Concert: Kitaro

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Background- Although his parents opposed to his becoming a singing, but Kitaro had his own mind to follow. He worked on his own and has established his career in music...

Kitaro full name is Masanori Takahashi and was born in the year 1953 in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. He is a well-known composer and can play multiple instruments. Son of shintoistic (follower of native religion, shinto) farmers, Kitaro taught himself to play the guitar. He was given the pseudonym "Kitaro" by his friends because of a Japanese television cartoon character named Kitaro, from Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro. He was influenced by the R&B music of Otis Redding. According to Kitaro
"I never had education in music, I just learned to trust my ears and my feelings", and further adds "This music is not from my mind. "It is from heaven, going through my body and out my fingers through composing. Sometimes I wonder. I never practice. I don't read or write music, but my fingers move. I wonder 'Whose song is this?' I write my songs, but they are not my songs."

He formed his first band "Albatross" with his school friends, while he was still studying at Toyohashi Commercial High School. They used to perform in clubs and various parties. According to Kitaro "In high school, I was in an amateur band. I started out playing the guitar but then changed to the keyboards. Before one of our gigs, the drummer was injured. I had no experience at all on the drums, but I had to learn it because I was the leader of the band, and we had to do the gig. My drumming was not very good, but we got through the show in one piece. Later, the bassist had injuries, so I had to learn how to play the bass. [These accidents are] the main reasons why I can play all these instruments; I had a crash course in how to play them. It was a hard time for me, but a very good experience. It created the base knowledge of all the instruments I use and need to create my current brand of music. After graduating, I really wanted to be in the music business, so I moved to Tokyo and started looking for bands to play with. I basically did it for the experience and to get a feel of all the clubs that were available in Tokyo and Yokohama. At that time I played keyboards, and then I discovered the synthesizer. This was a revelation. First of all, the instructions for the thing were in English so I couldn't read them. I was trying to make sounds but couldn't! I tried for a whole day, but no sound ever came out because I didn't know how to program it or set it up. Finally, the first sound I got off this thing was a wind-like sound, but I was so elated that I actually made some noise, it didn't matter. I turned one of the knobs slowly to make more wind-like noises. Then I decided to buy another synthesizer to form a different type of sound. I just loved the analog sound that it made compared to today's digital sound. Now, my equipment and synthesizers are all analog. But technically, digital is much easier to use for editing and other stuff."

Kitaro started his solo career in the year 1977, and released two albums "Ten Kai" and "From the Full Moon Story" which was a smashing hit. He was nominated twice for a Grammy and also won a 1994 award for best original score. He also won the Grammy Award for his album "Thinking of You", in the year 2001. He has also composed the soundtrack of the Oliver Stone film Heaven and Earth.

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