Smoke on the Yangtze

Oddly by way of Japan...

The Yangtze is in China. Different culture, different music.

That was pretty good, except the singers were kinda out of tune at times. At least it's not like that erhu player (literally, meaning "2-string", a Chinese stringed instruments with, you guessed it, two strings) who used to play in the Herald Square subway station. He used to play Beethoven's Ode to Joy, except he had no concept of western keys, so he'd play it in Locrian mode, which is about the ugliest mode there is (B to B on the white keys). I wanted to beat him up for abuse of a noble instrument.

There are a lot of Chinese musicians in the subway, many of them good. I don't see any Japanese.

Here's a really good erhu player:


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And to ramble further on the topic, the OP reminded me of this:


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lilbangladesh wrote: The Yangtze is in China. Different culture, different music...
...
I don't see any Japanese.

I happened to spend the summer of 89 (yep, "that" summer) there studying Chinese, so I have a decent handle on their geography, thanks.

You may not have noticed, but the video itself is from Japan, as are many of the musicians.

And those are not erhu. None of those are Chinese instruments.

The 3-string lutes you see are traditional Japanese shamisen.

Hence my description "Smoke on the Yangtze...Oddly by way of Japan..."

For more on the subject, perhaps this sounds vaguewii familiar?

...and despite Dr. Spengler's specific warning not to cross the streams, I am persuaded to tie this back to the Amen Break discussion with the following:

The above-highlighted Yoshida Brothers with one of their other tunes "Samurai Storm" with a little D+B thrown in for good measure, set to scenes from Samurai Champloo



But wait. I know that particular version of the Amen from somewhere back in the heady days of my youth...

Ah yes, here it is.



Capital, capital! (quoth Sir William Lucas)