Nenes

A quartet from Okinawa, close to Japan, formed when Sadao China, an elder statesmen of traditional music on the isle, decided he wanted to promote an all-female group in 1990. Area of the program was for the chosen females to sing Okinawan minyo music (successfully isle folk), but using Traditional western instruments to attract the youth from the isle. The very first recruit was music group head Misako Koja (b. c.1956, Okinawa), already a widely recognised figure in the neighborhood music scene through singing and using the sanshin (three-stringed lute) since an early on age. She produced her first single recording at age 10, before learning under Sadao China and signing up for the Okinawan Chans, a chorus group who followed Ryûichi Sakamoto on tour. The next member to become listed on Nenes was Yasuko Miyazato, another experienced pupil of China. The quartet was finished with the addition of Yuino Hiyane, like Yasuko Miyazato a previous winner from the Ryukyu Minyo Preservation Culture nationwide music competition, and lastly Namiko Miyazato. Within the studio room, China acted as their professional maker and composer, assisting his costs’ elegant choruses and harmonies along with his personal sanshin playing, adding keyboards from Religious Unity innovator Sahara Kazuya. The resultant Ikawu became an enormous hit, selling from its 1st pressing within a fortnight, and eventually getting the most effective Okinawan launch in mainland Japan in 1991. Its achievement prompted what consequently became referred to as the ‘Okinawan influx’ in Japanese music. Putting your signature on to main label Ki/oon Sony the next year, Yunta noticed Kazuya and China concoct a fresh make of shima uta (isle tracks) pop with the help of Brazilian music artists, as Nenes embarked on a sell out tour of Japan with Religious Unity. Yet on a regular basis they continued to try out more relaxed displays in the Okinawan Shima Uta nightclub, that is their foundation, singing as required with the appearance of customers. Another album, Ashibi, presented a cover edition of Bob Marley’s ‘No Female No Cry’, as well as the primarily China-penned originals, including a edition of his personal Japanese pop strike from 1977, ‘Bye Bye Okinawa’.