Kitaro
Kitarō ( Japanese 喜多郎 ; born February 4, 1953 in Toyohashi ), real name: Masanori Takahashi ( 高橋 正 則 , Takahashi Masanori ), is a Japanese musician. The nickname Kitarō (approximate meaning: "With many joys blessed man") is a reference to the character Kitarō from the Japanese manga Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō .
Life
Kitaro grew up in a peasant family. When he was in high school, he preferred to listen to soul and rhythm & blues . His first instrument was the electric guitar , which he learned self-taught. He played with his first band Albatross at parties and in clubs. The greatest musical influence for him at the time was Otis Redding . Even today Kitaro likes to compare the depth of his music with that of rhythm and blues, the audience is touched in the same way. “My music is not rhythm and blues, but it 'feels' like soul”.
In the early 1970s he began to switch completely to keyboards . He joined the Far East Family Band and toured the world with them. During a visit to Europe by the band in the 1970s, he met the German synthesizer musician and former Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schulze . Schulze, the two albums the band produced, he was also a crash course for synthesizers , showed him the way of working beyond the manuals.
In 1976, Kitarō left the Far East Family Band and went on a journey through Asia , which he a. a. led to Laos , China and Thailand . In India he was drawn to the ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Poona , where he lived for about half a year.
Back in Japan, Kitaro began his solo career in 1977. The first two records, Ten Kai and From the Full Moon Story , quickly rose in favor of the emerging New Age scene. Internationally, however, Kitaro first became known through the soundtrack for the NHK series Silk Road (German: The Silk Road).
In 1986 he signed a contract with Geffen Records for worldwide distribution rights. In the following years he worked with various musicians, including a. with Mickey Hart ( Grateful Dead ) and Jon Anderson ( Yes ). By 1987 he had sold a total of 10 million albums worldwide, he was nominated several times for a Grammy and in 1994 even received a Golden Globe Award for the soundtrack to the film Between Heaven and Hell by Oliver Stone . His greatest musical success was winning the 2001 Grammy in the "Best New Age Album" category for his album Thinking of You .
From 1983 to 1990 Kitarō was married to his first wife Yuki, daughter of the Yakuza gang bosses Kazuo and Fumiko Taoka ; from this marriage he has a son. In the mid-1990s he married the musician Keiko Matsubara. Kitarō lived with her and her son for many years in Ward near Boulder / Colorado (USA) in his home with his own studio, Mochi House . Around 2007 they moved to Sebastopol, Northern California .
Discography (selection)
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- In cooperation
- Track # 2 For Gaia with Mickey Hart and Philip Glass on the Gyuto Monks' album Freedom Chants From The Roof of the World (1998)
- Kitaro & Dennis Banks : Let Mother Earth Speak (2012)
- Individual tracks by Kitaro on compilations
- Track Japanese Theme - Soundtrack "Return To The River Kwai" (1988)
- Track # 32 Japanese Title - Soundtrack "Hayazaki No Hana" (Original Music Tracks 1-31 by Ryuta Yoshimura, Track 32 Music by Kitaro) (1996)
- Track Theme from Earthdance - Album Domo 20th Anniversary Sampler (2004)
Web links
- Domo Records - Kitaro's record company
- Literature by and about Kitaro in the catalog of the German National Library
- Kitaro in the Internet Movie Database (English)
See also
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kitaro |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 喜多郎 (Japanese); Takahashi Masanori (real name); 高橋 正 則 (Japanese, real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese composer and musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th February 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Toyohashi |