Off the Wall Originally uploaded by Champuru Watch, enjoy and listen to live Okinawan music every 1st and 3rd Wednesday night of the month at Off the Wall (Aiea, Hawaii). (From their email newsletter—nifee deebitan to Sandaa-sensei for the tip!): Join us this coming Wednesday, September 17, at OFF THE WALL BAR for LIVE OKINAWAN …
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A song that I completely fell in love with in 2006 also happened to be the Miuta Taishou Grand Prix winner of that same year: “Miyarabi nu Hana.” The song—sung by upcoming utasaa Akane Murayoshi of Kumejima Town—also performed at the Okinawan Festival in Hawaii in 2006. The album, unsurprisingly titled “Miyarabi nu Hana,” was …
Geez, I’m really going to go broke this year what with all these great CD releases in the 2nd half of 2008 and with my mom’s and big bro’s birthdays this month, Xmas and that shiny new iPod nano. But I digress. Coming on 10/10/08, an artist whom I really, really admire, Suekichi Matsuda, will …
Continue reading “And the awesome new releases for 2008 keep coming!”
Have you heard of the Okinawan word churakaagii? Well, the very handy Okinawan-English Wordbook (Amazon.com link) defines the word as “a beauty; a belle; a pretty girl; a good-looking woman.” All of these describe utasaa Kazumi Tamaki and to top it off, she’s super nice in person too. Anyway, before I go on about Kazumi, …
Continue reading “New Kazumi Tamaki CD to be released on 9/25/08!”
This upcoming release from Toru Yonaha is the perfect companion to his 2007 album “Utage ~party~” which was heavily influenced by J-pop. The 11 track album titled “Roots ~Ryukyu Iwaiuta~ (Best of Okinawan Traditional Songs)” will be released on 9/24/08 in Okinawa. Dude, I am so buying this. (Via 沖縄三線日和.)
While browsing the iTunes Store (waiting patiently for Hikaru Utada’s [a J-pop artist with no ties that I know of to Okinawan pop culture but thought I’d share this information with you anyway 😛 ] latest album to pop-up there) I stumbled on two indies artists — one an utasaa, the other an O-pop duo …
Perhaps the most anticipated CD debut (for Okinawan minyou) of the year is Tatsuya Shimabukuro’s “Tunugi” which is set to be released on March 12. Tatsuya’s “Tunugi” will contain 12 tracks including two that he composed the music for. The reasonably priced ¥2,500 album, from Campus Records’ Tundami label, will also feature the talents of …
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Warabigami Lyrics by Misako Koja / Music & Arrangement by Kazuya Sahara from the album “Ama Kakeru Hashi (Bridges Over Heaven)” (DM-002) tiN kara nu migumi, ukiti ku nu shige ni Nmari taru nashigwa, wami nu mui sudati irayoo hei, irayoo hoi irayoo kanashi umi nashigwa nakuna yooya heiyoo heiyoo tida nu hikari ukiti yuuiri …
Found a link to this wonderful website (kept by a fellow Mac user too 😀 ) in my referral log and I thought I’d share it with everyone. The Uta Sanshin Circle is a resource for those who live in (or are visiting) the mainland USA with information on classical and minyou classes. It looks …
Popular utasha (Okinawan folk singer) Kazutoshi “Kaazuu” Matsuda recently performed in two of Okinawa’s New Year’s TV specials: RBC’s “Kouhaku Uta-gassen” and OTV’s “Shinshun! Shimauta no Saiten.” Although both shows won’t air until January (RBC’s one on 1/2, OTV’s on 1/3), Kaazuu is sharing a few pics on his blog which gives us a preview …
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