Ryuichi Sakamoto & YMO: Big in Japan and America Too
YMO—Yellow Magic Orchestra—was the most popular Japanese pop band in the 1980s. Not only were they huge in Japan, but also in Europe and the U.S. The band—Ryuichi Sakamoto on…
By Tom Schnabel • • 1 min read
Yellow Magic Orchestra is here in LA for their first concert since 1979. Great that it’s at the Hollywood Bowl, because they’ll get first class production treatment. This is even more extraordinary given the band mainly produced their records in studio and rarely gave live concerts. I never met Hosono, though he has recorded some experimental innovative albums playing toy instruments and creating unusual sonic landscapes. Takashi is less known here. Sakamoto has concertized frequently in the U.S. I interviewed him several times on Morning Becomes Eclectic, and he’s been back to KCRW many times since. I put my interviews into my first book, Stolen Moments: Conversations with Contemporary Musicians. When I asked him about his dream band, he said it would be the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix soloing. One can only imagine how great that would be!!!!!!
Here’s a link to a live set Ryuichi did with me on KCRW last October:
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/cl/cl101031ryuichi_sakamoto