SHOJI TABUCHI - The Osaka native has made himself America's king of live country music.
The theater he bought was grossing upwards of $14 million a year.
ABIGAIL WASHBURN - She was born in Illinois. But when she picks up her banjo and starts to sing, she often delivers her lyrics in Chinese. She is "Bluegrass Over Beijing."
NAMIE AMURO - (real name Namie Maruyama, said to be one quarter Italian), was a huge sensation in the 90'ss and has gone on to be one of the most successful Japanese pop artists of all time.
AS ONE - American-born female k-pop vocal group w/r&b flavor
CORNELIUS - (aka Keigo Oyamada) combines rock, pop and bubblegum
music with Takako Minekawa
CUI JIAN - "Father of Chinese Rock Music combines traditional
Chinese instruments and melodic sensitivities with Western rock.
DEF TECH - they had the 3rd best selling album in 2005 and one of the most popular bands in Japan. They are establishing new genre "Java Ian reggae."
DIR EN GREY - Musically too Dir En Grey skips wildly across the spectrum. Like the
artistic climate in general, the five have veered away from lyricism
and toward more extreme territory over their 10 years; their new
CD, "Marrow of the Bone," bristles with dense metallic thrash.
DRUNKEN TIGER - Korean group led by emcees Tiger JK/DJ Shine
w/turntablist DJ James Jhig, emcee Micki Eyez aka Opticals,
emcee/producer Roscoe Umali of The Glossilalics and underground
hip-hop heads called "Campo Finique"
MARI IIJIMA - accomplished singer and songwriter who has released numerous top 10 albums in Japan. Her critically acclaimed debut album, "Rosé" was produced by renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.
MASAYA MATSUURA - Japanese musician and game designer. Regarded as the father of the 'musical adventure game' following the creation of Parappa the Rapper. Also responsible for the music in UmJammer Lammy, Vib Ribbon, Rhyme Rider Kerokiran and others.
MINK ("Made IN Korea") - this 22 years old Korean artist signed to Avex Trax (Japanese recording powerhouse label) had a hit on the American Billboard Hot Dance Play Chart club scene. It turns out, though, that Mink is a 22-year-old Korean. She is currently signed with Japan's recording powerhouse Avex Trax.
ANITA MUI - Hong Kong heartthrob singer and actress' career
started in 1982 when she defeated 3,000 contestants to win first
prize in the New Talent Singing Competition. Mui went on to carve
out a reputation as “the Madonna of Asia.”
N.E.X.T. - Korean metal, industrial, rock & techno punk
band
SAINKHO NAMTCHYLAK - Extreme vocalist, performance artist and musical chameleon from Centra Asia (Tuva)
SEVARA NAZARKHAN - World music from Uzbekistan (Central Asia) played on a doutar
EUGENE PAO - He is Hong Kong's most publicly recognized jazz musician. He has performed with Jac DeJonette, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, John Patittuci, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Pass, Eric Marienthal, Michael Brecker, Jeff Andrews and others.
In 2006, he formed an Asian Super Guitar Project with Japan's Kazumi Watanabe and Korea's Jack Lee.
OLIVIA - bilingual artist on the cutting edge sub-label of Avex. She was part of a eurobeat band called D&D. Her music changed from a quite poppy sound into an
experimental rock one. She sang the ending theme song to the anime adaption to Yazawa Ai's manga Nana. She performs at events such as PMX.
PIZZICATO
FIVE - Japan's premiere purveyors of retro-disco-pop.
PUFFY
- Retro J-Pop from Ami Onuki & Yumi Yoshimura
SE7EN - Korean artist who is gaining wide popularity not only in
South Korea, but also China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. His first
Japanese album was released in March 2006. Se7en's popularity has
earned him an award for Favorite Korean Artist in the MTV Asia
Awards 2006, as well as an award for Best Buzz Asia in the MTV Japan
awards 2006.
SITE
ACCESS - Hong Kong Rock/Jazz/Funk fusion band
AMI SUZUKI - her disappearing act in the J-Pop scene resulted from selling 10 million total unites to her parents suing AG Communication - her
management/production company, to end her contract following the conviction of tax-evasion charges of AG Communication president Eiji
Yamada.
HENRY KAPANO - Mr. Kapono is a product of the 1960s, though it was in the '70s that his career took flight, when he teamed up with Cecilio Rodriguez, a
fellow guitarist and singer. As Cecilio and Kapono, the duo made a string of breezy acoustic pop albums that resonated deeply at home
and beyond, though perhaps not as well nationally as Columbia Records would have liked. ("They didn't know what to do with C & K," Mr.
Kapono said of the label. "We were two brown-skinned guys with long hair singing contemporary music.") Cecilio and Kapono were Hawaii's answer to Simon and Garfunkel, though it's important to note that they too sang in English. Many of the duo's best-loved songs — originals like "Friends" and "Sailing," as well as covers like "All in Love Is Fair," by Stevie Wonder — qualify as Hawaiian music only on a technicality. But for several generations of listeners, those songs embody the sound of Hawaii, at least in part. After the breakup of C & K in the early 1980s, Mr. Kapono embarked on a successful solo career. About a decade ago he set out to make his first Hawaiian-language album, using traditional instrumentation. "I did a recording," he said, "and when I listened back, it was missing something. It just didn't
have that power."
PAT "CHIYOKO" SUZUKI - Bing Crosby helped get her a RCA Records recording
contract that led to a guest appearance on the Frank Sinatra Show and Linda Low in 1958's original Broadway production of
Flower Drum Song.
TRAVELERS 3 - "folk" music group of highly polished
arrangements of traditional songs and soothing harmonies that included Charlie Oyama and Pete Apo.
MIDORI - In the nearly two decades of her career, Midori has worked with
artists such as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax,
Jonathan Biss, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis,
Christoph Eschenbach, Nobuko Imai, Mariss Jansons, Yo-Yo Ma, Kurt
Masur, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Isaac Stern
and Pinchas Zukerman
AKI TAKAHASHI - She is a friend of meditative, abstract, poetic composers in her native Japan and the world over. But she has her quirks. In 1989, she began her "Hyper Beatles" project, persuading John Cage, Kaija Saariaho, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, Tan Dun, Terry Riley, Toru Takemitsu and 40 other unlikely experimentalists, East and West, to make arrangements of Beatles songs for her.
YUJA WANG - 2006 Gilmore Young Artist has been a prize winner in national and international competitions such as Huapu Cup National Piano Competition, the First "Mido" Concours De Tiano Sino-Francais, the Xinghai Cup National Piano Competition and the Veo Internacional Primer Premio in Spain.
CHEN YI - Part of the East-West wave of classical composers
XIAN ZHANG - Associate Conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
GainED attention after winning First Prize at
the 2002 Maazel/Vilar International Conductors' Competition.
ERICA MAEYAMA - Organizes tours and concerts for Asian underground
artists
ARIF MARDIN - Legendary Turkish American Producer and Arranger
of Rock/R&B's Royalty
COBI NARITA - The California native began producing jazz concerts when she moved
to New York in 1969. Nearly four decades later, she has gained a
reputation as a champion of little known but hugely gifted artists. In the late 1970s Narita founded Women in Jazz in an effort to
expose their talent to the public at large. She managed the Collective Black Artists, a
repertory orchestra and support group for underprivileged
musicians.
CHARMAINE CLAMAOR - What is surprising about her singing, with its very real sense of jazz authenticity, is the fact that Clamor is a Filipina, born in the provincial town of Subic-Zambales and the first Filipina jazz singer with a recording heard on more than 100 radio stations across the U.S.
.
TORU "TIGER" OKOSHI - he has a reputation as a jazz artist of innovation and creativity and is aprofessor of music at the famed Berklee College of Music. He first gained attention playing with Gary Burton; he also had a stint with George Russell's Living Time Orchestra and recorded with Bob Moses.
MICHAEL PAULO - smooth Filipino jazz-fusion saxophone player.
PAULINE WILSON - great Hawaiin singer, formerly with Seawind.
JOOHEE CHOI - Tony Award Nominee for Best Featured Actress
in a Musical, winner of the Theater World Award for Best Debut
Actress for her performance of Tuptim in Broadway's The King and
I.
XIU WEI SUN - this natural Puccini soprano has received
wide acclaim for her great performances throughout the world.
HAO JIANG TIAN - Since his Metropolitan Opera debut during
the 1991/92 season, Hao Jiang Tian has earned widespread recognition
as one of today's true basso cantantes.
MARGARET CHAPMAN - Hawaiian-born Margot Chapman might lay claim to
being the first Asian Pacific American (as part of the successful Starland Vocal Band - had hits such as "Afternoon Delight") to co-host a network musical
variety series.
YVONNE ELLIMAN - Sang the lead role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus
Christ Superstar, was Eric Clapton's right-hand woman and had
3 MOR hit singles (Bee-Gees' "Love Me," "Hello Stranger" "I Can't
Get You Out Of My Mind").
KAREN KAMON - Could be the 1st APA Solo Singer that had a video
shown on MTV ("Da Doo Ron Ron")
KIM SISTERS - The Kim sisters, composed of three sisters, Sook-ja, Ai-ja, and Mia, came from Korea to Las Vegas in February, 1959. Their first contract in American was to perform at the Thunderbird Hotel for four weeks as part of the China Doll Revue, the main showroom program. This engagement led them to a successful career.
DEFTONES
- Chino Moreno (vocals), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Chi Chang (bass) and Abe Cunningham (drums) combines elements of punk, pop, hip-hop and traditional metal. The new album, the Deftones' sixth (including a 2005 rarities collection), presents another dynamic collision of atmosphere and metal guitar as singer Chino Moreno soars and tumbles through the ether, fueled by wonder and alienation. It is a sound both agonized and wistful, the kind of contemplative shoe-gazing rock that occurs when you're doubled over in agony.
ANNABELLA
LWIN OF "BOW WOW WOW - Bow Wow Wow's music ranges from simple,
goofy, non- sensical tunes to complex, crisp pop masterpieces.
Their music has been described as a pastiche of Latin and African
beats, 50's rock-n-roll, and spaghetti western soundtracks placed
together with an incredible sense of humor and vigor.
JENI FUJITA - Japanese "Teena Marie" who worked w/Wyclef Jean
SECOND WIND - bodacious music crew of madness mixes r&b, rock
and funk with heavenly vocals with individual credits of working
with Don Was, Brian Wilson, Rod Steward and many others.
GERRY WOO - was signed with Polydor in 1988, issued one LP
Listen To My Heart, sang on one track on the UCLA Gospel Choir's CD and reappeared as Harlemm Lee who won on Debbie Allen's TV Show on NBC.
LYRICS BORN - born in Tokyo but raised primarily in the States, and has been a fixture (w/his wife Joyo Velarde) on the Bay Area underground hip-hop scene for more than a decade, affiliating in 1990 with the Quannum crew, then known as Solesides. The collective has produced some of the genre's most successful purists, including DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and Jeff Chang (author of the critically acclaimed "Can't Stop Won't Stop").
FANNY
- Probably the first all-female rock band to sign with a major label
was fronted by two Asian Pacific American women (Filipinas Jean/June Millington).
DAPHNE
CHEN - Prominent string contractor and violinist.
RAY CHEW - producer, musical director, arranger, musician and artist - with a musical career spanning over 25 years in recording, television and live performances. Ray has worked with Ashford & Simpson, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Teddy Pendergrass, Donnie Hathaway, Grover Washington, Alicia Keys, Missy Elliott, Debra Cox, Brian McKnight and Yolanda Adams.-
JAKE SHIMABUKURO - Ukele legend known to many people. His musical icons include Bela Fleck, late acoustic guitarist Michael Hedges and electric guitar revolutionaries Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. Thanks to Jimmy Buffett and others have helped bring him to larger audiences. His 2006 CD "Gently Weeps" is a showcase of his remarkable skills while displaying the surprising capabilities of the ukele.
CUONG
VU Oone of the top 50 young Jazz Artists/Session players. Vu began to play the trumpet at the age of 11, after receiving the instrument as a gift from his mother. In high school, he played in bands and jazz combos, and became interested in the fusion jazz of players like Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, and Mike Stern, preferring modern jazz over older styles such as bebop or swing. He has performed with Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Dave Douglas, Cibo Matto, Gerry Hemingway, Bobby Previte, Mark Helias, Andy Laster, Orange Then Blue, Mitchell Froom, Matthias Lupri and Chris Speed. He has toured with Pat Metheny as trumpeter and vocalist.
