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The new form of
classical music
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It's
usually expensive and heard in an environment where the
smallest whisper can be heard. That's what classical
music is, or what it used to be. Unfortunately, that's
why some people have felt a barrier they could not get
through. KBC wanted to offer a more accessible kind of
classical music that would be played in a place where the
sound of silverware and plates, as well as the laughter of
different conversations and crying babies, would be
heard. Moms and kids can have the great food of KBC
while having their babies right next to them, and when they
look up, high quality classical music is unfolding before
them. Isn't this a great place?
Opera Tanto and
Young Leaves (a group formed by Toho Musical University
students) have offered their services for this kind of
environment. It's not an environment that they are
accustomed to, as the audience is eating in front of them and
may even be talking, but there is a certain type of people
that can only listen to classical music in such a place like
this. The musical artists have welcomed the challenge
and the customers have been able to enjoy the kind of live
music they were not able to hear before. |
We
have called this the Afternoon Cafe Live, done during Saturday
lunch hours, and we have expanded it to jazz and bossa nova,
as well. KBC is packed with moms and their babies in the
Afternoon Cafe Live. They simply love it. |
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 SENGAWA
MUSIC FEST |
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MC was done by DJ
Naotora Fukuhara, a DJ with TV Kanagawa and FM Yokohama who
resides in Sengawa and is a regular at KBC with his family.
He
often MC's at live events of KBC.
Regular
Radio Show "Yokohama Music Award" |
| It is said
that the annual Oraho Sengawa Festival attracts more than
40,000 people. For the first time ever this year, the first
day of the festival was called the "Sengawa Music Fest" and
was produced by KBC. Bands such as PRISM, the world famous
Orchestra De La Luz, and the hip-hop duo from LA, Christside
Souljahz, performed on stage - not to mention our very own
Tengokumin, too. And of course this was all offered to the
crowd free of charge. It was 4 1/2 hours of non-stop music! When
you talk about concerts in the summer time, you imagine
outdoor concerts. This past summer, there were some outdoor
concerts that, despite having the top promoters, failed to
meet expectations and their failure was widely talked about in
the media. |
But
the Sengawa Music Fest was different from them. We did not
have the top promoters but only the organization of the
shopping street of Sengawa. Nevertheless, we achieved great
success in our outdoor concert and the power of the city of
Sengawa was able to shine its light that night. The crowd that
gathered that night was speechless when they found out that
top artists were performing in the very city that they resided
in. Some of them were even asking about who the festival would
attract next year. The city of Sengawa enjoyed that night, to
say the least. Oh yeah, the rainbow room was pretty popular
too, you know (that's a-whole-'nother story of negotiation in
itself) |
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SENGAWA AVENUE
FEST
The Sengawa Avenue Fest in September was also
produced by KBC.
It was held in the area of
Sengawa that the world famous architect Tadao Ando designed.
There are different galleries there, so KBC put the artistic
aspect of the area together with the music and cafe aspect of KBC
to produce the festival, for the second year in a row.
This year KBC did everything, from the open cafe,
live concerts and kids' section, to creating the poster and
fliers for the event. Many came and enjoyed the beautiful clear autumn
sky with art, music and food. It was a new kind of
afternoon that the people of Sengawa enjoyed. There were
voices that said they loved it and would like it to continue
with even more diversity in future years. We'll see what will
happen next year, but it'll most certainly be better than the
one before! | |
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Daisaku
Kume
Music&Arranger&Keyboard Player
Official
Site
Daisaku Kume's project, "Out of
Fusion" came from KBC. As was heard in the interview of Akira Wada,
the dream of this project came true because of KBC bringing the
musicians together. Now this unit is very active in other live
houses, but it all started here at KBC. One of the most valuable
activities of KBC is that we initiate collaboration of different
artists.
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Boris Coslov
Bassist
KBC is the first choice of Boris Coslof, a young and promising
bassist that is a member of the Charles Mingus Big Band. He
has experience playing around the world and has performed live
events at the most famous of live houses in the Tokyo area,
but he said if he was going to come to Japan again, he wanted to perform at
KBC. |
The first time he came was when he came
alongside the world famous saxophonist Lou Tabakin, as part of
a trio, in September of 2005. As he was leaving, he was on the
verge of tears, and expressed his sincere desire to
perform once again at KBC. He fulfilled his desire, as well as
the desire of the KBC staff, 9 months later.
There are
a lot of live houses in Japan, but we have been designated as
one of the favorite live houses in Japan, if not the favorite,
by top artists in the world. You can be sure that there is
going to be more to come!
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Why can't a cafe be a little creative?
KBC
produces original live events inside the cafe as well as outside the cafe and in the middle of the
community. It is only possible because we
reside in the very hospitable community of
Sengawa.
One artist put it this way:
"Recently,
there's been an increase in the quality of life in the
city of Sengawa. I believe that what KBC is doing in the community has something to do with that."
If this is really true, then there is no greater joy for us
than that. Let's make this city a city
like no other, shall we!?
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