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singer (3)

R.I.P.

MAKIGAMI Koichi : Vocalist, Improvizer, Songwriter, throat singer, JAPAN

Posted by Tran Quang Hai on April 15, 2008 at 23:00

MAKIGAMI Koichi


VOCALIST,IMPROVISER,SONGWRITER,ACTOR,DIRECTOR,PRODUCER Makigami Koichi is leader/vocalist/theremin/mouth harp player for rock band HIKASHU, known for his virtuosic vocal range and expression as well as his unique incorporation of elements of theatre, performance, and entertainment, all of which make this Japanese band so widely acclaimed both critically and popularly.
He is also active as voice improvisation artist and solo performer. In addition
to recordings with HIKASHU, Makigami released a solo album in 1992 of re-worked,
reinterpreted old Japanese popular songs, produced by John Zorn. Together with this recorded work, he has conducted a series of concerts under this project.

From 1993, Makigami has been acting as organiser and promptor for the monthly Tokyo session of John Zorn's game piece COBRA.

Makigami has worked and collaborated with a great many artists and musicians in a wide variety of areas and styles, such as Takahashi Yuji, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Otomo Yoshihide, David Moss, Lauren Newton, Anthony Coleman,Umezu Kazutoki, Carl Stone, Jon Rose, Guy Klucevsek, and Derek Bailey. Ongoing projects include his aforementioned unique avant-pop based on old popular Japanese music, performance using interactive computer technology, voice improvisation, and various work as organiser and producer.

For more details , go to http://tranquanghai.info/index.php?p=125

To contact Makigami Koichi:
Mail: click
17-14 Izumi,Atamishi,,413-0001,JAPAN
+81-465-63-0578tel +81-465-62-0427 fax

http://www.makigami.com/index-e.html

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R.I.P.

Kongar-ol Ondar, biography, Tuvan throat singer

Posted by Tran Quang Hai on April 14, 2008 at 5:30
Kongar-ol Ondar

Ondar

Ondar was born in 1962 near the Hemchik River in western Tuva, within sight of the ruins of the Chadaana Buddhist Monastery destroyed by the communists in the 1930's. Ondar's epic saga would converge around his singular vocal gift to make him Tuva's musical ambassador to the world. As a child, he was taught the fundamentals of throat-singing by his uncle. "Throat-singing is a tradition of Tuva that is very old," Ondar recently remarked. "it is inspired by the beautiful landscape of Tuva, which is full of sounds -- the windswept open range with grazing livestock, the mountain forests full of birds and animals and the countless streams tumbling out of the mountains onto the open range to form mighty rivers. Our throat-singing has been passed down for countless generations. It is the immortal part of ourselves.

By 1980, after finishing his primary education, Ondar had already begun his career as a professional vocalist, employed by the Tuvan House Of Culture. He later became the MC and featured singer with the popular local group, the Cheleesh Ensemble. In late 1983, Ondar was drafted into the Soviet Navy, which seemed blissfully unaware that its young recruit hailed from an entirely landlocked country. While stationed on Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula, he suffered a broken neck while loading hundred pound bags of sugar and, after 45 days in sick bay, was honorably discharged.

Returning to his native land, Ondar studied at the Kyzyl Pedagogical Institute and became a Russian language teacher. The haunting music of his homeland, however, was never far from his heart and mind. "As I am a Tuvan, I believe that throat-singing is in my blood," asserts Ondar. "When I was a boy, I would go every summer high into the mountains to stay with one of my mother's uncles. There, in the evenings in the camp, I would hear the old man sing to himself. He would have a few drinks of arak -- the local brew made from fermented goat's milk -- and sing two, three or even four notes at once.

Later, at school, I sang and sang and sang, until I got it, too." It was from such rich recollections and deep cultural roots that Ondar determined to make throat-singing his life. In 1985, he formed the Tuva Ensemble which, defying official displeasure, began performing concerts both in Tuva and in neighboring Soviet republics. By the early '90s Ondar's reputation had begun to take on an international scope, first with a series of well-received performances in Europe and then as the winner of the UNESCO-sponsored International Festival of Throat-Singing. A year later, after a hugely successful tour of the Netherlands, the Tuva Ensemble recorded their first album, Tuva: Voices From The Land Of The Eagle (on the independent PAN label). Small wonder that, in 1992, he was honored by his grateful nation with the title of People's Throat-Singer of Tuva. Ondar's odyssey had only begun. As word-of-mouth about this remarkable vocal style and its prime practitioner began to spread among a select group of savvy musicians,

Ondar found himself in demand for a diverse range of globe-spanning projects. In 1993 alone, he performed and recorded with The Kronos Quartet, for their album Night Prayers; Ry Cooder, as well as Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead's Micky Hart, The Chieftains and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Ondar was also a special guest at a command performance in New York City, sharing the stage with a troupe of Tibetan Monks and Japanese avant garde pioneer Kitaro.

In 1994, Ondar joined forces with San Francisco artist Paul "Earthquake" Pena to record a groundbreaking blend of throat-singing and blues, aptly titled Genghis Blues. He subsequently went on tour with Pena, and after returning home, sang for an august audience that included Tuvan leader Sherig-ool Oorzhak and former Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, who afterward named Ondar a National Artist Of Russia. It was a far cry from the days when the authorities all but banned throat-singing in the Soviet Empire. Additional accolades, awards and albums followed, including the 1995 release Echoes Of Tuva and appearances at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, the Japan Society in New York and the Korea Society Center at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
http://www.ondar.com/
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R.I.P.

Paul PENA, throat singer, USA

Posted by Tran Quang Hai on April 14, 2008 at 5:30
Thanks to the documentary film, Genghis Blues, Paul Pena is now known and appreciated throughout the world for his amazing accomplishments as a musician, particularly for having taught himself the techniques of traditional Tuvan singing.

K.O.& Paul perform at the Presidio Chapel (SF) Jan. 6, 2000. Paul's wearing a traditional Tuvan robe and hat that he was given during his epic journey to Tuva.

Paul Pena was born on January 26, 1950 in Hyannis, MA, the oldest child of Jack and Virginia Pena. His grandparents came from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. He was born with congenital glaucoma. When he was five, he began school at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown (a suburb of Boston). He graduated in 1967 and then attended Clark University in Worcester, MA.


As a young child, Paul soon showed his talent for music. His mother heard him picking out melodies and chords on a baby grand piano that had been found in the town dump and brought home, 'as a toy that a blind child might enjoy.' He developed 'perfect pitch.' Soon Paul was studying the piano, guitar, upright bass, violin and 'a little trumpet.' He played and sang popular jazz and Cape Verdian ballads with his father, a professional jazz musician, and also sang in his school choruses. Paul appeared in a talent show, and while in college, performed in coffeehouses in Worcester.

In 1969, Paul played in the Newport Folk Festival 'in the Contemporary Composer's Workshop with such people as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson.' In 1971, Paul moved to San Francisco and recorded his first marketed record for Capital Records, which was released in 1973.

In his musical career Paul played with many of the blues greats, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, 'Big Bones,' and T. Bone Walker. His song, 'Jet Airliner,' recorded by the Steve Miller Band, was a hit in the 1970s. Another album, recorded by Bearsville Records, was never released. It is scheduled to be released in the year 2000. To find out more about this album click here.

During this period Paul's wife, Babe, suffered kidney failure. Paul gave up his musical career at that point in order to take care of her. She died in 1991. He suffered greatly from her loss.

Paul first heard a fragment of harmonic singing on a shortwave Radio Moscow broadcast on December 29, 1984 and he was so struck by it, he spent almost eight years trying to track down its source. In 1991 he was finally able to locate a recording of Tuvan music and taught himself the vocal techniques known as 'Khoomei, Sygyt, and Kargyraa'. In addition, he learned a good bit of the Tuvan language using English-Russian and Russian-Tuvan dictionaries and an obsolete 'Opticon' scanning device which translates text into sensations. In 1993, Paul attended a concert sponsored by the Friends of Tuva organization and met Kongar-ol Ondar after the performance. Paul gave Kongar-ol an impromptu demonstration--and astonished him with his talent and mastery of traditional Tuvan singing. The two men formed a strong friendship along with their musical collaboration.

In 1995, Kongar-ol invited Paul to sing at the second international Khoomei Symposium and contest, held in Tuva's capital city, Kyzyl. Ralph Leighton and the "Friends of Tuva" sponsored his trip. Paul took first place in the Kargyraa division of the contest and became known as 'Earthquake' for his amazingly deep voice. He also won the 'audience favorite' award. Filmmakers Adrian and Roko Belic accompanied Paul to Tuva to film the contest and his travels through Tuva, guided by Kongar-ol. Paul and Kongar-ol have also recorded a compact disc called Genghis Blues, which combines American blues singing, Cape Verdian 'morna,' and Tuvan Khoomei.

Since the release of the film, Genghis Blues, and the CD Sountrack , Paul was named 'San Francisco's Tuvan Blues Ambassador' and July 11, 1999 was declared 'Paul Pena Day' by the mayor. Paul has also been diagnosed with a pancreatic illness. He is on the long road to recovery.

Sources:

Paul Pena's promotional autobiography, sent to Roko Belic

Paul Pena, A National Living Treasure in Cole Valley, by Fred Cirillo

CD's|Shows Letter From Paul|Photos|Biography|Paul Fund

http://paulpena.com/bio.html
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