NIKKEI VIEW: The Asian American Blog

Gil Asakawa’s Japanese American perspective on pop culture, media and politics

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Entries Tagged as 'music'

New visualizAsian.com interview: Meet Dan Kuramoto, founding member of Grammy-nominated group Hiroshima

February 15th, 2010 · No Comments

We’ve taken several months off, but Erin and I are ready to resume our series of interviews with inspirational Asian Americans for 2010. We’re especially proud to be able to speak with Dan Kuramoto, one of the founding members of the fusion jazz group Hiroshima, because the group has been nominated twice for a Grammy [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Jake Shimabukuro interview from TED conference

February 12th, 2010 · 7 Comments

The social media blog Mashable snagged a pretty cool interview with Hawai’ian ukulele maestro Jake Shimabukuro at the annual TED conference (TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design” and it’s a chi-chi invitation-only think-tank gathering of great minds) after his performance yesterday, which drew a standing ovation. I’ve written about Shimabukuro before, and I’m glad he [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Download Kina Grannis’ free single “Valentine” & pre-order her new CD “Stairwells”

February 9th, 2010 · 2 Comments

I downloaded my copy. You should too. Kina Grannis is letting you download a free copy of “Valentine,” the catchy folk-pop track that’s captured in the lyrical video above, as a preview of her new full-length album, “Stairwells,” which is available for pre-order. You can get a signed copy of the “Stairwells” CD, which officially [...]

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Tags: asian american · music

Virginia band Tim Be Told playing Denver, Colorado Springs on national tour

February 3rd, 2010 · 2 Comments

Colorado music fans can get a taste of an up-and-coming Asian American indie band from Charlottesville, Virginia next week, when Tim Be Told comes through Colorado Springs and Denver during their national tour. Tim Be Told are alternative rockers led by a young, multi-talented Chinese American singer, songwriter and keyboard player named Tim Ouyang. The [...]

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Tags: asian american · music

Retired sumo champ Akebono on Japanese promo for “Glee!”

January 23rd, 2010 · 5 Comments

I saw this on Angry Asian Man and it made me smile, both because Erin and I really enjoy the Fox series “Glee!” and because it’s good to see that Akebono, the sumo wrestler who sings “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the commercial, is still a star with drawing power in Japan. You might notice that [...]

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Tags: japan & asia · music · pop culture

Gwendoline Yeo’s one-woman stage production captures Asian American identity

January 19th, 2010 · No Comments

We saw an awesome theatrical performance over the weekend, as part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts‘ “Stories on Stage” series of dramatic literary readings. The performance was a draft of “Laughing with My Mouth Wide Open,” a work in progress. It’s a one-woman show by Gwendoline Yeo, an actress and musician from [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

A must-read: Thoughtful essay about race and the Fox series “Glee”

December 11th, 2009 · 3 Comments

Erin and I have come to love “Glee!,” the Fox TV series about a group of outcast students who join their high school glee club (remember how glee club people were always the nerds?). We enjoyed the sneak preview premier, which was shown last fall, and then waited with great anticipation for the season to [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Dawen’s “American Me” is a gem of an R&B-pop recording; don’t miss him in NYC dates this week

December 2nd, 2009 · 4 Comments

The first single from Dawen‘s debut album, “American Me,”which was released back in September, wastes no time stating his passion for Asian American identity. “Flip through the paper, turn on the telly, go to a movie,” he croons in his supple, silky soprano. Then he slips into the first verse: Just because you saw the [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

East West Players developing “Krunk Fu Battle Battle,” Asian American hip-hop musical

November 21st, 2009 · No Comments

It’s not often that we get the chance to see the embryonic stage of a theatrical project, and see how a play is developed. So we were fortunate that our visit to LA to attend the BANANA conference of Asian American bloggers coincided with a free “workshop” performance of a new project being developed by [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Hello Kavita is a great band, and not just because leader Corey Teruya is Asian American

October 26th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Should musicians be praised and have the spotlight shined on them simply because they’re Asian American? Of course not. But if some of us AAPI bloggers didn’t pay attention to the Asian American artists out there, they may go quietly under the radar and not get any attention at all. Not that we make such [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Philippines prison dancers’ best Michael Jackson tribute

October 24th, 2009 · No Comments

I know it’s several months late, but I didn’t see a lot of sites spreading this around. Back in 2007, after the prison in Cebu, Philippines started using dance as a way to rehabilitate its prisoners by having them participate in a group creative endeavor and letting them perform for visitors, a video of the [...]

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Tags: music · pop culture

Ang Lee’s take on Woodstock doesn’t compare to the original movie on DVD. Bummer, man.

August 31st, 2009 · No Comments

I’m a big fan of Ang Lee, the Taiwan-born director of such terrific films as “The Wedding Banquet,” “Eat Drink Man Woman,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain.” He glides effortlessly between cultures, putting Chinese values to celluloid in one movie and reflecting America in the next. He [...]

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Tags: asian american · baby boomers · music · pop culture

Michael Jackson tribute by David Choi: “Ben”

June 26th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Here’s a video that was coincidentally uploaded to YouTube by singer-songwriter David Choi, whose stuff I like very much, on June 23, just two days before Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop” suddenly and shockingly died. (It’s the third-listed link on You Tube when you search for “Michael Jackson.”) “Ben” is an unusual choice for [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Dengue Fever’s effortless grace in “Sleepwalking through the Mekong” epitomizes Asian American synthesis

May 28th, 2009 · No Comments

I loved watching Dengue Fever’s new documentary, “Sleepwalking through the Mekong,” and listening to the great music by the band as well as some of its antecedents collected on the soundtrack. I’ve written about Dengue Fever before, but didn’t get a chance to see the show when they played Denver on a tour. So I’m [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

A pair of AAPI musicians harmonize on “Wonderful World”

April 2nd, 2009 · No Comments

Musical interlude: I saw on Facebook that Kinna Grannis had posted a video of herself with David Choi, sittin’ on a couch and humming and strumming the pop standard, “What a Wonderful World.” It’s a very sweet version, and the two harmonize beautifully together. I blogged about Grannis a few months ago when I stumbled [...]

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Tags: asian american · music · pop culture

Jero, the first black enka singer in Japan, is not just a novelty

December 31st, 2008 · 8 Comments

Enka music is often referred to as “Japanese blues.” The comparison is apt for a couple of reasons: the music is almost always about heartbreak and inconsolable loss. You can hear it in the singing. And, enka singing relies a lot on vocal inflections that are also common to American blues and gospel music: vibrato [...]

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Tags: asian american · japan & asia · music · pop culture

The Sierra Club’s privileged caste: Is the green movement white?

December 8th, 2008 · 6 Comments

The folk-rock group I play with, Mallworthy, was asked to perform at a holiday party and awards ceremony for the Sierra Club in Boulder last night. The event was held in the cafeteria of a Unitarian church, and there was a constant clatter with a couple-hundred people standing in line for the array of potluck [...]

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Tags: music · places · pop culture

‘Sukiyaki,’ Kina Grannis’ music and the random magic of YouTube

December 6th, 2008 · 4 Comments

Surfing YouTube videos can be like the early days of surfing the Internet. Following links to random Web pages is a leap of faith, a trust in kismet, that what you’re about to see is both somehow related to what you were seeking in the first place, and hopefully entertaining. In the midst of one [...]

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Tags: asian american · baby boomers · japan & asia · music

Meiko and the new ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ folk music: dreamy and world-weary

December 2nd, 2008 · 3 Comments

Meiko, a one-quarter Japanese American, or “quapa,” from Georgia by way of Los Angeles, is at the vanguard of the new folk music. At least, that’s the category where you’ll find her on iTunes. She strums and picks an acoustic guitar, so she fits the folksinger/troubadour image. But her music isn’t based on the traditional [...]

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Tags: asian american · music

Peter Paul & Mary, the sweetest voices of the 1960s folk era

November 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Although I covered pop music at a time when punk, hardcore, “alternative” rock, rap and hip hop were the coolest sounds, I always had a soft spot for the sweet sugar of pure pop. I once wrote an essay comparing Michael Jackson to Prince, as if Jackson were the Beatles and Prince were the Rolling [...]

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Tags: baby boomers · music · pop culture