Jin Jin/Firefly

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Okinawa by way of Honolulu? That's the recipe for Jin Jin/Firefly, the delightful collaboration between Japanese folk musician Takashi Hirayasu and Hawaiian steel-guitar master Bob Brozman. Instrumental virtuosity, tunes that transcend any language, and spirited improvising reshape the notion that roots music can only come from the tree of one culture. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com
Ever since the early '80s, when Ry Cooder ferreted out the music of Shoukichi Kina of Okinawa, there has been a small underground of fans who had to be satisfied with occasional compilations and expensive Japanese imports to sate their appetite for this island's easygoing folk music. Bob Brozman, long an aficionado of Pacific island sounds, is the next logical collaborator, and this music with Takashi Hirayasu takes "back porch" to new levels. They hunkered down in a small shack on the small island of Taketomi, Brozman with his steels, slides, and other guitars, Hirayasu with his sanshin, a small fretless lute, and his casual vocal style, and played some funky, mixed-up variations on Okinawan folk music. It's rife with blues, jazz, and Hawaiian touches, as each musician finds common ground and then shakes it around. Some may find the coarse recording sound a bit of a deterrent; it sounds like the back porch because it is, warts and all. That's its charm though, as two musicians with different backgrounds just sit together and jam into the night, offering lively folk-pop tunes and slow, beautiful love songs. --Louis Gibson

Tracks:

Akata Sun Dunchi
Uruku Tumi Gushiku (Mimura Bushi)
Ufumura Udun (Mimichri Boji)
Bebe Nu Kusakaiga
Hana Nu Kajimaya
Jin Jin
Tinsagu Nu Hana
Tsuki Nu Kaisha
Umaku Kamade (Yanchiya Bozu Kamade)
Chinnuku Jushi
Chon Chon Kijimuna
Taketomi Sunset

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

Okinawa by way of Honolulu? That's the recipe for Jin Jin/Firefly, the delightful collaboration between Japanese folk musician Takashi Hirayasu and Hawaiian steel-guitar master Bob Brozman. Instrumental virtuosity, tunes that transcend any language, and spirited improvising reshape the notion that roots music can only come from the tree of one culture. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com

Ever since the early '80s, when Ry Cooder ferreted out the music of Shoukichi Kina of Okinawa, there has been a small underground of fans who had to be satisfied with occasional compilations and expensive Japanese imports to sate their appetite for this island's easygoing folk music. Bob Brozman, long an aficionado of Pacific island sounds, is the next logical collaborator, and this music with Takashi Hirayasu takes "back porch" to new levels. They hunkered down in a small shack on the small island of Taketomi, Brozman with his steels, slides, and other guitars, Hirayasu with his sanshin, a small fretless lute, and his casual vocal style, and played some funky, mixed-up variations on Okinawan folk music. It's rife with blues, jazz, and Hawaiian touches, as each musician finds common ground and then shakes it around. Some may find the coarse recording sound a bit of a deterrent; it sounds like the back porch because it is, warts and all. That's its charm though, as two musicians with different backgrounds just sit together and jam into the night, offering lively folk-pop tunes and slow, beautiful love songs. --Louis Gibson

Customer Reviews:

wonderful.......2005-07-30

This is a wonderful album... I've been listening to it for 5 years and never get tired of the thing. It's almost a field recording... there's the occasional chicken, and other stray background sounds. The musicians seem to be having a great time. It's the best hang out and drink with friends album. Sadly their second collaboration is not nearly as good -- too much studio meddling.
A *great* album!

Fly Fly Hawaiian Spy Cowboys!.......2001-04-10

I've had this cd since the end of last year but I kept holding off on reviewing it. I just wasn't ready yet. There were things I didn't like about it so I took a break from it for a few months, revisiting it within the last few weeks. I still disagree with ... assertion that this is one of the Top 10 cd's of 2000. Honestly, it's not even the best Bob Brozman-related cd of 2000. Having said that, it's a very good cd once you get past the first tracks. Tracks 1 through 5 would get about 2 stars from me. Tracks 6 through the end of the cd would get 4 or 4 1/4. Overall, my true score for this cd would be 3.8 stars. That may sound bad but I don't mean it to be. Some people give 5 stars to every cd they buy that they don't hate... I try to be a little calmer when I hand out the stars.

My problem with the opening songs is that they are too sing-songy or something. They sound like a mixture of Okinawan Sesame Street and Okinawan MTV Unplugged. Simply put, they sound too normal for me. I was expecting (and hoping for) this entire cd to be quite alien to me. Instead, the opening songs sound like "acoustic pop tunes in a 'foreign' language". Not my thing. Tracks 6 through the end of the cd though are an entirely different story.

Track 6 itself, the title track, is fantastic. It strikes me as a OkinaHawaiian version of 1960's spy-film music. Both men are absolutely brilliant on this track in every aspect, from the singing and on to every note they play. Honestly, this tune is still not as Indigenous or "traditional" as I thought this cd would be, but it is fantastic nonetheless. At other times throughout the cd the music strikes me as Okinawan Roy Rogers. During it's best moments this cd really is a brand new music. Borrowing from many cultures but doing so in such a fluid, creative, and expressive way that it isn't forced. There is alot of "world music" out there that is purposefully "eclectic".. it ends up just being a mish-mash of diverse things that do not work together. This cd avoids that.

There is certainly more Western influence on this cd than I usually enjoy, but it still isn't that generic funk, rock, or hip-hop influenced fluff that permeates commercial Asian radio stations. Thank God! These 2 men have enough emotional power and incredible playing skills that they still end up with a musically successful cd. Something which most people could not do under these circmstances.

Entrancing.......2001-02-13

I can only think that the negative reviewers are not used to any singing that doesn't come out of american FM radio. This is a great CD. Brozman and Hirayasu have incredible chemistry that leaps right over language and culture barriers. Listening to this CD, I can hear all different kinds of music floating to the surface, then disappearing again: blues, jazz, okinawan folk music. Sometimes it sounds like american cowboy music. I could listen to this one a hundred times and still find something new each time.

Entrancing.......2001-02-13

Positive Vibrations.......2001-02-12

This is a great record! My whole family digs it. We play it in our kitchen all the time. The feel is a relaxed cheerful exuberance. That is just what we need every day at breakfast time. Bob Brozman is a master of the international language of music.

Rock Music:

Rock Music

rock music

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