A staple of the Los Angeles jazz scene since 1974, Hiroshima returns for an East Coast engagement tonight (Sept. 21) to headline a Japan relief benefit concert with special guest stars at New York’s B.B. King Blues Club & Grill.
The only Asian American band to have been nominated for a Grammy, the group’s most recent album, 2009’s Legacy, celebrates Hiroshima’s 30th anniversary of recording and serves as a re-visitation of songs (like the easy listening favorite “Roomful of Mirrors” and ’80s hit single “One Wish”) from the band’s first decade.
Led by original members Dan and June Kuramoto, the group proved itself a musical chimera from the start with its self-titled debut, mixing elements of jazz, pop, and R&B with traditional Japanese instruments. Dan has remarked that at the time in America, music was the only outlet of cultural diversity available, and the resulting disc was a pioneering voice in the world music movement that followed.
As an accomplished played of the koto (a zither-like, 13-stringed instrument), the Saitama-born June played with A Taste of Honey on their 1981 cover of Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki,” which in 1963 became the only Japanese song in history to top the Billboard pop charts. Stanley Clarke has called June “the greatest koto player in the world and the only koto player I know of who truly improvises.”
More than a favorite of musicians, the public has connected with Hiroshima as well. Two of their albums, Another Place (1985) and Go (1987), each went gold, and in 1990 the group opened for Miles Davis before his final world tour. With over three million records sold, their cultural and spiritual roots run deep with fans around the world, a tradition that continues tonight in the heart of Times Square.
Hiroshima performs at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 237 West 42nd Street (between Seventh and Eighth Avenues) Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $35 day of show. For more information, click here. Visit the band online at http://hiroshimamusic.com.
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