Akemi
Iwase
Producer and singer-song-writer, music arranger. A professional musician
for 35 years, Akemi Iwase uniquely mixes wide variety of music; Japanese
folk songs, Soul, Rock'n'roll, Chansons, Country, and Flamenco. Her music
directly touches the listener's soul.
History
Age 12: Began composing music.
Age 16: Created many original songs with Shuji Someno, a poet. In a Folk
song boom, she started performing the original songs.
Age 18: Formed a Jazz band and performed at a nightclub in Ginza, Tokyo.
She also sang with her guitar at some Jazz Cafes.
Age 19: Formed a Rock'n'roll Band, the Foxy Lady, with Keiko Watanabe.
*Main places to perform: Clubs in the U.S. Camp, Discotheque "Mugen"
in Sakuragi-cho, Yokohama, Tenjo-Sajiki, Nightclub "White Horse"
in Roppongi, Tokyo.
Age 20: Went to U.S.A. with great aspirations. She moved from New York
to Hawaii and got married. She performed piano and sang at a club in the
Queen Kapiolani Hotel.
In 1974, she moved to California. She accompanied a magician in his magic
shows at Dickens Fair, and held some concerts with Keiko Banks, arestaurant)
in the Melrose Street in Los Angeles. She sometimes classic pianist, and
Yoko Abe, a violinist, in Northern California. Around this time, inspired
by traditional Nairobi music by Hamza El Din, she started arranging Japanese
traditional folk songs, Minyo. While raising two children, she held many
concerts with Shakuhachi, Koto, Cello, Tabla, and Sitar players in Northern
California. She also had many performances together with the members of
San Francisco Taiko Dojo.
Mickey Hart, the drummer of the Grateful Dead, invited her to his party
at his second house in Napa Valley, in Northern California. Mickey Hart
arranged her performance as a birthday gift for the movie director Francis
F. Coppola. She also performed at Village Gate, Greenwich Village Gate
in New York and won popularity.
In
1981, she moved to Los Angeles. She composed and performed "Peace
Song" for the event of the "Peace Day" which the Governor
Brown of California arranged and named. This song was often heard on KPFK
Radio. She also performed with a Brazilian band, and with Don Harrice,
a guitarist, and so on. She performed Jazzy Japanese Minyo and Latin music
regularly at the "Comeback Inn" (a Jazz Live Club) and the "Inaka"
(a Japanese invited ShaunDarius Gottlieb, a cellist, to her concerts to
perform with.
Later, she ran the Valley Health Yoga Center and continued performing.
In the end of 1992, she moved to Colorado. She managed the Westminster
Dinner Theater and acted as a stage producer, while she held her own concerts.
A few years later she founded Moon Blossom Records and began creating
music albums.
In 2000, she formed a music band, the Tokyo Tribe. Many concerts by the
band were well received by the audience in Colorado. Then she started
to perform in Japan.
In 2001, her band had a concert tour in Yamagata, Japan, which was a great
success. Her original style of Minyo received many favorable reviews.
They also had concerts at Colleges in Colorado.
In 2002, They had a concert tour in Yamagata. Also, they have expanded
their filed of performance internationally.
CD albums
"Lotus Garden"
"Embrace"
"Tokyo Tribe"*produced in the near future: 'Fairy Tales", "Pathway to the Paradise"
mini CDs
"The Little Ones' Future"
"Flowery Yamagata"
"Nagamochi-Uta (Wedding Song)"
A Song dedicated to Japanese pioneers:
"No me Olvides, Mi Amor "
music video
"Music for the Soul"
Please visit discography for more detail.
