大江戸の火消し (Oedo no Hikeshi -- The Great Fire of Edo)
CL
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDuZq1ZOq_w
--
CL
PeterM
That's one heck of a plectrum.
--
Peter
CL
You're one of those people for whom size matters?
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.
--
CL
Steve Caple
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDuZq1ZOq_w
Oh, bra-vo!
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor isn't bad either.
--
Steve
CL
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kza91FnqsZc&feature=related
and here are the Yoshida Kyoudai last New Years Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i1FznZT7fU&feature=related
performing an updated version of the traditional "Kodo":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ron17xFNBf0&NR=1
one of their most famous rock / shamisen compilations "Rising" (Agaru):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERXiliJfdI&feature=related
and Monkey Majik:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwaS4TDyDk&feature=related
see the difference?
--
CL
Steve Caple
> 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
CL
> On Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:11:06 +0900, CL wrote:
>
>> see the difference?
>
*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.
Here is one outtake that made it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07443uFw5A
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYPzLu-cUEk&feature=related
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3yOMQA79QA&feature=related
and a far more traditional version by Gackt, who is not Ryukyu, but
lives there now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEd1uJEp6MI&feature=related
But traditional + plus modern rock:
BEGIN "Sanshin no Hana"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtLNK0TNEos&feature=related
(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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZZVcdZlz2I&feature=related
"Hana" sung by Natsukawa Rimi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0g0VYrEEGk&feature=related
and ANYTHING by Nenes (in Yamato)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhtXZAFom7A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV3hGuAcgrY&feature=related
From the Ryukyu traditional music festival (in Ryukyu)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lph8wDE2S6c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhm-wE3i2Ww&feature=related
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EMQ1JJA7s4&feature=related
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.
--
CL
CL
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOTv7kKpOVE
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMl3kqz6kik&feature=related
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.
--
CL
CL
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT_Jr3vasOo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOJLhK1NOL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBe2qAz_jtc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ4NxmawgzI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5d80mqGQLE&feature=related
and Natsukawa Rimi accompanied by Jake Shimabukuro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkp2M98kM8I&feature=related
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Nd5nqVwn4&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVmqt2OcQA&feature=related
--
CL
PeterM
> Steve Caple wrote:
>> On Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:09:29 +0900, CL wrote:
>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDuZq1ZOq_w
>>
>> Oh, bra-vo!
>>
>> 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.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT_Jr3vasOo&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOJLhK1NOL8
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBe2qAz_jtc&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ4NxmawgzI&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5d80mqGQLE&feature=related
Ah - I've seen him before. This is he in Central Park, in a clip that is
quite famous across t'Internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9mEKMz2Pvo
--
Peter
Steve Caple
> 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.
Whence cometh your interest in things Ryukyuan?
--
Steve
CL
> 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.
--
CL