“It wasn’t your looks that charmed me, I liked the silver accessory on your tobacco case” (Lyric from Otemoyan)
Minyo Crusaders rework historic Japanese folk songs (min’yō) with Latin, African, Caribbean and Asian rhythms on their debut album “Echoes of Japan”.
Recent releases from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Midori Takada have re-ignited global interest in Japanese music and with Ry Cooder, Mario Galeano (Ondatrópica/Frente Cumbeiro) and Clap! Clap! already fans of the ten-piece, “Echoes of Japan” marks the arrival of a big band like no other, where distinctive min’yō vocals glide over grooves that join the dots between cumbia, Ethiopian jazz, Thai pop, Afro funk and reggae.
“For Japanese people, min’yō is both the closest, and most distant, folk music” explains band-leader Katsumi Tanaka: “We may not feel it in our daily, urban lives, yet the melodies, the style of singing and the rhythm of the taiko drums are engrained in our DNA”.
Initially indifferent to min’yō, a tragic event in recent Japanese history set Tanaka on his current path: “Following the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, like many Japanese, I reflected on my life, work and identity. A fan of world music, I began searching for Japanese… more
credits
released April 26, 2019
