I'm sure you all remember this series of commercials (and I apologize now for the video quality there), but did you ever think about the actual music being used?
Here's a better copy:
Yoshida Brothers - "Kodo" [Inside the Sun Remix]
In the spirit of the theremin post from a few months ago, tonight's post is about the samisen.
It is an awesome instrument.
I just wanted to get some more Yoshida Brothers in here, so you could see what it looks like when they play.
Hiromitsu Agatsuma is another contemporary artist, whom I first heard on NPR. Sadly, I think this track has a very "smooth jazz" sound to it, so I'm slightly put off. It's still some very impressive playing.
The work he's done with piano player Satoru Shionoya is more impressive.
Yoko Nagayama is serious business. Also, Mt. Fuji is more impressive when you have a Palin-do.
Slightly off-topic...I know those aren't samisen but erhu, but I just like the band and the song. Also, this needs to be the opening credits for an anime like, yesterday.
Let's start all classical on this and look at Takahashi Chikuzan. He lost his sight at around age two from measles before becoming a live-in apprentice of the Tsugaru-jamisen performer Toda Jūjirō near his home town.
If you make a Hoichi the Earless joke about this, I will hunt you down.
Screw classical, let's have some fun with it! (Oddly, this is what got me on a samisen kick in the first place.)
Hear that saxophone? That's the 80s.
I might sleep better tonight.
Finally, I leave you with this, which is not an actual samisen, but a moog imitation. It's from Tomita's cover of Holst's "The Planets" and it's a good track to close out on.
1 comment:
Sounds like a fretless 3 string banjo to me...
-banjo player
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