Yonaha Toru presents "Kachashii A Go Go"

"Kachashii A Go Go"

(Respect Records) 2004

Various artists from Okinawa     

This intense selection of Okinawan music is poignant, sharp and wild. Singers roll out vocalic modulations, backup singers shout out whoops of encouragement, drums whap irresistible rhythms, tempos shift unexpectedly and in the middle of it all rides the "sanshin," that mysterious, tense three-stringed Okinawan bit of musical genius.

The sanshin is sharp, plaintive and not always so lovely. It bites, tautly and bravely, on every hard-hit note. It is as intense as the peak of a street festival. And that's what makes this CD essential for any serious music lover. Of course, Okinawans live longer than anyone on the planet. That has been attributed to the diet, lifestyle and all different aspects of Okinawan culture, but if the belting out catharsis of this CD is considered, it must be the music that makes people live longer. You can't listen to these sharp rhythms and not have your heartbeat reset to another style of rhythm, which is, after all, the undercurrent of life.

Working through an amazing selection of vocalists, sanshin players, drummers and musicians, this CD brings the islands up close. This is dance music, but it's hard to even imagine keeping up the dance as long as one song. Punk music never had as much energy as this! Of course, they never had their instruments made of snakeskin and silk string, either. The sanshin has a potent sound all its own, and perhaps can be compared only to "awamori," the Okinawan national drink that brings on a shiver, much like these songs.

To jazz ears, the music sets up deep musical patterns, and then takes off from there. It's a little like old-style country blues in the ways it works with repeated riffs over and over until you lose a sense of where you are in the music. That's a great state of loss, often called trance, and has a very ancient feeling to it. It feels like the way music once was, long, long ago, and still can be at times. The vocals, too, seem to meander like a long, glorious walk along the beach.

These musicians may not be well known outside Okinawa, but they are there, and should be elsewhere. Their tremendous artistry and technical skill underlying all the music shines out with passion.  This is very special music that should not be preserved in a musical museum, but listened to carefully, and enjoyably, as a powerful expression of music's vast potential to convey the human heart.