Daibutsu, Kamakura

Daibutsu, Kamakura
Daibutsu in Kamakura, June 2010. There were thousands of school kids visiting that day. It was still great fun.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Jero in concert in LA


http://www.jaccc.org/events.htm

Jero (aka Jerome White) is coming to Los Angeles. The first African-American enka singer in Japanese (world?) history will be performing at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center JACCC on March 31, 2010. Enka is a Japanese musical style that arose in the post-war years. I am not aware of any foreigner becoming a successful enka singer and it is even more unique with Jero's hip-hop style. Jero has become quite famous in Japan but I am not certain how well known he is here so I was surprised to hear he was playing a show in Los Angeles. Of course, the showing is at a theater in the Little Tokyo district in downtown LA so he may get a good turnout from the local Japanese-American community.

15 comments:

  1. I cannot stand the guy. It is all Nagayama Yoko for me.

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  2. I personally don't care for his hip hop style. It just looks ridiculous, especially combined with the music style.

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  3. Anonymous7:30 PM

    I am so excited to learn that Jero is coming to the US. I am a big fan of his!

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  4. Being of Pittsburgh descent I was at first a bit curious about him but hadn't heard him sing. I dismissed him, especially because of his silly sideways hat etc...

    But having heard him sing a year or two back (on TV) I was pretty impressed. I don't know a lick about Enka, but his voice was good, and he had a convincing stage presence.

    -Though I won't be buying any tickets any time soon.

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  5. Hip-hop & Enka...hmmm. I gotta pass on this one too.

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  6. What is the chance of him doing "Pants On The Ground" Enka style?

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  7. I like him. He was my first favorite Japanese singer. I even bought his debut cd.

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  8. Anonymous4:10 AM

    I wrote a post about Jero too.

    Here:
    http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/jero/

    He hasn't been on TV here in Japan for a while. Seems people have forgotten about him here...so I guess maybe that's why he's performing in America again.

    He performed at the Sakura festival in Washington DC last spring.
    I wrote about that too:

    http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/hanami-in-usa/

    Also...you requested a samurai movie trivia question on my "Movie Trivia" post.
    I added one. Here:

    http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/hanami-in-usa/

    Can you answer it?

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  9. Anonymous4:12 AM

    I mistyped.

    My Samurai Movie Trivia question is here:

    http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/movie-trivia/#comment-5101

    Thanks.

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  10. Cool!!!

    Do you go and see him?!

    Now you are back in LA!!!

    It is funny that the subway posters always reminds me of you! Ha-ha!!!

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  11. not sure it's a show I'd go but good luck to him!

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  12. Thank you for all the comments. Sorry I have not responded until now. I had to travel back to Japan unexpectedly and just returned to the United States yesterday.

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  13. I sing Umiyuki whenever I go to karaoke.

    (I can only say that because no on knows me here.)

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  14. Jero is a good performer but I think he could improve his skills much more beyond.
    Thanks for sharing!

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