#SlamminSunday

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while, but I am now at the point where I would rather post something when I feel it might actually be of interest instead of committing myself to daily posts with wavering amounts of substance.

Anyhow, in light of current events, my graduate school's planned international business trip scheduled for Europe this Summer has been changed to East Asia.  During class last week, the topic of Japan came up and I was excited about possibly going there and other parts of East Asia than Europe anyway, due to having traveled to Europe before already.  Somehow, I starting sharing with my classmates before class started about music that I have been listening to from artists from the country (like Yellow Magic Orchestra, etc.), which led to the question of the week:  "How'd you get into that?"

Well, answering the question highlights the preference I have for buying tangible copies of records, CDs, etc. Only through jacket sleeves, and linear notes on the inside of album booklets am I able to learn interesting and insightful information about the artist as well as study the personnel that performed in the production of the recorded work.  Doing this, one would be surprised at who has played on who's record. One will find that the musical circle is surprisingly very small.  So, I shared the story of how I became fascinated with the song that was covered by Michael Jackson and session keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, entitled, "Behind The Mask."  The writing credit cited an artist that I had not realized I had heard of before until I remembered having the song "Firecracker" by the Yellow Magic Orchestra in my collection.  The composer is Ryuichi Sakamoto, a prolific artist that compelled me to dive head-first into exploration of the Japanese music scene...  And so just when I thought I heard and explored it all, a new fascination arose.

So, I leave you with another prolific Japanese artist that has been recording and performing for as long as Sakamoto, Tomoyasu Hotei.  Known around the world for his anthemic masterpiece, "Battle Wihout Honor or Humanity," featured in Quentin Tarantino's film, "Kill Bill, Vol. I."

Have a great week!