MISAKO KOJA

FROM THE JAPAN TIMES- October 2000

 

For a reason that has so far confounded me, October and November usually heralds a spate of Okinawan concerts and releases on the mainland. This year is no exception. This leads to inevitable and unfortunate clashes of dates. The Ryukyu Festival in Tokyo (previously previewed in this column) earlier in October, unfortunately fell on the same day as two other excellent Okinawan performances elsewhere. Still, there is plenty left to enjoy.

Top of my list of the remaining concerts this autumn, are those by Misako Koja, the former vocal leader of the female quartet Nenes. Since she left about five years ago, Nenes never really recovered, certainly their finest moments coming when Koja was still with the group. Owner of perhaps Okinawa's finest female voice, she has a rare gift of extracting every drop of emotion from a song. When she left Nenes, keyboard player and producer from Osaka, the underrated Kazuya Sahara, who was largely responsible for shaping the Nenes sound, departed with her. The two have ever since regularly collaborated together live, although recordings have thus far been limited to two CD singles, sold exclusively at their live shows. Finally, a full album is to be released, "Ama Kakeru Hashi" (Bridges over Heaven) , although again at first limited to being sold at their upcoming concerts.

"Basically Koja isn't so interested in recording" says Sahara, "but we always got a lot of requests to make an album." The album is split almost equally between traditional and original songs, penned by Sahara, with Koja writing the lyrics. "Those are songs that tell Koja's life story so far, the others are mainly 'Warabi Uta', (lullabies).

Misako Koja made her first recording when she was nine with a song "Sushi Susa". On this album, we actually use that recording, with Koja, now 46, singing a new vocal in a kind of duet with herself." The concerts will feature a small string section who also appear on the album.