Hiroshima created its distinct style 30 years ago by mixing the traditional Japanese instruments with American jazz and Latin percussion instruments.
Basking today in a record 3 million album sales, the ensemble stands alone. Now they return to Washington, the city where their fusion first reverberated beyond the West Coast, and celebrate at the Birchmere with music from their latest album, “Legacy.”
The collection of 11 hit songs from their first decade set a nostalgic atmosphere. The album begins with the elusive strains of the bamboo shakuhachi in the Grammy-nominated “Winds of Change” by Dan Kuramoto, the ensemble’s composer, arranger and multiple instrumentalist. The closing number, “Thousand Cranes,” is a paean to nature through June Kuramoto’s koto, the instrument that breathed life into the concept.
When Japanese native June Kuramoto met her future husband, it occurred to her that her 13-string koto would add a unique element to his jazzy woodwinds and keyboard. To add more Japanese flavor, Dan took up the shakuhachi, a five-holed bamboo flute. With Danny Yamamoto on drums, Kimo Cornwell on piano/keyboards, Dean Cortez on bass and Shoji Kameda on the Japanese taiko drum/percussion, East and West embrace in a unique art form that blends jazz, pop, rock and traditional Japanese folk music.
“Everything begins and ends with June, my ex-wife and still my best friend,” Dan Kuramoto said. “I try to create a texture of fabric to go along and accompany her. Growing up in a ghetto in L.A. with three generations in one household, it was important to stay close to our culture or we would have no identity. All around us were people of Latin, Asian and Eastern European backgrounds clinging to their own cultures, so I was constantly exposed to jazz and Latin music coming from their radios.
“At first I played traps drums in a drum corps. That meant I had to be there first to set up and was the last to leave, so I quit drums and changed to the flute, the smallest, lightest instrument, and added the sax and others as time went on. My passion has always been composing, producing and arranging. That, plus my authentic L.A. barrio background, got me hired as arranger for ‘Zoot Suit,’ the first Chicano musical on Broadway.”
Dan’s imaginative composing and arranging has kept Hiroshima in the forefront. The mystical aura of “Winds of Change” and “Another Place,” the pensive “Turning Point,” the juxtaposition of Latin and Asian rhythms in “East” and the vibrant “Hawaiian Electric” reflect his genius.
He wrote “Roomful of Mirrors” for “Bean Sprouts,” an Asian American PBS TV show for kids of every color. The song was inspired by a scene in which children are in a room with mirrors on every wall. As they try on different hats, perhaps that of a ship captain, a nurse or a fireman, they realize they can be whatever they want. Dan is very emotional about the song and the show that won an Emmy.
He loves performing in Washington, the city where Hiroshima’s fan base began in the early 1980s with two shows at Howard University. Both, to his amazement, were sold out when they arrived and station WHUR gave added publicity by playing their music constantly.
“Our goal is to be hip and different and to bring joy and sensitivity wherever we go,” Dan said. “We’ve never used the phrase ‘world music’ because we preceded world music. June and I make Asian-American music that’s become part of American culture. Her vision was to incorporate styles by musicians like Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix. Herbie Hancock and even Michael Jackson.
“This has been an amazing journey and we’re still the only band of its kind. The last time we were in D.C., I promised we’d be back with their favorite songs, ‘Winds of Change’ and ‘Dada’ featuring Yvette Nii, an exciting new vocalist we found in Hawaii.”
