MUSIC: Salsa Turns Japanese

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 19 1998 (IPS) - Step into a packed Tokyo bar with a name like “La Cabana” or “Salsa Caribe” and you’ll be surprised to find Japanese couples throwing aside their traditional reserve to dance to the pounding musical rhythms of Latin America.

These tiny, dimly-lit establishments are sprouting like mushrooms on the Japanese capital’s glitzy nightclub scene. “I love to dance to salsa,” says a 40-year-old housewife who spends every Friday with her friends at on of the new dance centres. “When I do, I feel like a different person.”

The lure of Latin American music, ranging from salsa, cha-cha- cha, mambo and guaracha, first hit Japan nearly 20 years ago, when artists such as the US-based Fania All Stars, toured the country. The boom tapered off in the 1980s but now is enjoying a big comeback.

A new burst of salsa bands have debuted in the last few years, putting what was at first just trendy music well on the way to becoming a lasting passion. These days, teachers of salsa are fully booked, trying to keep up with hoards of students in their early twenties to people of 60 and 70 years of age, who want to learn how to dance Latin style.

Cashing in on the craze, popular discos are reserving special days every month just for salsa, or funding monthly salsa parties as a promotional stunt.

“The popularity of salsa is not as high as western classical music or even jazz. But the people who like it are quite wild about the music and remain steadfast fans,” said Henry de la Trobe, who worked as a promoter for ‘Orquesta de la Luz’, the internationally known Japanese salsa band that disbanded in March.

‘Orquesta de la Luz’, which started in 1984, made it to the U.S. Billboard magazine’s Latin American music charts in the nineties.

The band’s lead singer, Nora, sang in Spanish. “When we first performed in New York, the audience was shocked to see these ‘strange Chinese or something’ people singing salsa. They couldn’t conceive of non-Latins playing salsa,” Carlos Kanino, the group’s percussionist, recalled in an interview with Japanese media recently.

The unique mix of Japan and Latin American music undoubtedly helped boost the band’s popularity. On a tour to Latin America years ago, band members had to be accompanied by four bodyguards amid fanatical crowds. The group was also awarded the UN Peace Medal in 1994.

Though the members of ‘Orquesta’ were all Japanese, De la Trobe says the band has been strictly faithful to the traditional styles of salsa, not least singing in Spanish.

“There is really no big difference between the all-Japanese band and their Latin American counterparts. ‘Orquesta de la Luz’ is amazingly Latino except for maybe a softer approach if you really want to see a difference,” he said.

Other Japanese musicians have also made a name in salsa and Latin American music, though they may not be as famous as ‘Orquesta’.

There is ‘Diamantes’, an Okinawan-Peruvian band comprising three Peruvian-born Japanese and five native Japanese members, and which has been entertaining Japanese audiences since 1993.

The band’s songs are in a mixture of Spanish and Japanese, its music a fusion of Latin, Okinawan and rock n’roll. ‘Diamantes’ leader Alberto Shiroma has written several songs as tributes to Latin Americans working in Japan.

A third-generation Japanese-Peruvian who came to Tokyo for the first time in 1985, Shiroma remembers how he made friends with other visitors from Latin America who had also come to Japan, the country their parents emigrated from many years ago, to look for work.

Shiroma’s work is a combination of the music of his home — salsa, rhumba and samba — and Okinawan lyrics. This mix, which Shiroma calls an “interesting fusion” whose Latin rhythm compels people to dance, has captured the hearts of the Japanese. At the same time, the Okinawan aspect of the music captures local aesthetics like the sound of the sea in the background.

“There is a social message in my music,” Shiroma added. “The Japanese love salsa and can listen to, in my lyrics, the frustrations and sense of alienation suffered by Latin American workers in Japan.”

Japan’s penchant for salsa has also been fueled by the growing popularity of Cuba as a tourist destination. Salsa lovers in Japan are visiting that country in droves, returning with an even deeper enthusiasm for the music.

Take Ryu Murakami, a popular Japanese author who is such a die- hard fan of Cuba and salsa that he drew inspiration from it for a July 1996 film he made, entitled ‘Kyoko’. Set in the United States, it tells the story of a Japanese girl who goes to New York in search of a Cuban-Amercian who taught her salsa in Japan.

“When I went to Cuba, I was amazed at the number of talented musicians and the general population’s love for salsa,” raved Murakami. “It’s incredible!”