Okinawan Collaborations Mix
My new radio mix is now online at K.O.L. Radio (see below). This is a mix of collaborations by Okinawan musicians. All except the final track were made with artists from outside Okinawa.
The late Seijin Noborikawa starts things off with his collaboration with Osaka band Soul Flower Union on ‘Midori no Okinawa’. This is followed by Shoukichi Kina and experimental Dutch musician Pascal Plantinga.
Takashi Hirayasu’s groundbreaking 1999 album of Okinawan children’s songs with American guitarist Bob Brozman is featured twice. There are also two tracks from another classic album by Yaeyama musician Yasukatsu Oshima and American jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer recorded in New York in 2007.
Yoriko Ganeko appears twice in very different musical settings. The first is ‘Nishinjo Bushi’ an exquisite duet with Japan’s Kazufumi Miyazawa. The other is from her now rare album recorded in Paris with French rock band LSD.
Other outside collaborators include Oki (Ainu), Guy Sigsworth (England), Yuko Sato (Japan), Sven Kacirek (Germany), and Makoto Kubota’s Japan-based band project Blue Asia. Kanako Horiuchi (an honorary Okinawan from Hokkaido) is here with Senegalese musician Falaye Sakho. Hawaiian-born Anjani Thomas who has family roots in Okinawa (and is known for her work with Leonard Cohen) sings her English language version of a song by Rinken Teruya who plays sanshin.
The mix ends with a new track from Okinawa Electric Girl Saya who gets together with another Okinawan, Tetsushi Hiroyama of Ryukyudisko.
On a personal note, I was very happy to arrange a meeting in Okinawa between Guy Sigsworth (Bjork, Madonna etc.) and Minami Daito singer Mika Uchizato. Their song ‘Shurayo’ has music by Guy and words by Mika. I sat beside Mika in the recording studio as she composed the lyrics.
This is the playlist order with artists and song titles:
Seijin Noborikawa with Soul Flower Union ‘Midori no Okinawa’
Shoukichi Kina with Pascal Plantinga ‘Kunjan Sabakui’
Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman ‘Jin Jin’
Yoriko Ganeko with Kazufumi Miyazawa ‘Nishinjo Bushi’
Yasukatsu Oshima with Geoffrey Keezer ‘Agarikata Bushi’
Kanako Horiuchi with Falaye Sakho ‘Hana Umui’
Oki with Misako Oshiro ‘Kita to Minami’
Guy Sigsworth with Mika Uchizato ‘Shurayo’
Blue Asia with Satoru Shimoji ‘Kun-nu-Shu’
Yukito Ara and Yuko Sato ‘Famure Uta’
Yoriko Ganeko and LSD ‘Minami no Shima’
Yasukatsu Oshima with Geoffrey Keezer ‘Tinsagu nu Hana’
Anjani Thomas with Rinken Teruya ‘Okinawa Time’
Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman ‘Akata Sun Dunchi’
Sven Kacirek with Keiko Kina ‘Nagareru Mamani’
Okinawa Electric Girl Saya with Tetsushi Hiroyama ‘Acchamee!’
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