange Sky – Endless Summer seem to perfectly slot into that magical, summer vibes found in the soul jazz music of American musicians like Bobbi Humphrey and the Mizell Brothers.
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