[Harp-L] Maki Yamaguchi, Other Japanese Players

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There has been some interest in the Japanese player Maki Yamaguchi on
Harp-L recently, due to his involvement with promo videos for Roland and
Suzuki. I have met Maki a couple of times, at the Asia/Pacific Festival
in Hong Kong in 2004, at at the Yokohama Music Trade fair in 2007.

He is one of those humble high-achievers who you instantly like, a real
gentleman in the finest sense, his understated manner contrasting with
amazing skill in many areas. He is a very knowledgeable harmonica
customiser/repairer, having worked for Suzuki in the factory for 13
years. He can play any kind of harmonica well; I was especially
impressed with his amazing Toots Thielemans impression on chromatic in
the demo he gave at Yokohama, but he is also very good on the 10 hole
diatonic as well as the tremolo instruments. He has won or placed in
diatonic and chromatic at the FIH Japan and World Harmonica contests. If
that's not enough, he's also an excellent guitar player, and now works
freelance as a music teacher on several instruments.

He still has an association with Suzuki, and we called on him to do the
music clips for the Tremolo harmonicas in the Suzuki demo videos. This
is him showing off the various possibilities of the SBH-21 Baritone
Tremolo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlnvH_eRSYk
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlnvH_eRSYk&feature=channel_page>
&feature=channel_page

More tremolo videos are still to come featuring Maki. He has also done
demos for Roland. He used the Suzuki Fabulous F-20E in key of G for this
video:
 <http://www.roland.com/demos/en/i0120/index.html>
http://www.roland.com/demos/en/i0120/index.html

and the Suzuki Magic Garden for this video:
 <http://www.roland.com/demos/en/i0121/index.html>
http://www.roland.com/demos/en/i0121/index.html

Japan has one of the best harmonica scenes, in my opinion. Harmonica was
taught widely in schools until recently, and there are a lot of really
high-level players on various types. The great jazz chromatic player
Nobuo Tokunaga deserves to be more widely known. He has recorded a lot
in Japan, but never travelled. He doesn't need to; he makes a very good
living out of the harmonica based in his home town of Osaka. Toots rates
him very highly, and for my money he's one of the most relaxed and
flowing jazz improvisers on the chromatic today. He favours the Hohner
16 hole chroms. You can listen to clips from his CDs here:
http://www.manbou-net.com/~hamonica/cd.htm
 
A couple of other young Japanese players really impressed me at
Yokohama. Inagawa Akinori is a teen sensation on classical chromatic
(Hohner Silver Concerto), and already World Champion at the age of 16 in
2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUhQlCMCIU
 
And demoing for Tombo was the gutsy young blues player Taro Senga, a
traditional tongue-blocker who plays in a duo with his dad. Here is
their YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/blindlemonbrothers
 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJscxINKSc>  
I was privileged to meet another cool Japanese harmonica player recently
when he visited my home in Canterbury, UK. His name is Koei Tanaka; like
Maki, he is a multi-skilled character (chromatic, diatonic, jazz guitar)
who mixes great ability with a charming and humble presence. He endorses
the Suzuki Fabulous chromatics and diatonics and is excellent on both, a
very creative and harmonically-advanced improviser. 
 
I gave him a Diminished tuned chromatic to try, and within 5 minutes he
was racing around it as if he'd been playing Diminished for years! I got
him up to jam at a couple of gigs I did while he was here, and he really
impressed everyone with his great ear and ability to fit in with any
kind of musical style. You can check Koei out at his YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/q510
 
That's just a taste of the harmonica talent in Japan; I'm sure there are
many more hot players. Let us know who else deserves a mention.
 
Regards,

Brendan Power
WEBSITE:  <http://www.brendan-power.com/> http://www.brendan-power.com 
YOUTUBE:  <http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic>
http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic