From the 250th anniversary celebration of the Great Fire of Edo (Edo is the traditional name of Tokyo) ... one of many, but the most destructive, held along with the Great Eruption of Fuji-san 300th Anniversary. This is the Kabuki-za orchestra and readers along with part of the Suntory Hall Orchestra, which occasionally features the Crown Prince on viola (but not in this one).
The guy doing the shamisen solo was my next door neighbor 20-odd years ago.
I doubt there is anyone on this list who will not recognize the melody. Turn the volume up LOUD and open all of your windows.
On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:51:51 +0900, CL wrote: > Sent to me by one of the people in the vid:
> From the 250th anniversary celebration of the Great Fire of Edo (Edo is > the traditional name of Tokyo) ... one of many, but the most > destructive, held along with the Great Eruption of Fuji-san 300th > Anniversary. This is the Kabuki-za orchestra and readers along with > part of the Suntory Hall Orchestra, which occasionally features the > Crown Prince on viola (but not in this one).
> The guy doing the shamisen solo was my next door neighbor 20-odd years > ago.
> I doubt there is anyone on this list who will not recognize the melody. > Turn the volume up LOUD and open all of your windows.
PeterM wrote: > On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:51:51 +0900, CL wrote:
>> Sent to me by one of the people in the vid:
>> From the 250th anniversary celebration of the Great Fire of Edo (Edo is >> the traditional name of Tokyo) ... one of many, but the most >> destructive, held along with the Great Eruption of Fuji-san 300th >> Anniversary. This is the Kabuki-za orchestra and readers along with >> part of the Suntory Hall Orchestra, which occasionally features the >> Crown Prince on viola (but not in this one).
>> The guy doing the shamisen solo was my next door neighbor 20-odd years >> ago.
>> I doubt there is anyone on this list who will not recognize the melody. >> Turn the volume up LOUD and open all of your windows.
They used to be all ivory but I have heard that they've developed some ecologically safer way of making them that is not as distressing to elephants and walruses. They also come in a variety of hardwoods.
My wife's grandmother, who played terribly, had one that had been in the family for something like 300 years and had replaceable edges. Unfortunately, my wife has one aunt who is most closely related to jackals and she was the one who got into grandma's bedroom first after the lady passed away. There is a lot of stuff missing, including some "kakurei Kurishichan" (shadow Christian) artifacts that had been in the family since the late 16th Century.
> The Toccata and Fugue in D minor isn't bad either.
Kevin is merely okay with a shamisen; a good journeyman but never a master. He plays the shamisen like a fat girl trying to dance Swan Lake as the prima lead. He knows the moves but he lacks the grace. He understands what to push to get what sound out of the instrument, but he never becomes one with it. Tsugaru is not only a place, but it is a season of the year, and a state of mind. Keven hasn't been to Tsugaru, yet.
Here's him trying to emulate the Yoshida Kyoudai (Yoshida Brothers) who were extremely famous rock 'n rollers in Japan, Taiwan, and China before putting away their guitars and going back to shamisen. In particular, watch his hands and then watch theirs:
On Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:11:06 +0900, CL wrote: > see the difference?
Obviously; but the music matters too. I prefer the more traditional, or at least not rock video, stuff. But the Bach is great stuff because it's Bach. And because it reminds me of the first time we saw The Austin Lounge Lizards and they opened with a bluegrass version of Dark Side of The Moon.
Now, let's see, maybe the brothers could do the Deliverance theme?
Steve Caple wrote: > On Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:11:06 +0900, CL wrote:
>> see the difference?
> Now, let's see, maybe the brothers could do the Deliverance theme?
*sigh* Actually, a Japanese film crew dragged the Yoshida Kyoudai all over the US for a two hour television special about two years ago. IIRC, Earl Scruggs was too sick to meet them, but there was a Grand Ol' Opry visit where the Yoshidas were treated pretty much like traveling circus freaks by the crackers. No many outtakes from that made it to You Tube and the Japanese TV watching public is more interested in having traditional players meet up with Latin singers, anyway.
But, if you like traditional, Ryukyu-uta is a far better resource and I like Ryukyu sanshin better than Yamato shamisen, anyway. Okinawa is an occupied country and native Ryukyu-jin are treated as second class citizens by the Japanese (Yamato).
"Shima Uta" ("Island Song" or 島唄), sung in Yamato, was written by Miyazawa Kazufumi, leader of Ryukyu-based rock group "The Boom" as the theme music for a 1992 NHK historical series on the Satsuma (Shimadzu clan) invasion and occupation of Ryukyu in 1603 and the capture of the Ryukyu royal family (which lived as prisoners of the Shimadzu until 1873 when the new Japanese government declared that Ryukyu was a natural part of Japan and the family were made dukes ancillary to the Imperial Family).
Ryukyu-jin are treated as the Irish or field niggers of Japan; a source of cheap construction and factory labor, fodder for the boxing mills, and singers and minstrels. When "Shima Uta" was written it galvanized the Ryukyu community far more than the Japanese wanted or intended and it is considered the unofficial national anthem of Ryukyu.
This is "Shima Uta" performed by the original group:
and performing it with Argentine rock star Alfredo Casero, and Oshiro Emi (of Shang-Shang Typhoon) in Buenos Aires where it became the official theme song for the Argentine National Soccer Team in the World Championships in 2004:
(the drummers in the background are performing a very old type of traditional military exercise -- Ryukyu were highly feared as mercenaries because they fought barehanded and in complete silence -- they made up and, later trained, several units of the native Chinese Tang, Ming and anti-Qing Dynasty armies in China)
BEGIN + Nenes "Otona no Shima Takara" from a Japanese occupation protest program in Naha that was televised in the main islands by NHK:
and these guys are speaking the Oguni dialect of Ryukyu -- one of those islands with 150 families and two family names that are all over the islands between Japan and the Philippines
Another modern group to look for is Shang-Shang Typhoon which falls apart and comes back together every couple of years with slightly different members and instruments and Features music from the entire island area south from Kagoshima to Illicos Norte to Singapore and Taiwan. There is a considerable non-Chinese, non-Japanese, non-Philippine population in those islands that is fighting back against being wiped out by larger forces.
Steve Caple wrote: > On Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:11:06 +0900, CL wrote:
>> see the difference?
> Obviously; but the music matters too. I prefer the more traditional, or at > least not rock video, stuff. But the Bach is great stuff because it's > Bach. And because it reminds me of the first time we saw The Austin Lounge > Lizards and they opened with a bluegrass version of Dark Side of The Moon.
> Now, let's see, maybe the brothers could do the Deliverance theme?
I got so busy with links that I left out the one to Natsukawa Rimi singing what IMNSHO is one of the most beautiful Asian island ballads ever written; "Nada Sousou" this one from a Chinese television program broadcast late last year:
Also, I got one of the factoids about Gackt wrong. He's not only from Ryukyu, he has a classic Ryukyu family name -- Kamui Gakuto. He just completed a one-year run playing the part of the warlord priest Uesugi Kenshin in the NHK Taiga Drama "Furinkazan" 「風林火山」. The program's name is taken from Sundze's "Art of War" ("Move as swift as a wind, stay as steady as forest, attack as fierce as fire, unmovable defense like a mountain.") and was used by Uesugi's main opponent Takeda Shingen as his battle standard. Gackt claimed in a magazine interview to have been able to interview the shade of Uesugi to prepare for the part and believes he may have been one of Kenshin's main generals in a previous life.
portrays a couple of stories about Uesugi and also shows the Ashikaga Shogun awarding him the name "Uesugi" and his kamon (family symbol). The clip also features Igawa Haruka, who is one of the most beautiful over-30 actresses in Japan but that's just a bonus. The original of the white banner with the large black kanji on it still exists.
> The Toccata and Fugue in D minor isn't bad either.
Mostly for Steve, but everyone else can join in:
If you really like people who do music with instruments they weren't written for, there is someone else you should check out. Unlike Kevin, this guy is good.
Jake Shimabukuro ("Shimabukuro" is a good Okinawa family name but Jake is from Hawaii) does things with a ukulele that you never saw any of those "Hawaiian music" guys do on TV in the Fifties.
The second song, "Warabigami" is the song that my wife and I have sung to our daughter at bedtime since she was born. She's grown up with Okinawan music her whole life.
and Jake Shimabukuro playing background for Natsukawa Rimi doing Okinawan / Hawaiian duets with Konishiki (Sa'aleva Atsunoe) who is the former sumo rikkishi who should have been the first non-Japanese yokozuna. The Sumo Association changed the qualification rules to prevent him from getting the promotion. After he retired, he set up a number of programs to help orphans, abandoned children, and kids in trouble in both Japan and Hawaii. He also produces a daily children's show on the NHK Educational channel and runs a restaurant with is wife. My daughter considers him to be her best adult friend (she asked him to be her godfather) as he lets her sit on his lap and sing with him every time we go to his restaurant:
>> The Toccata and Fugue in D minor isn't bad either.
> Mostly for Steve, but everyone else can join in:
> If you really like people who do music with instruments they weren't > written for, there is someone else you should check out. Unlike Kevin, > this guy is good.
> Jake Shimabukuro ("Shimabukuro" is a good Okinawa family name but Jake > is from Hawaii) does things with a ukulele that you never saw any of > those "Hawaiian music" guys do on TV in the Fifties.
On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:14:01 +0900, CL wrote: > Mostly for Steve, but everyone else can join in:
> If you really like people who do music with instruments they weren't > written for, there is someone else you should check out. Unlike Kevin, > this guy is good.
> Jake Shimabukuro . . .
Thanks for that - and the previous cites.
> The second song, "Warabigami" is the song that my wife and I have sung > to our daughter at bedtime since she was born. She's grown up with > Okinawan music her whole life.
Steve Caple wrote: > On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:14:01 +0900, CL wrote:
>> Mostly for Steve, but everyone else can join in:
>> If you really like people who do music with instruments they weren't >> written for, there is someone else you should check out. Unlike Kevin, >> this guy is good.
>> Jake Shimabukuro . . .
> Thanks for that - and the previous cites.
You might also like UA (pronounced (oooah without a glottal stop in the middle) her family is from Ishigaki-jima and she grew up on the bad side of Osaka so her style is a lot more earthy and less innocent. She's a neighbor in Tokyo. I see her taking her son to school on the back of her bicycle and doing the shopping. She does a music program for kids my daughter's age in addition to her jazz and blues gigs. We've talked a few times ... a very serious musician.
>> The second song, "Warabigami" is the song that my wife and I have sung >> to our daughter at bedtime since she was born. She's grown up with >> Okinawan music her whole life.
> Whence cometh your interest in things Ryukyuan?
Not absolutely positive. Ryukyu-uta has a following throughout the areas where the Ryukyu trading fleets used to sail -- Okinawa Prefecture (Japan), Illicos Norte (northern half of the northernmost "big" island of the Philippines), Taiwan (especially the east coast which is non-Chinese), the China coast from around Shanghai on south, coastal Indochina, about as far west as the Maldives and almost as far south as Tahiti. Those are mainly the areas where I have worked and, before that, where I fought and trained indigenous forces. It is one place I enjoy going back to, over and over again. Xixuang-bana in Yunnan Province, China [Lower Mekong River Valley] is another, but the Dai-ren are universally tone deaf. Those islands are a very comfortable place to hang out with very little pressure.
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