4/30/08

Twa Corbies 二匹のからす

Audiofile (Recording: London 1995 with Rory Campbell)

スコットランドの大分古い歌
1. 一人で歩きながら / 二匹のからすのカーカーを聞て、
一匹はもう一匹に / 今日はどこへ食べに行こうかと言うた。
2. あちの土壁の向こうに / 殺されたばっかりのナイト爵がいって、
だれも知らず… / タカとイヌと奥さん
以外
3. タカは狩猟して行ったり / イヌは捕らえた野生鳥を持って帰ったり
彼女が新しい恋人と合ったり、/
ポンポン食べても良いよ。
4. あなたが彼の白い首の骨に座って / 私は彼のきれいな青い目をつつく。
金髪の毛で /
はげた巣をふく。
5. 彼のためにうなり声でも / どこに行ったか知らず
白くてはげた骨に /
いつまでも風が吹く。
Japanese translation by Felicity Greenland (draft)

Morris Dance モリッス踊

John Hegley morris dance photo compilation in the Guardian (click title above)
今日のGuardian新聞のモリッス踊写真コンピレーションビデオ:上のタイトルをクリックして下さい。モリッス踊はイギリスの伝統的な踊で、このビデオで色々な種類の写真を見えます。ナレーターはパホーマンス詩人のジョンヘグリーさん(John Hegley)です。
I have heard that there were Morris sides in Kobe and Kyoto in the not too distant past (1970s and 80s).

4/29/08

Mouth Music/Twa Corbies 口音楽/からす二匹

Two songs with Rory Campbell in London (1995)
二つのスコットランドの歌 (ロンドン1995)
MP3s
MOUTH MUSIC ー 口音楽
Learned from "Broken Hearted I'll Wander" by Dolores Keane and John Faulkner

TWA CORBIES ー からすの二匹

Learned from Les Denniston.
Japanese translation 日本語

4/13/08

Kawa no Nagare no You ni 川の流れのように

This remarkable song was composed by Akira Mitake, with lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto. Originally sung by Misora Hibari, it was released on Japan's Columbia Music label on January 11 1989. She died in June of the same year. Eight years after its release, it was voted number one in an NHK poll of the best Japanese songs of all time.
VERSIONS
Misora Hibari 美空ひばりoriginal singer
A few interesting covers
Los Panchos (Mexico)
12 Girls Band (Shanghai) 女子十二楽坊
Mariachi Vargas
Placido Domingo
Angklung (West Javan instrument)
Gentra Seba (on Angklung, W. Java?)
KMS and MMS middle school orchestras (Japan)
Fuga Akira (electric jazz guitar, Japan)

Partial English translation (adapted from Taiwanensis on Youtube)
Unknowingly, I have walked here
This long and narrow road.
Looking back, far away
I can see my hometown
On the uneven and winding road
There is no map to follow.
And so life goes on.

Like a river flowing leisurely,
Time passes through the ages
Like a river flowing endlessly,
The sky is reddened by the setting sun....

See also the 'Enka' post

Smoke on the Water

Here is the Kabuki-za Orchestra with part of the Suntory Hall Orchestra, playing Ooedo No Hikeshi (大江戸の火消し) (The Great Fire of Edo) based on Smoke on The Water.
The piece commemorates the 250th anniversary of the 1657 Great Fire of Tokyo (then called Edo), which was reputedly started by the cremation of a furisode (maiden's long-sleeved kimono) in honour of the souls of three young girls. (There a various English translations of the Japanese lyrics in the comments.)

Kabuki-za Orchestra: We Will Rock You 2007
Super Metal Missionaries Japan: Smoke on the Water, 2008?
Senor Coconut: Smoke on the Water, Tokyo Oct 2006
Senor Coconut: Yellow Fever Japan interview 2006
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water, Live at Budokan, Tokyo 1975
If you liked those you might like these...
Shamisen: Kevin Kmetz: Led Zeppelin: Black Dog
Shamisen: Yoshida Brothers: Rising

Thanks to Eric Bray for the Kabuki-za heads up.

4/8/08

Demae Chindon

The title above links to an article in English about the street band based at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. (There is also a link to their site in 4. Musicians in Japan (see Links right)).

4/7/08

加茂川会 Kamogawa-kai Chanson & Sakura

At the weekend I paid my first visit to a Kamogawa-kai event - their Annual Cherry party. This year it was hosted by Mr and Mrs Oyagi in their huge beautiful old Japanese house on the banks of the Kamogawa River, one of the most spectacular spots for blossom-viewing. The weather was gorgeous, and so was the buffet laid on by the "twenty-four ladies" of Kamogawa-kai, but even more amazing was the chanson concert, which I'll tell you about in a minute.

Kamogawa-kai is a non-profit international friendship organisation established in Kyoto in 1984. Among their many projects, they arrange monthly cultural visits in the Kyoto area to (in their own words) "deepen your appreciation of different cultures and peoples".

Of the 49 people there on Sunday, about one-third were from outside Japan - there was a space-scientist from India, research-doctors from Malaysia, students from all over China, and many other countries represented including Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Chile, UK and US. It's not always easy to talk to strangers but the program made it so, with greetings by each language speaker and a funny round of self introductions, Mr Oyagi's song in four languages, and plenty of time and space to mingle under the weeping sakura.

But I must tell you about the chanson. This was all Japanese, some songs peppered with French refrains. A pianist accompanied four singers who took turns and made flamboyant costume changes for each set: Mrs Setsuko Okuzawa sang 'Paris', 'Se-shi-bon', 'Jolie Momu', 'Adieu' and 'Sorezore no Table', variously in black evening dress and red trilby, silver flapper wig and mauve boa, and blue velvet sheath; Ms Sueko Yokoyama sang 'Kanashii no Venice', 'My Way' (in Japanese) and 'J'aime Paris au mois du Mais', sporting a blue music hall dress and My Fair Lady hat followed by a QE2 blue beaded frock with medieval sleeves; Mr Kiyohide Okuzawa sang 'San Francisco no rokumai no kaiha', 'Watashi no kodoku' (my loneliness), and a song about whales and another of a kamikaze pilot thanking his mother in his will - he wore a pale pink sports jacket which matched the blossoms perfectly; the MC, the Kamogawakai comedian, sang 'Bon Voyage!' and 'Ikanaide!' (Don't Go!) with all her heart.

The concert was brilliantly put together so that wherever they were from, everyone in the audience could empathise - sorrow, seduction, loneliness, broken hearts, lost time - the sadder the song the more the melodrama, so that strangers from all around the world found themselves beyond language, laughing and crying together. A hilarious, profound, generous and delicious day.

1. KAMOGAWA-KAI 加茂川会 (国際交流グループ): k*a*m*ogawakai1984@yahoo.co.jp (take out the *s)
2. The SINGERS are all members of ITC (International Training in Communication) in Kobe.
3. There will be a big CHANSON CONCERT in Osaka 21st August 2008 - I'll try and get details to post.

4/4/08

Pete Cooper, Osaka ピーットクーパー大坂

Just got back from Pete Cooper's concert in Yotsubashi, Osaka. It was brilliant and the audience were very appreciative (all Japanese except for me and an American man who had heard about the concert from internet radio). I guess maybe 30-40 or so people came - many of them from among the 18 participants of the previous day's workshop.
Pete is a well known London fiddler and teacher. He plays in a wide variety of styles and travels widely too. He has already played in China and it was great to see Pete in Japan for the first time.
He started off each set with solo fiddle and fiddle-singing (incl. the Lake of Ponchartraine, and some American bluegrass songs) and then was joined by Tamiko-san of Tokyo Fiddle Club (the concert organiser) and Omori-san on guitar or fiddle (who played Irish, Swedish and Russian tunes fantastically).
Pete had a noticeably thoughtful approach to his non-English speaking audience: He had found out some Japanese phrases - Good evening (konbanwa), thankyou (domo arigatou/maido), the numbers to count the players in, and cheers (kampai), which went down well, and in his English chat he slowed down just a tiny bit, sometime repeating things in different words so that everyone could get his succinct explanations and jokes. Lots of people had their photos taken with him afterwards, I think because they had appreciated him so much as a person as well as as a musician.
Tonight's three fiddlers had also been to Kyoto yesterday to play under the cherry blossom now in full bloom at Yasaka Shrine in Maruyama Park (Shijo Higashioji).
Good luck in Tokyo tomorrow Pete. I hope you will come back here every year - I think you might have made a few new friends here.

Green Grow the Rushes O

An old home recording from Camden, London
Recorded 2000? - thanks to Gervais Currie
MP3
Robert Burns' GREEN GROW THE RUSHES O ロバートバーンズ

ケント州の四つの古い歌

Four songs related to Kentish travellers
MP3s 
Recorded 2004 - thanks to Neil Anderson at Portobello Music
THE HARTLAKE BRIDGE DISASTER ハートレーク橋の災難
(Anon. from Jasper Smith)*

RIDING DOWN TO PORTSMOUTH  ポーツマス
(Anon. from May Ann Haynes)*

POOR LEONARD かわいそうのレナード君
(Trad. from Mary Ann Haynes)*

BORSTAL BOY ボースタル男の子
(Anon)**

Song sources:

* field recordings made by Mike Yates on 'Here's Luck to A Man - Gypsy Songs and Music from South East England', Musical Traditions'
MTCD320
**
graffiti photographed by Simon Evans in EFDSS' 'Root and Branch 1

Simon Evans is a BBC Radio Kent presenter specialising in Gypsies and folk music. His excellent programme about the Hartlake Bridge disaster is here. His Open Productions page is here.

三つのイギリスの歌

Three songs with Les Denniston in Kyoto, Japan
Recorded 2007 - thanks to Sugaki-san and Anime-san at Field
THE GREY FUNNEL LINE ネズミ色の煙突船線
( Cyril Tawney -
copyright Gwyneth Music)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA 南オーストラリア
(Trad.)

THE FALSEHEARTED LOVER 不忠実な恋人
(Trad.)