Carmen Maki

is a Japanese singer and lyricist. After debuting as a folk singer in 1969 with the million-selling single "Toki ni wa Haha no Nai Ko no Yō ni", she quickly shifted to rock music and is best known for fronting the band Oz from 1972 to 1977. Maki was one of the first female rock vocalists in Japan, and her work with Oz and Blues Creation has been credited with pioneering Japanese rock in general.

Early life Maki Annette Lovelace was born in Kamakura, Japan to a Japanese mother and an American father. Her father left Japan shortly after Maki's birth, and she has no recollection of him. Maki decided to join the troupe immediately, and had her first performance that August; Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets at Tokyo Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan. Between 1969 and 1970, Maki released three albums; Poems in the Midnight: Until the Candle Goes Out, Adam and Eve and Goodbye, My Memories. However, fed up with the entertainment industry and having to fit the image expected of her, Maki decided to switch to rock music in 1970 after hearing Janis Joplin for the first time. According to guitarist Kazuo Takeda, whose band Blues Creation Maki had gotten to know in early 1971, Maki's contract with CBS/Sony had expired and every major record label was trying to sign her, but she turned them all down in order to play rock music. With Blues Creation's label Nippon Columbia one of them desperate to sign the singer, Takeda and the band picked material from Maki's daily listening records and wrote some original songs for her. Together they released the album Carmen Maki/Blues Creation in August 1971. Bassist Yoshihiro Naruse (later of Casiopea) and Blues Creation drummer Masayuki Higuchi completed the original lineup, but Maki and Kasuga would remain the only constants throughout the band's career. With the going on at the time, the members of Oz were initially divided on whether to sing in English or Japanese. They settled on Japanese lyrics mainly written by Kasuga's high school classmate Tsuyoshi Kajiki (vocalist of Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats), who became their manager, and played beer gardens and discotheques five times a day. The band struggled at first, but eventually made their debut with Polydor Records in November 1974 with the single "Gozen Ichi-ji no Sketch". In January 1975, they released their self-titled first album with bassist Akira Chiyotani and 15-year-old drummer Takashi Furuta. It sold 100,000 copies, a big success for a rock band at the time, and includes their best-known song, the nearly 12-minute "Watashi wa Kaze". OK Musics Hiroko Yamamoto called the album a masterpiece that is indispensable in the history of Japanese rock. They returned to Japan for a 33-date tour, but sales of the album were slow. Carmen Maki & Oz disbanded after an October 18, 1977 show at Tokyo Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan. The following year she teamed up with guitarist George Azuma, bassist Kinta Moriyama and drummer Yoshitaka Shimada to form the band Carmen Maki & Laff, who released a self-titled album in June 1980. However, it did not sell well and Maki was arrested for possession of illegal stimulants that September. who released the studio album Human Target and the live album Live X in 1982. In 1983, Maki posed nude for Weekly Playboy and 5X disbanded after releasing the album Carmen Maki's 5X. Maki formed the in 1986 with former Oz bassist Yoshihiro Naruse, future B'z guitarist Tak Matsumoto, Make-Up vocalist Nobuo Yamada, and Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats drummer Soul Toul. They released a live album the following year. Maki sang "Ai wa Shinwa no Hate ni" to be the theme song of the 1987 anime Yōtōden. After giving birth to a daughter in 1989 at the age of 38, Maki took a break from music in order to focus on family. The following year, Maki released the album Split. In 2000, Maki toured as guest vocalist for BB&C, a trio of Appice, Tim Bogert and Char.

Maki had an acting role in the 2011 film Detective in the Bar, which also used her recording "Tokei o Tomete" as its theme song. She sang "Namida no Kawaku Made" for Shigeru Izumiya's 2013 album Shōwa no Uta yo, Arigatō. In November 2014 and February 2015, Maki held three concerts celebrating her 45th anniversary as a musician. The first on November 25, focused on her rock material and included various musicians from the various bands she was in throughout her career, including a reunion of Oz. On October 7, 2018, Carmen Maki & Oz reunited to perform at a concert held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Club Citta. They have continued to perform a few concerts every year since. Their two December 2022 shows featured four different drummers from the band's history. She formed the trio with drummer Masaharu Sato and guitarist Falcon. In 2024, they performed a tour to commemorate Maki's 55th anniversary in music, and released a self-titled live album.

Discography Studio albums

Adam and Eve (1969) Goodbye, My Memories (1970) Carmen Maki/Blues Creation (1971) – Carmen Maki/Blues Creation Carmen Maki & Oz (1975) – Carmen Maki & Oz – Carmen Maki & Oz III (1977) – Carmen Maki & Oz Night Stalker (1979) Laff (1980) – Carmen Maki & Laff Human Target (1982) – 5X Moon Song (1993) Voice of Moses (1995) – Carmen Maki & Moses Unison (1996) Split (1998) Carmen Maki and Salamandre (2003) – Carmen Maki and Salamandre Another Way (2004)

Persona (2009) From the Bottom (2012)

Other work Yoshihiro Naruse and Urusakute Gomenne Band; – vocals Blues Creation; – vocals on "Understand" Shigeru Izumiya; – lead vocals on Darjeeling; – lyrics and guest vocals on