THE JAPANESE BLUEGRASS BAND
By Joe Ross

What is RED hot, WHITE lightning, BLUE grass, and just about as American as Chevrolets, baseball and apple pie? Why it's the Japanese Bluegrass Band, of course, with some of Japan's hottest, most experienced pickers --

Masuo Sasabe (guitar), Katsuyuki Miyazaki (mandolin), Satoshi Yoshida (banjo,guitar), Jimmy Akazawa (fiddle), and Tatsuya Imai (bass). While they may prefer sake (rice wine) to beer, and fish with rice rather than hamburgers,these guys can definitely pick!

Japanese bluegrass might sound like a bit of a paradox. However, those in the know are aware of the fact that the Japanese are phenomenal musicians,and they also admire things American. So why not bluegrass music too? When Katsu Miyazaki met fiddler Byron Berline at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, Berline mentioned his plans to hold an International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, Oklahoma (see www.oibf.com). Invited in 1998 to come and play with a Japanese band, Miyazaki eventually formed a group for their first festival trip in 2000. The band fretted over what to call themselves.

"One day we saw Berline's website on the Internet," recalls Miyazaki," and we found out that he was referring to us as 'The Japanese Bluegrass Band' in their page of artists for the festival. We have learned to love that name." To appease their many fans' requests during their festival appearances from 2000-2003, they have been cutting albums annually for the last three years. "The Japanese Bluegrass Band" was released in 2001, "Too Hot to Handle" in2002, and "You Are My Morning Sun" in 2003.

So just who are the members of the JBB? At 54 years old, Masuo Sasabe is the elder of the group. Sasabe-san was born in 1949 in Yokohama. In 1964, he became acquainted with bluegrass music. Associated with a music organization at his high school in 1965, he assumed responsibility for mandolin, guitar, and vocals. After being admitted to a Japanese university in 1967, he joined a club called the "Nishibe Music Research Society." While there, he was instrumental in organizing and promoting a Tokyo performance of Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, as well as a Yokohama welcome party for Mike Seeger. Sasabe visited the U.S. in 1974 with a bluegrass band called "Apple Seed." They went to Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He's also played at numerous bluegrass festivals in Colorado
and Kentucky. In 1983, he obtained his professional license to be an architect, and in 1985 he started his own architectural company.

Sasabe has played on various album projects. One is called "Folk Guitar," and another is "Clock Work" by the Morning Bugle Band. He accompanied Kazuhiro Inaba on an album from the Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival. In 1981, Sasabe's band, Peach Picking Time, appeared on an LP documenting the Sunset Creek Bluegrass Festival in Hakone, Japan. Sasabe's solo CD, "Yokohama Pickin ' Party" has received good reviews. He's also played guitar on the Club Cats' album.When Frank Wakefield toured Japan in 2000, Sasabe was called upon to accompany the well-known mandolinist on guitar. In 2001, he won the guitar contest at the Gifu Mountain Time Bluegrass Festival. Besides the Japanese Bluegrass Band, he also plays in the bands, General Store of Bluegrass and New Appleseed. The former appears monthly at the Tokyo bluegrass club, Rocky top. Besides Sasabe on guitar, The General Store of Bluegrass includes Yasuhisa Kato on mandolin, Akira Shitamura on bass, Shinji Oshima on dobro, and Hasekawa Light on banjo. New Appleseed also appears monthly at Rocky Top, and they have toured Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. He is an honorary citizen of the state of Alabama, as conferred by the Huntsville city mayor on August 3, 1991. Other members of New Appleseed are Sumiko Nakamura (vocal), Shuichi Nakamura (bass), Naomi Ito (banjo), Setsu Kawatani (mandolin), and Shinji Oshima (dobro).Another band that Sasabe plays guitar in is the Green Grass Boys. They appear monthly on stage in Yokohama. Other band members are Yoshihiro Arita (banjo), Kishimoto One Haruka (fiddle, mandolin). Sasabe also organizes a workshop and jam on the second Saturday monthly at Tokyo Sendagaya Building.

Katsuyuki Miyazaki was born 1959 in Mie Prefecture, started playing folk music in junior high school, and then took up bluegrass. "When I got to the University," offers Katz, "I joined the American Folk Music Association and started playing mandolin in 1977." Miyazaki became a full time musician in 1985 after joining a band called Birdland. He got first place at the Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival 1986. In 1988, he spent a year as a professional radio deejay in Kyoto. About that same time, he won Moonshiner magazine's Mandolin Player of the Year Award. He has traveled to Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas in 1992 and 1996, taking third place in the mandolin competition.
The mandolin player has contributed his hot licks on over twenty different recording projects, primarily by various Japanese artists. They are shown at the website http://www.pickoneartists.com/store/cd_katz.html Flying to Nashville, he recorded his initial solo album, "Man-O-Mandolin" (Red Clay Records SRC-114) in the fall of 1996. In 1997, Katz toured Japan with Ronnie McCoury, Rickie Simpkins, Richard Bailey and Gene Libbea to promote the project. He also appeared as a showcase artist at the IBMA Convention that same year. The Japanese mandolinist is proud of the good reviews that the project has received in the U.S. and Japan. It's even received some airplay over in Estonia. In May of 1998, he organized another Japan tour. Two other recent albums, "Battle One" and "Battle Two" (Palm Strings-002 and 006), were released with guitarist Shogo Sakaniwa. Katsu's newest album is "Mandoscape" (Red Clay Records SRC-119), recorded in Nashville and released in September, 2003. Besides producer David Grier on guitar, other veteran sidemen who assisted were Scott Vestal (banjo), Viktor Krauss (bass), and Aubrey Haynie (fiddle). The year 2003 also found Miyazaki playing at the Tower Records showcase in Nashville with Grier, Vestal, Matt Cobs, and Derek Jones.

Satoshi Yoshida was born in 1960 in Shiga Prefecture, bought his first guitar about ten years later, started banjo in 1974 after hearing "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," and now runs a musical instrument business in Shiga Prefecture. In 1976, Satoshi and his brother, Shinji, started a duo. He visited the U.S. in 1981. In 1984, he started his music instrument business which serves eight cities in Shiga Prefecture. His website is http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~p-party started playing out again in 1995 after a fairly lengthy rest, and he got involved with Kazunori Inaba in 1996. Since 1997, Yoshida has organized the annual Shiga Bluegrass Festival in September. In 1998, he started playing with Masaya Uetas and Wondermen. Yoshida once entered a banjo contest in Ohio and won third place.

Jimmy Akazawa was born in 1961 in Osaka. He started playing guitar in 1971, then banjo in 1973. He was first introduced to bluegrass in 1975 when Bill Monroe toured the country. In 1976, he organized the bluegrass band "Rocky Chucks" and made a tour of local and regional cultural festivals. Akazawa was admitted to Kansai University in 1981 where he became involved with a bluegrass society and taught banjo in the classroom. After contracting with a restaurant in 1983, he organized the "Carnival String Band" which stayed together for eight years. In 1984, they won a band championship at the Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival. In 1986, he visited the U.S. That was when I first met Akazawa-san on his journey through Nevada. We were happy to have him sit in and jam with my band, Sagegrass, at the time. That same year , Jimmy also visited Great Britain, including the Edale Bluegrass Festival. Another trip to the U.S found him in Texas, Kansas, and Utah, a guest of Riders in the Sky. He placed third in a fiddle contest in Utah. After returning to Japan in 1988, Akazawa worked for five years as a salaried worker. In 1992, he became a professional musician and again visited the U.S., as well as in 1994. His 1997 solo album, "Cowboy Harding Songs" is a fun, enjoyable listen. He also currently plays in a country band, "Teruaki Fukuhara and the Cowboy Dreamers."

Tatsuya Imai was born in 1962. The youngest band member, Imai heard his first bluegrass on the radio while a junior high student, then he took up the bass while in college. Bill Monroe's 1984 Japan tour was an inspirational and life-changing experience for Imai, who was enlisted to play bass as a Blue Grass Boy for the tour. Imai's 1983, 1985, and 1997 trips to the U.S. were also fun and educational. He now also plays with the Kyoto-based bluegrass band, Rosine, which also has a CD out. Their website at http://yamada-vet.com/rosine/ indicates that they have a diverse repertoire of bluegrass ("Uncle Pen"), country ("Cold Cold Loving"), and western swing ("Hang Your Head in Shame"). Some other numbers that Rosine included on their album are A Bad Old Lonesome Night, I Can't Go On Loving You, Please Don't Wake Me, Willie Roy The Cripple Boy, You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone, The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore, Take Me In Chains, Rosine Blues, and Crazy Heart. Imai says, "Some of my favorite musicians are Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Cedric Rainwater, Todd Phillips, and Missy Raines. My favorite personalities are Japanese singing idol Maki Goto and Japanese model Erika Yamakawa."

A young woman named "Yuko" also appears on the Japanese Bluegrass Band's
first album as the fiddler on "The Old Crossroads." Yuko originally started playing bluegrass music on piano, then became a violin student at Gakuen University. She is a member of a band called "Dark Magic Group," and she also appears in "Laughter Point" when they play in her area and on Japanese television. She continues to study the fiddling of Kenny Baker and others. She performs weekly at various stores and clubs. She participated in the Japanese Bluegrass Band's 2001 American tour. Byron Berline praised her after the band's stage appearance. She played on an album called "Japanese Spirit" by ocarina player Sojiro. She also participated on Masuo Sasabe's "Yokohama Pickin' Party" album, as well as playing a violin piece for the movie soundtrack of "Secret" starring Suzuko Hiromatsu.

For a minute, try to imagine yourself playing Japanese music on traditional acoustic instruments (like shakuhachi, koto and shamisen) and singing in Japanese. Then you will begin to understand and fully appreciate what the Japanese Bluegrass Band is doing. If you like good, clean, energetic
picking that clearly demonstrates that bluegrass is worldwide phenomenon, then you should definitely get their first self-titled debut album. All but Imai handle vocals, although the lead vocals are primarily sung by Masuo Sasabe who has a nice tenor voice and emotionally sings with a lot of heart. He has good inflection and a style that indicates he fully understands bluegrass, and he has sung for many years in the fine Japanese Band, Peach Picking Time. Although their opener "Live and Let Live" still has a tinge of sounding like "Rive and Ret Rive," you'll be able to understand the great majority of the singing on this album. Their choice of material is quite solid with many standards like White Dove, Sittin' on Top of the World, Highway of Regret, I'm on My Way Back to the Old Home, and Is the Blue Moon Still Shining. They also offer some interesting arrangements of The End of the Line, Roll Along Kentucky Moon, and Gentle on My Mind. I was very impressed by the first release from our bluegrass "tomodachi" (friends) in Japan. The album is more than a novelty, and it deserves airplay around the country.
The JBB's second album, "Too Hot to Handle," builds on their eclectic selection of songs - Little Maggie, Help Me Make it Through the Night, I Love You a Thousand Ways, These Old Blues, Knoxville Girl, My Walking Shoes, Bringing Home the Bacon, Get in Line Brother, Gold Rush, Miss the Mississippi and You, Nobody's' Darling but Mine, and In Tall Buildings.
On their third album, "You Are My Morning Sun," the Japanese Bluegrass Band conducts itself, in fine workmanlike fashion, through a variety of well-rendered traditional songs from the likes of Bill Monroe, A.P. Carter, and Flatt & Scruggs. The band also demonstrates an affinity for western music with their covers from Gene Autry and Hank Williams. What a treat to hear Akazawa-san tastefully yodel his heart out on "Back in the Saddle Again"! Sasabe's tenor voice is still in fine form, although his English words are a "skosh" more difficult to understand than Akazawa's pronunciation. I was very impressed with their quartet rendition of the classic gospel song, "Wicked Path of Sin."
We all know that baseball ("besuboru") is as big over in Japan as Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can imagine the JBB's audiences fervently singing along, almost like karaoke, on "Take Me out to the Ballgame." In fact, the last chorus adds a number of children joining in. Of special note, the boys from Nippon (Japan) offer four originals. Besides the title cut, Jimmy Akazawa co-wrote two others ("No Way Can I Heal" and "I'm A Fiddling Man") with Christopher Girsch, a professional translator and fiddler in Japan (formerly with The Peach Boys, now with The Basin Brothers). The three original vocal pieces demonstrate their proficiency with many musical textures and moods--upbeat bluegrass, slow country and a fiddled novelty number. Miyazaki composed the rollicking reel, "Jumbo Butter Biscuit." "We'll Meet Again Sweetheart" is a great album closer and preserves the essence of the bluegrass spirit in the Land of the Rising Sun. Akazawa notes, "Chris Girsch is my best friend and had been playing with me for awhile. He used to play Guitar but now he is also playing fiddle. He speaks Japanese much better than me as his job is translator from English to Japanese to English. He helped me very much when I wrote those three songs, and he gave me an idea of pronunciation when I recorded 'I'm A Fiddling Man.' We talked on the cell phone because he lives quite a distance from our recording studio." Over in Japan, it would be complimentary to call The Japanese Bluegrass Band "atarashii" (a novel experience) and "subarashii" (wonderful). There's no doubt about where these guys are from, and what they do. I think the "Japanese Bluegrass Band" is a good name that describes them perfectly. When I was growing up in Japan and playing electronic organ in rock bands a Yokohama clubs, we called ourselves "The U.S.," primarily to establish our identity and for promotional reasons. Go figure! With annual appearances at Oklahoma's International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, the crowd-pleasing Japanese Bluegrass Band is starting to build a considerable American fan base. All you eccentric promoters out there! How would you like something a little different at your festival or club? Why not bring the Japanese Bluegrass Band over for a tour? I'd love to see them live, up close and personal. Besides taking their bluegrass music very seriously, the Japanese Bluegrass Band clearly also has an amusing, friendly personality, and this is what would make them big hits throughout the U.S.