30 YEARS IN THE MAKING -
HIROSHIMA CELEBRATES THE FIRST DECADE
OF THEIR LEGACY
New recording reinterprets compositions from the early years
When Hiroshima cut their self-titled debut album in 1979, record executives at their own label placed bets that the band’s unprecedented amalgam of traditional Japanese instruments, American jazz structure and Latin percussion – an intriguing but ultimately refreshing anomaly in the waning days of the disco era – wouldn’t make much of an impact in terms of sales or critical acclaim.
Thirty years later, Hiroshima has remained very much in the game. And they’ve done so by sticking to that original philosophy of blending genres to map out and promote unlikely artistic and cultural connections. After three decades, in a time when the globe grows smaller and more connected by the day, and sounds from all over that globe can be found in almost any piece of contemporary music, it appears that the world may finally be catching up with Hiroshima.
The band offers a retrospective of those early years with the August 18, 2009, release of Legacy (HUCD 3153) on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group. The album features eleven songs from the first ten years of Hiroshima’s prolific history – each re-recorded by the band’s current six-member lineup with assistance from four guest artists.
At the heart of Legacy – and of the Hiroshima experience in general – is the convergence of Eastern and Western music, as forged by saxophonist Dan Kuramoto and koto player June Kuramoto, the founding members whose joint commitment to genre bending and cross-cultural innovation is as solid today as it was on that first recording.
“When you start looking back at fifteen records over thirty years, that’s a lot of material to choose from,” says Dan Kuramoto. “So we narrowed the scope to the first ten years, which includes five records – two of which were gold. We tracked everything live in my home studio for this new recording, with almost no overdubs. In many cases, the songs on this record are fairly similar to the originals. In some cases, they’re very different.”
Rounding out the current Hiroshima lineup on Legacy are keyboardist Kimo Cornwell, bassist Dean Cortez, drummer Danny Yamamoto and taiko/percussionist Shoji Kameda. Guest artists – whom Kuramoto refers to as the band’s “extended family” – include percussionist Richie Gajate Garcia and vocalists Terry Steele, Yvette Nii and Jim Gilstrap. read more
Photos
Individual Group Member Images Available Upon Request
Track Listing: 1. Winds of Change
2. Turning Point
3. One Wish
4. Dada
5. I’ve Been Here Before
6. East
7. Roomful of Mirrors
8. Another Place
9. Save Yourself for Me
10. Hawaiian Electric
11. Thousand Cranes
30 YEARS IN THE MAKING -
HIROSHIMA CELEBRATES THE FIRST DECADE
OF THEIR LEGACY
New recording reinterprets compositions from the early years
When Hiroshima cut their self-titled debut album in 1979, record executives at their own label placed bets that the band’s unprecedented amalgam of traditional Japanese instruments, American jazz structure and Latin percussion – an intriguing but ultimately refreshing anomaly in the waning days of the disco era – wouldn’t make much of an impact in terms of sales or critical acclaim.
Thirty years later, Hiroshima has remained very much in the game. And they’ve done so by sticking to that original philosophy of blending genres to map out and promote unlikely artistic and cultural connections. After three decades, in a time when the globe grows smaller and more connected by the day, and sounds from all over that globe can be found in almost any piece of contemporary music, it appears that the world may finally be catching up with Hiroshima.
The band offers a retrospective of those early years with the August 18, 2009, release of Legacy (HUCD 3153) on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group. The album features eleven songs from the first ten years of Hiroshima’s prolific history – each re-recorded by the band’s current six-member lineup with assistance from four guest artists.
At the heart of Legacy – and of the Hiroshima experience in general – is the convergence of Eastern and Western music, as forged by saxophonist Dan Kuramoto and koto player June Kuramoto, the founding members whose joint commitment to genre bending and cross-cultural innovation is as solid today as it was on that first recording.
“When you start looking back at fifteen records over thirty years, that’s a lot of material to choose from,” says Dan Kuramoto. “So we narrowed the scope to the first ten years, which includes five records – two of which were gold. We tracked everything live in my home studio for this new recording, with almost no overdubs. In many cases, the songs on this record are fairly similar to the originals. In some cases, they’re very different.”
Rounding out the current Hiroshima lineup on Legacy are keyboardist Kimo Cornwell, bassist Dean Cortez, drummer Danny Yamamoto and taiko/percussionist Shoji Kameda. Guest artists – whom Kuramoto refers to as the band’s “extended family” – include percussionist Richie Gajate Garcia and vocalists Terry Steele, Yvette Nii and Jim Gilstrap.
The set gets under way with the dramatic and atmospheric “Winds of Change,” a GRAMMY®-nominated composition from Hiroshima’s 1980 release, Odori. “It’s out there,” says Kuramoto of the song’s ethereal and sweeping arrangement, “but it’s real music as far as we’re concerned. It’s vintage Hiroshima, filled with lots of colors, drama and emotions, and it’s played – now as then – with all the heart and soul and spirit that we can muster.”
Other noteworthy tracks in the first half of the sequence include the simultaneously shimmering and funky hit single “One Wish” (originally from Another Place, released in 1985), as well as the poignant “I’ve Been Here Before” (from Go, 1987).
The Legacy version of “Another Place” is a reflection of the evolution that has taken place within and around this song in the 20-plus years since it was first recorded. “The original version of this song was a little over three minutes long,” says Kuramoto. “The version we do here runs more than nine minutes. It features two gargantuan solos, one by June and another by Kimo. People love this extended version in our shows, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we just do our live version of that song for this record?’”
The set closes with “Thousand Cranes” (from East, released in 1989), a stirring ballad that positions June Kuramoto’s koto firmly within a contemporary jazz context. Just about every player on this track offers his or her voice to create a gentle but heartfelt prayer for peace that gives this new version of the song a valedictory note.
Other Legacy tracks and their original sources include: “Turning Point” (Providence, 1992), “Dada” (Hiroshima, 1979), “East” (East, 1989), “Roomful of Mirrors” (Hiroshima, 1979), “Save Yourself for Me” (Another Place, 1985), “Hawaiian Electric” (Go, 1987).
Despite its retrospective sensibilities, Legacy is by no means a swan song for Hiroshima. Rather, it’s bookend to thirty years of innovative music, and a promise of more great things to come. “I would like to think that there’s a heart and a voice within this music that doesn’t go out of style,” says Kuramoto. “These songs are as fresh and meaningful to us today as they were the first time they were recorded. They’re not of a particular genre. They are our musical heart. They shift gears from Japanese to jazz to salsa to R&B and beyond. Throughout each piece, you can hear the echoes of all the experiences that have influenced us along the way.”
In 1971, Duke Ellington recorded an album entitled The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse. As part of that work, Ellington proclaimed “that whole world was going [Asian],” and that no one would know “who was in the shadow of whom.” The celebrated ensemble known as Hiroshima is the fulfillment of Ellington’s prophecy. In the three decades since they first convened, the Los Angeles-based ensemble of Dan Kuramoto (keyboards/woodwinds/composer/producer), June Okida Kuramoto (koto), Danny Yamamoto (drums), Kimo Cornwell (piano/keyboards), Dean Cortez (bass) and newest member Shoji Kameda (taiko drum/percussion) have blended jazz, pop, and rock with traditional Japanese folk music and instruments. The resulting sound was a pioneering voice in the world music movement of the late 20th century.
While Hiroshima have sold more than three million records in their prolific career, they’ve done something even more important in the process: they’ve introduced a variety of traditional Asian instruments to a global audience, and integrated them seamlessly into a new music and art form. The Japanese koto, a zither-like, 13-stringed instrument, shakuhachi, a five holed bamboo flute, and the powerful taiko (which literally means “drum”) combine with instruments from the Western Hemisphere to create their unique musical palette.
For Hiroshima – which takes its name from the Japanese city that sustained a nuclear blast during World War II, yet rose phoenix-like from its own ashes – the “ride” began in the polyglot metropolis of Los Angeles. Of all of the members, only June Kuramoto was born in Japan. She arrived in Los Angeles when she was six and lived in an African-American neighborhood. As Dan Kuramoto, her ex-husband recalls, “When she came here from Japan, she couldn’t speak a word of English. As if by providence, the leading koto player of Japan needed a place to teach. This madam Kazue Kudo taught at June’s house in the ghetto. In exchange, June got free koto lessons. As June grew as a classical prodigy, so did the influence of her life in America. By junior high school she asked her teacher if she could play songs by the Temptations on the koto. She’s always had a soulful feel in her playing.” Dan Kuramoto, who sang in a Baptist church choir during his youth, also grew up with an interest in African-American music and multi-culturalism.
Dan and June formed Hiroshima in 1974. Their self-titled debut on Arista in 1979 spawned the hit single, “Roomful of Mirrors” and the intense showstopper, “Da Da.” They quickly developed a loyal following among cities with African-American audiences – particularly Washington, DC; Chicago and Atlanta – and they enjoyed radio airplay on black and contemporary jazz radio stations nationwide.
Their subsequent albums were equally successful. Odori, released in 1980, earned a Grammy nomination. In 1983, they signed with Epic and released Third Generation. Two years later, Another Place generated the popular single, “One Wish,” and became their first gold record. Go, released in 1987, sat at the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart for three months, and the album won a Soul Train Award for Best Jazz Album of 1987.
East, released two years later, contained music from Sansei, Hiroshima's critically acclaimed play that was performed at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Mark Taper Forum. Providence (1992) featured “Time on the Nile,” a tribute to Miles Davis (with whom they’d toured before his death in 1991), and an inventive rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky.” After their stint with Epic, Hiroshima signed with Quincy Jones’s Qwest label and released LA (1994), an album that encouraged healing in the aftermath of the L.A. race riots, and Urban World Music (1996), which featured Quiet Storm sounds with Average White Band vocalist Hamish Stewart. Voted top ten record of the year by The Network, Between Black and White followed in 1999 on the Windham Hill Jazz imprint.
The band joined Heads Up International, a division of the Concord Music Group, with the 2003 release of The Bridge, a recording that extended their unique and universal artistry into the 21st century. They followed with the 2004 release of Spirit of the Season, a holiday album that celebrates cultural diversity in a way that only a L.A.-based Asian American band with shades of Latin percussion and other world music sensibilities can do.
In the spring of 2005, the group released Obon, their first instrumental record and a tribute to the musicians, places and events that have inspired the band throughout the years. Obon also marked the band’s 25th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the imprisonment of the Japanese during WWII.
In 2007, Hiroshima released Little Tokyo. The album title, a reference to the well known Asian neighborhood in southern California, is the group’s nod to the increasing importance in 21st century America of maintaining a positive multicultural world view in the midst of international and intercultural tensions.
The band offers an exciting retrospective of their early years with the August 2009 release of Legacy. The album features eleven songs from the first ten years of Hiroshima’s prolific history – each re-recorded by the band’s current six-member lineup with assistance from four guest artists.
