I discovered Carmen Maki on that great LP with Blues Creation, and I have been looking for her work with Oz for a few years. I finally found a different concert on Spotify, and both are great. Love this stuff - a must for any fan of prog, especially the prog from the 70s (when it really was prog).
〇Carmen Maki Maki was born in Kanagawa Japan in 1951. Her father is American and her mother is Japanese. In 1969, age 18, she made her debut as a solo singer in Japan with "Sometimes Like a Child Without a Mother" (lyrics: Shuji Terayama, music: Michiru Tanaka). It suddenly became a million hits in Japan, and she participated in NHK's KOHAKU annual song contest at the end of the year,and she became famous singer in Japan. But next year in 1970, she declared turn to Rock Singer, and next in 1971 she released an album "Carmen Maki / Blues Creation" with "the Blues Creation" led by guitarist Kazuo Takeda. The collaboration ended with the release of only one album. On this album, she made it clear that she was a Rock Singer, not a folk singer. In 1972, she met guitarist Hirofumi Kasuga who was 18 years old at the time and formed "Carmen Maki & OZ". Three years later, they released their first album in 1975, their second "Closed Town" in 1976, "Carmen Maki & OZ III" in 1977, disbanded in October 1977, and released their live show as "Carmen Maki & OZ LAST LIVE" in 1978. The OZ’s first album attracted attention due to Maki's name recognition in Japan, singing ability and charisma, and became an unusual million hit for a Japan rock album of that time. OZ played more modern rock in the 70's than “Blues Creation”, with heavy, hard, and progressive songwriting rather than the sound of Kazuo Takeda's blues-rock tendencies, partly due to Hirofumi Kasuga composition. It's surprising that OZ was already born in Japan before the NWOBHM movement and Metal genre were born in the World. It was very unfortunate that they couldn't have the opportunity to be released in Europe and the United States, for world market at that time, ended up buried only in domestic sales Japan. In Japan Maki has continued to influence the power vocal styles of later “Show-ya / keiko Terada” and current Japanese female Metal Bands Vocal style. Keiko Terada is a fan of Carmen Maki, and their song “I am storm / ARASHI” is a famous answer to OZ's “I am wind/ KAZE”. “Japanese Female Metal Rock history has Started with the arrival of “Queen” Carmen Maki..”