SOUNDTRACK: MINYU CRUSADERS-GlobalFEST Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #134/142 (January 12, 2021).
GlobalFEST is an annual event, held in New York City, in which bands from all over the world have an opportunity to showcase their music to an American audience. I’ve never been, and it sounds a little exhausting, but it also sounds really fun.
The Tiny Desk is teaming up with globalFEST this year for a thrilling virtual music festival: Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST. The online fest includes four nights of concerts featuring 16 bands from all over the world.
Given the pandemic’s challenges and the hardening of international borders, NPR Music and globalFEST is moving from the nightclub to your screen of choice and sharing this festival with the world. Each night, we’ll present four artists in intimate settings (often behind desks donning globes), and it’s all hosted by African superstar Angélique Kidjo, who performed at the inaugural edition of globalFEST in 2004.
The first band on the second night is Minyo Crusaders from Japan.
Min’yō folk music was originally sung by Japanese fishermen, coal miners and sumo wrestlers hundreds of years ago, and the Minyo Crusaders are on a mission to make these songs relevant to an international audience. For their performance, the Crusaders found a unique take for their desk: a “kotatsu,” which is a heated Japanese table traditionally used for gathering in the winter months.
The diversity of music melding together here is quite impressive.
They open with “Hohai Bushi” (The album credits the style of this song as “afro”).
It starts with high notes like a theremin then quietly jangly guitars. Cumbia-sounding horns (sax and trumpet) and complicated percussion (shakers and cowbells) flesh out the song. Once everybody is established, a groovy bassline underpins the whole thing. The male singing starts singing and the female adds some nice high backing oohs with it. Sadly, band member names are not given so I can’t credit anyone.
When the song is in full swing the guitars play loud and the keys play a retro sound including a retro fuzzed out keyboard solo. Toward the end, a bass line slowly builds and the drums add intensity as they sing “ho hai ho hai.”
The guitarist speaks between songs. He says his English is very poor but he does a fine job.
The second song “Yasugi Bushi” (bolero) is much more chill. The male singer sits aside and the female singer takes lead. There’s some nice basslines that repeat although for this song it’s really the saxophone that takes the lead with a lot of soloing.
The guitarist says these songs are old work songs and festival songs: “Minyo is dead in Japan but they are trying to bring it back.”
They end with “Aizu Bandaisan” (latin). This song is much more dancey. Lots of Latin horns, groovy bass and congas. The lyrics are in Japanese (of course) but there’s a fun part where it sounds like they are singing “soy soy.” As the song jams toward the end, there is lots of whooping and yelping and a wild trumpet solo.
This is a super fun set.
[READ: January 14, 2021] The Inugami Curse
Seishi Yokomizo was a hugely prolific writer. He created Japan’s most famous detective (comparable to Sherlock Holmes in scope), Kosuke Kindaichi, who featured in seventy-seven books! The Inugami Curse is apparently one of the best known of the stories and has been adapted into film and TV.
There are only two of his novels translated into English, this one (translated by Yumiko Yamazaki) and The Honjin Murders (1946) (translated by Louise Heal Kawai).
This book was an absolutely fantastic, complicated mystery. There were many twists and turns. And the way the story was plotted was perfect.
Sahei Imugami was a wealthy man. He was called the Silk King of Japan and his business provided work for many many people. He was a local celebrity to be sure and even had a biography written about him.
Sahei never married, but he did have three daughters with three different women. The book opens with a character list which is quite helpful.
DAUGHTERS: Matsuko; Takeko; Umeko
GRANDONS: Kiyo; Také; Tomo
There are some husbands involved as well.
There is also Tamayo Nonomiya, the granddaughter of a married couple who took Sahei in when he was just starting out. He thinks of them as family, so when Tamayo was orphaned, he took her in. (more…)
