Sakura, this is just a guess. I don’t know what is going on, but my guess is that Keisho Ono may have used Chikuzan’s name is a way to promote himself. Maybe he wanted to let people know that he is representing Chikuzan . I actually agree with you. I’m not a big fan of Keisho San’s playing. But yes, as it is mentioned Takahashi Chikuzan II is a woman and she is the one to inherent his name not Keisho so I hope there is no more confusion. If you haven’t heard the original Chikuzan I highly recommend it. He is the reason I play Shamisen today!
I just listened to a few things by Ono. He’s a solid player, but his band is pretty horrible.
Why Keisho’s band is horrible?
Anyway, I don’t know if, on the web, are there some Takahashi Chikuzan pieces
Just my opinion. A lot of testosterone and pointless jumping around.
Plenty of TC on youtube.
Personally, I am not a fan of mixing shamisens with rock bands. Electric guitars obscure the cool tonal qualities of the shamisen and just make it sound tinny and weak.
Also, it seems that people sort of default to a really sterile form of rock music that I don’t like anyway, I just don’t find it all that challenging. The shamisen merely becomes a novelty.
The shamisen is a great instrument that has some really unique and amazing sonic qualities. Some instruments will complement it better than other. The banjo, for example works great with it.
That’s just my unsolicited opinion.
I’ve got a CD of a group called Gamushala that’s a trio of Tsugaru Shamisen, Piano, and Percussion. It works really well.
I’ve also heard some excellent fusion work with min’yo shamisen and acoustic guitar. Particularly some of the work Soubugen(Hisao Suginaka) did with Flaco Barral.
Shamisen works great with acoustic instruments. Any kind really.
Anyway… I think shamisen can actually work well with electrics and in rock if you’re careful about the mix. If you’re pushing a wall of distortion and roaring power chords it’s hard for any acoustic to compete.
It feels weird to mention Kevin Kmetz now that he’s posted in the thread (Hi, Kevin!) but he’s got some excellent examples.
One wonders how an electric shamisen might fare…
A solid body electric would lack everything cool about a shamisen (except the lack of frets) which has to do with the type of resonator it has.
A piezo or contact mic-ed shamisen would still run into the same problems as a regularly mic-ed shamisen, all of the undertones would get drowned out by an electric guitar, so you’re left with all the thin “plunk plunk plunk” that you hear in rock/shamisen fusions.
Acoustics are always hard to integrate into rock music with distorted electric guitars. Not saying it can’t be done with a shamisen, but I haven’t heard it done well yet.
Note that banjos are really hard to integrate into rock bands as well.
These are all just personal views. I like rock music. Big metalhead here.
I’d be eager to hear what Kevin has.
hey Peter
Sweet!
Dude, these are amazing.
Aww, thank you Peter! I’ve been following your music On YouTube and here on bachido as well! Great stuff !
Thanks, man!
Misawa-pawaaaaa
Yes, aww so cute!
I know Ono Keisho went in Italy to perform with an horrible singer called Eriko… I geard their performance and was really really horrible… also the audio quality… and the public was like “wow!”, and don’t say it when they hear a juushichigen playing a contemporary composition… Ono Keisho played two anime songs with Eriko… but the excibition was very bad!
I don’t remember when, but I found an album of rock/tsugaru!!!