The Cho-Kayou 2011 Spring Tour

In April 2011, Makigami Koichi organizes a Japan tour of his Cho-kayou (super kayou) concert. It features the repertoire from his Japanese songbook albums, "Minzoku No Saiten" (1982) and "Koroshi No Blues" (1991), plus other things including jazz, klezmar, electro, tuvan throat singing, and collective improvisation.

His entourage for the tour is the musicians whom he has been played with and trusted for years - the members from Hikashu or his cho-kayou ensemble.

Cho-Kayou is the term that Makigami coined in early 1990s. It is his own interpretation of Kayou, which roughly means Japanese popular songs from 1920s-1980s (Actually, "Kayou" is not a genre - its scope is so wide and vague, and there is no exact definition for it). There is an article about Kayo (or kayo-kyoku) in wikipedia, here.

Originally, in April 2011, Makigami planned to do a Japan tour of Food, an electro jazz unit consisted of Thomas Strønen and Iain Ballamy, also Nils Petter Molvaer on trumpet, and the vocalist-organizer himself would join as guest. Unfortunately, the ongoing earthquake and nukes problems prevented them to come. But Makigami didn't want to give up the opportunity and felt the importance of making music at this difficult time. So he decided and promptly arranged a tour of his own instead.

In the past, Makigami seldom did his cho-kayou concert outside Tokyo (in early 1990s he did a cho-kayou concert in NYC but that's an exception). So do not miss it.

The dates and personnel are as follows;

April 11 - Shinjuku Pit-Inn, Tokyo*
April 13 - Club Quattro, Nagoya
April 14 - Rag, Kyoto
April 15 - Chicken George, Kobe
April 17 - Space Terra, Fukuoka
April 20 - Aoyama Cay, Tokyo*

* Tokyo dates might be cancelled if the condition is not suitable.

The personnel:
Makigami Koichi (vocal, cornet), Shika Udai (cello), Sato Masaharu (percussion) [all dates except Aoyama], Sato Yoshiaki (accordion) [Shinjuku, Nagoya, Kobe and Aoyama], Shimizu Kazuto (piano, bass clarinet) [Nagoya, Kobe and Aoyama], Hayashi Masaki (piano) [Shinjuku and Fukuoka], Yanagiya Koharu (shamisen) [Aoyama], Mita Freeman (guitar, vocal) [Aoyama]. Also Sakaide Masami (bass) on some dates.




Flyer of the tour. The PDF file can be obtained here.



April 11, 2011
@ Shinjuku Pit-Inn
Shinjuku, Tokyo
open 19:00 - start 20:00
adv 4,000 yen - at door 4,500 yen
official site (English)

Shinjuku Pit-Inn, Tokyo

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April 13
@ Club Quattro
Nagoya
open 18:00 - start 19:00
adv 4,000 yen - at door 4,500 yen
directions - official site (English)

Club Quattro, Nagoya

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April 14, 2011
@ Rag
Kyoto
open 18:00 - start 19:30
adv 4,000 yen - at door 4,500 yen
Rag official site (Japanese with English translation)

Kyoto Rag

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April 15, 2011
@Chicken George
Kobe
open 19:00 - start 20:00
adv 4,000 yen - at door 4,500 yen
Chicken George site (Japanese)

Chicken George, Kobe

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April 17, 2011
@ Space Terra
Fukuoka
open 17:00 - start 18:00
adv 3,000 yen - at door 3,500 yen
Space Terra (Japanese)

Space Terra, Fukuoka

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April 20, 2011
@ Aoyama Cay
Tokyo
open 18:00 - start 20:00
adv 4,000 yen
Spiral - Aoyama Cay (English)

Aoyama Cay, Tokyo

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