:::Clarinet #1:::

Posted: Wednesday 27 October 2010 by jazzlover in Etykiety:
5

Chindon is one of the stranger musical combinations in the world. It comes from both the street music and avant garde jazz scenes in Japan, defying the conformity of tradition and yet reveling in the connections to it. This brass/woodwinds based music merges jazz, klezmer, brass band, Japanese folk (and anything else it can get its hands on), into a wonderfully twisted and always surprising hybrid, unique unto itself. Cicala Mvta includes tuba, drum, percussion, cello, fiddle and electric guitar players, led by clarinetist/composer Wataru Ohkama. Ohkama was a member of the seminal Masami Shinoda bands, who took the chindon off the streets and into the edgy world of hard jazz and rock. This band follows that same tradition, with a vengeance. The melodies move from sublime Japanese folk tunes to insanely outside rock fusions, and it never lets up. They can dig into an original tune that comes out as eastern European klezmer one second, a Turkish time signature the next, and then spirals out of control as Ohkama's clarinet spins melodies from outer space. A bluesy slide guitar introduces a Brecht song that still somehow sounds very Japanese. Kabuki theater becomes Jewish jazz. Cicala Mvta carries on the great legacy of the late Shinoda and the band Compostela, spawning a new music that is full of twists and turns, and still has plenty of room to grow.
:::Review by CF:::

The British magazine "FolkRoots" about "Ching Dong":
“The stirring debut album by Cicala Mvta, Wataru Ohkuma's own band, produces complex, challenging and powerful music.”

Cicala Mvta - Ching Dong: The Return Of Japanese Street Music (1999)

1. Ohfuku Jinta 1:09
2. Punku Mancha No Odori 4:45
3. Rajamati Kumati 3:42
4. Michikusa No Tameni 6:27
5. Azuma Hakkei 5:26
6. Fratanisation Song 3:06 
7. Okuni Tsujiru Tobira 4:08
8. Turkish Dance 7:17
9. Nekomushi Ga Hairu Kara 5:52
10. Aohige No Yu-utsu 5:26
11. Shi Chome 3:52
12. Punku Mancha Reprise 1:10

Credits
Wataru Okuma (clarinet, bass clarinet, vocals),
Yoshiyuki Kawaguchi (saxophone),
Yoshiki Sakurai (guitar),
Takero Sakijima (tuba, recorder),
Tatsuya Yoshida (drums, vocals),
Keisuke Ota (violin, vocals),
Yoshiaki Sato (accordion),
Yoichiro Kita (trumpet),
Akiko Watanabe (trombone),
Miwazo Kogure (ching-dong, gorosu)

5 komentarze:

  1. jazzlover says:
    27 October 2010 at 19:25

    :::try it:::

  1. Anonymous says:
    27 October 2010 at 19:39

    I'll try anything once, thanks - steve.

  1. E-mile says:
    28 October 2010 at 01:55

    JL, you got me here [:-) Totally new to me, never even remotely heard from this album/musicians! Gonna give it a spin sometime tomorrow, will get back to you after that!
    I hope you have a clarinet #2 waiting.
    peace, E-mile

  1. Mogambo says:
    3 November 2010 at 20:48

    I've been dying to hear more Cicala Mvta since i heard a track from this album on the Rough Guide's Japan comp a decade ago... so hey, thanks a million!

    This is even worth taking a break from my current obsession with AKB48...

  1. Anonymous says:
    16 November 2010 at 14:27

    Greetings from Tokyo!

    Glad to see some folks introducing themselves to the wild world of Cicala Mvta, even if it is 12 years after the fact.

    If you like it, you can find their excellent second album over here:
    http://bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com/2008/11/cicala-mvta-deko-boko.html

    And be sure to look into Dr. Umezu Kazutoki's equally eccentrifugal Komatcha Klezmer and Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer bands buried in the same blog. In the words of the Bard of Mojave, "Fast and Bulbous."

    Finally, the whole hoppin' band will be playing 12/29 in Kichijoji (Tokyo's Bohemian western suburb). They are a RIOT live, especially with two tubas and 2 drummers -- one of whom happens to be famed Ruins wildman, Yoshida Tatsuya.
    http://www.cicala-mvta.com/
    Be there or be square! ;-)

    A.

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