K.O.L. Radio regular selector John Potter returns with a range of tunes from Okinawan musicians, in collaboration with artists from around the globe!
Introduced in English & Japanese.
Introduction by John Potter:
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 (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 composed by Mika as I sat beside her in the recording studio.
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!’
以前沖縄の音楽を紹介してくれたジョン・ポッターさんによるミックスです。
今回は、沖縄の南西に位置する先島諸島の音楽にフォーカスしたミックスを作ってくれました。石垣市出身で、八重山を代表する民謡歌手の一人、山里 勇吉の曲や、彼を師匠とする同じく石垣出身の大工哲弘の曲などすべて先島諸島出身者による音源が集っています。島々で最もよく知られている伝統的な曲から現代の曲まで、とても多様なテーマが綴られた貴重なセレクトです 。
- JOHN POTTER – The Power of Okinawa website