This year is Kawaihae’s tenth anniversary. I first met Kawaihae through Jeff, the lead singer with an awesome voice. Jeff was working in Kumagaya Japan while I was down in Nagoya. But that’s not where I heard him sing.

A MASTER PERFORMER
and a masterful artist. Jeff adds his talents on the ukulele to his talented voice among other entertaining skills in his repretoire as he livens up any party. Jeff brought his ukulele and his voice to Australia where he entertained us with humor, magic, and music.

And this week’s performance did not disappoint. The five members of the band were in great form, energetic, and fired up the mid-week crowd.

During the set there were such happenings as seeing (or rather hearing) Jeff’s instrument lose its tuning. Without batting an eye and without breaking a sweat, and while continuing to sing, he put the strings into place, tuned up, and sang on. Ladies and gentlemen…it was a sight to see. Vance K. kept the crowd in fine spirits with his smooth bilingual emcee talents while breaking out the shaka strum on his uke. Scott kept the bass beat locked down with his cool unflappable style. An-san, pummeled out perfect rhythms for straight sets while Jimbo cheerfully kept everything tied together on lead guitar.

HULA?
But it wouldn’t be Hawaiian style without solid support from the crowd. And talk about support? Under Vance K.’s skillful encouragement, hula dancers were brought up on stage in an impromptu call. They showed they still had the moves. Even Jimbo put down the guitar to show off his moves.

HANA HOU!
At the end of the night, the crowd was on their feet and begging for more. And more we got. The whole place was packed and dancing , moving and shaking. From little kids to adults, Kawaihae brought Aloha to Akasaka.

THE MUSIC
Hear more of them, buy their DVDs.

Mahalo.

Dylan

Shu & Creams

Don’t let her good looks fool you–Shu is not just the leader of the band, she is also a cream of the crop Electrical Engineer by day who leads a band of talented Aeronautical Engineers in designing and building the latest and greatest avionics for aircraft systems!

Today, Shu & Creams will be performing at “Live Musica 2010″ and they will be er…live… at the “Welcomeback” just a short one minute walk from the Otsuka Train station on the JR line.  Shu & Creams will be the main act following two opening gigs by a couple of other bands.    

Be sure to check them out!  Mar 7, 2010 at the Welcomeback.  Doors open at 1230; the music starts flowing at 1250.  The show will probably be wrapped up around 1600 so don’t be late!

And one of my major complaints about the iPod is the way I get the music into the little box.  In order to play CDs that I own, I must sync my iPod to a single computer, and spend hours ripping the hundreds of CDs into that machine.  Further, if the album is duplicated in the CD database, or if it is stored in a manner that is not to my liking, I have to spend some time editing the entry, genre, album name etc. I just don’t have the desire to spend this kind of time.  I wish someone could just take all of my CDs, put them into a memory storage device, with the album covers, and then send me the whole device.  Ultimately, this device would be portable and plugable.  I should be able to copy these tunes to my car, my home stereo, my office desk, and anywhere else I might want to listen to music.  I don’t want to be tied to an iPod.  I don’t want to carry my iPod. I don’t even want an iPhone.  I want to go as simple as possible…

And while walking around one of the shopping centers in Den Haag, I found a Bang & Olfsen store.  For those of you not familiar with this high-end brand of audio equipment, don’t bother price shopping.  This brand comes up with some of the best fidelity, and truly unique style of music machines.  I loved their vertical CD player. 

I walked into the store and told the salesman what I was looking for.  He walked me right over to the $8,000 digital music system.  I fell in love the instant I heard the concept.  They take my CDs, covert them to a lossless format, upload them to a box, and then give me a stereo system that would meet most of my needs.  Most, but not all.

I found the organization system great.  The concept of matching songs was neat–you pick the first song, the machine picks all other songs that match the beat and style and unending music begins to play in a way you’ve never heard before.

I like this system!  But I want an iPod price…

 D

http://www.bang-olufsen.com/beosound5

Heavenly Star I

Dig the future and check out their sound!

Catchy, energetic, and just fun to watch the choreography along with the cool tunes….

“Here it goes, here it goes..Here it goes it again…..”

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=YNfkkydKl6I

I like the video too.  Simple, never direct, always in reflection.  Almost as an afterthought.  Often the world is reflected in those around us.  You can never see yourself the way others see you.

I searched the web and found very little in English.  It turns out this dynamic violinist is blind, but by the manner of his stage entrance and exit, that was difficult to discern.  His expression of power, energy, finesse and passion are clearly embodied in his music. 

His devotion to his profession began at an early age when his father told the 7-year old Narimichi that he would never see again.  Despite what must have been anger at the poor fortune of having his eyes melt from a bad combination of incorrect diagnosis and inappropriate medication, he fondly recalls his time at UCLA Medical clinic where doctors determined his ailment.

A PDF that has an extract and talks about his book. “Bokuwa Namidano Denai Mede Naita” (I cried with my eyes, which cannot produce tears. Find it here.

The U.S. Amazon.com only lists a few of his CDs, You can find them by clicking on this search “Search Amazon for Narimichi Kawabata“. 
The Japan site: Amazon.co.jp has a more extensive list of books and CDs.  You will find them by clicking on this search “Search Amazon in Japan for Narimichi Kawabata“.

• Sarasate himself plays Zigeunerweisen (1904)
• Jascha Heifetz - Zigeunerweisen
• Kyung Wa Chung – Zigeunerweisen
• Izhak Perlman – Zigeunerweisen

• Szeryng playing Sarasate’s Zapateado (1960)