Here is the third installment.  I love this print and it reminds me a of a lady we used to know named Mizobuchi-san.  She was an old lady with a bowed back who used to make small bags out of old shirts and speak Japanese to you even if you didn’t understand anything she was saying.  

This is called Mizobuchi’s theme.  by ukiyo-ki.

You can download it here: http://soundcloud.com/ukiyo-ki/mizobuchis-theme

Click on the picture below if you want to see the print.  More to come.

Here is the second song in the Hiroshige Series.  I recorded two tracks in one take each - the rhythm and the melodic part - so I could use my other hand to manipulate the tremolo and pitch and drink coffee.

The song is based off Hiroshige’s “Yui-Satta Peak” from the “Hoeido ban Tokaido” series.  The song is called “Trees bronze in my country, too.”  Still under the moniker “ukiyo-ki.”  Click on the picture below to see a bigger version of the print.

You can download the track here:  http://soundcloud.com/ukiyo-ki/trees-bronze-in-my-country-too

Enjoy and more to come.

Print used as inspiration for the music posted below.  Click on the photo to go to soundcloud to download it if you wish.

I decided to start a series of instrumentals, most likely all piano, or keyboard, rather…  

When I play piano, I generally look at a print or a picture.  I recently got a book of Japanese prints from the library and some of them are really inspiring.  For this series, I am going to concentrate on Hiroshige.  Many prints are related to actors of the time or historical events, but Hiroshige did more landscapes, which I particularly enjoy.  

I mainly write piano music by playing things over and over and slowly changing it to how I like it.  This song here was written a little last night and some the night before.  Perhaps it isn’t finished, but it seemed like a good place to record it.  I tried to keep it short.  As with most piano work, it is recorded in one take, improvised on some themes, and is minimally processed - just a bit of compression to control the crazy highs and lows of my keyboard.  

The song is based on Tsuchiyama: View of Mount Suzuka from the series “Fifty-three Stations along the Tokaido.”  It is called Another View of Suzukayama under the moniker “ukiyo-ki.”

You can download it here: http://soundcloud.com/ukiyo-ki/another-view-of-suzukayama

Enjoy.  More to come.

I will also post a big version of the picture soon.

Dark as a Dungeon - as recorded by Sparklehorse.

Versions like this make me interested in doing some covers.  

Plus, I love this song - I mean, it is the epitome of country music writing - simple, yet so many layers…  

and I heart sparklehorse.

“Then we continue down and

these bridges we keep on crossing

Are written on us now

and the birds they keep on talking…”

Excellent performance of some excellent songs.

If Howlin’ Wolf found his howl by trying to imitate Jimmie Rodger’s yodel, I wonder what would happen if I try…

On a side note - I was record hunting for Jimmie Rodgers a few months back and picked up a Jimmie Rodgers record at some store in Chicago and was real excited.  I put it on and was real disappointed.  I started to think that Jimmie Rodgers made real crappy music to make money and then made good music where he yodels on the side.  I don’t know why I didn’t consider the possibility of two Jimmie Rodgers. hmm…Needless to say, I haven’t played that record again and have since picked up the real Jimmie Rodgers seen above.

One of the many reasons why the Bud Billiken parade is such a treat - horses, ehem… African-Americans, in Chicago, on horses (for some reason this is really exciting to me).

From the old blog.