>> Osaka Monaurail
bio: In spring 2007, Osaka Monaurail will celebrate thier 15th anniversary. The wheels are very much still turning on the funk-i-est band that Japan has to offer. After 15 years the aim of the group still remains the same; that is to play just - plain - funk. Leader Nakata often says in interviews 'we've been working very hard for 15 years only to find a way to play funk music.'
Formed in 1992 when Nakata was a university student, they were named after the 1975 funk classic, It's The JBs Monaurail by the J.B.'s. (misspelling intentional.) The band originally had more than 20 people including many horn players, as well as the rhythm section. Most of them were from the same jazz club at the college, and the first tune they rehearsed was I Got The Feeling, a James Brown 1968 funk classic. Soon the band shaped itself up into a 13 piece group. After a couple of school concerts, the first live show off college was at Bustle Hall, Osaka, in 1993. The personnel at the time was: Nakata Ryo (vocal and keys), Matsunaga Hiroaki and Yamamoto Nobuki (trumpets), Terada Hiroichi (co-vocal and trombone), Hiraishi Katsutoshi (trombone), Nakamoto Goji (alto saxophone), Hibino Norihiko (tenor saxophone), Takegai Tomoki (baritone saxophone), Kikuchi Hiroshi and Ichinose Takayuki (guitars), Yatabe Teruyuki (bass), Suetsugu Toshimitu (percussion) and Igarashi Shuichi (drums).
Between 1993-1996, Osaka Monaurail performed mainly in local bars and clubs. Experiencing member changes several times, the big thing for them was an event called Soul Banana, held in Banana Hall, Osaka in 1997 where they met singer Boo, dj Muro, rapper Dev Large and painter Dragon. Nakata and Boo started promoting soul music parties at Club Dawn, Osaka, in 1998. The event was entitled 'SHOUT!' featuring two host live acts: Osaka Monaurail and Boo with Soul Nuts and four resident DJs. The flyers for SHOUT! featured artworks from black cinema of the early 1970s, which was very unusual then and always attracted big crowds. It soon became an regular bi-monthly party. SHOUT! was held approx. twice a year in the Tokyo area as well. (SHOUT! had been held until 2002, and it also became an record label name)
In 1998 the group opened up for The J.B.'s, which included Mr Clyde Stubblefield (drums), Mr John 'Jabo' Starks (drums), Mr Fred Wesley (trombone) and others.
In 1999 Nakata bought theatrical rights for two movies: Superfly (1972) and Coffy (1973), and released them June 2000 in 17 theaters across Japan. As an indie movie distributor, he collected approx. six million yen from friends, and distributed the two films to theaters after almost 30 years after their original release, and onto video for the first time ever in Japan. (A few years later Nakata distributed two more films locally: When We Were Kings (1997) and Soul To Soul (1971). He also played a big role in publishing a book called The Soul Of Black Movies.)
The band went into a studio in 1999 and recorded an opening skit for the first album by Buddha Brand, probably the most popular rap group in Japan at the time. The album was released in 2000, Yameru Mugen No Buddha No Sekai. The track is Super Heavy Funk Introduction, which was the first recording session of the group.
In 2000 Osaka Monaurail released their first album entitled WHAT IT IS...WHAT IT WAS, which included funky original vocal tracks and instrumentals. It also included their cover version of Theme From The Men, originally written and performed by Isaac Hayes in 1973. The album was released on the SHOUT! label as a division of RD Records.
The second album RUMBLE'N STRUGGLE was released in December 2001. The title track was recorded in June 2001 and mixed right before the 9/11 situation. Nakata talks about the coming war; "There ain't a lot of land invading, but a whole lot of weapon trading. There, it's killing for good sakes. 'Justice' is always defined by snakes". The album also contained four funky instrumentals and two vocal tracks. The recording line-up was: Nakata Ryo (vocal, keys and percussion), Matsunaga Hiroaki and Fukutani Shigeki (trumpets), Hiraishi Katsutoshi (trombone), Kobayashi Mitsuru (alto saxophone and flute), Takeshima Satoru (tenor saxophone and flute), Hayami Dan and Kuroishida Keishi (guitars), Ouchi Tsuyoshi (bass) and Kimura Yuichiro (drums).
Not long after, three 45 rpm singles were subsequently released New New Type Thing (pts.1&2) from the 1st album, Just Bein' Free (pts.1&2) and Down And Out (pts.1&2) from the 2nd album. On the center label of Just Bein' Free, it reads 'Inspired by the movie, Superfly.', which reveals that the tune is a tribute to the 1972 funk classic Give Me Your Love by Curtis Mayfield. Also the humorous thing about these three releases is that originally the had ‘scars’ on center labels. . In 2003 the band moved to Tokyo and underwent a big personnel shake-up. Five left the band, and four were recruited in Tokyo. They bought two Fender 60s guitar amps, a 70s Ampeg bass amp, a 60s Vox drum set, a leslie organ cabinet, as well as a new band bus, which enabled them to tour with 10 people and all their equipment, including microphone stands and all the costumes. These acquisitions made it possible for the band to create the same vintage look and sound wherever it goes.
Nakata eventually started to build the band's own Empowerment Studio, and the third album THANKFUL (FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE) (2004) was mixed completely at this studio. (The studio was abandoned due to the bankruptcy of the landlord by the end of the year.) The THANKFUL album included 5 vocal tracks and 4 inst. tracks with the reminiscent of that early 70s sound. The last song is Mind Power, a 1973 JB funk-rapp classic. The funky instrumental Double-Up Now became a popular club hit in the funk scene.
Their first live album EYEWITNESS TO... : LIVE IN HEAVY FUNK SYSTEM (2005), which captured the complete show in Osaka April 28, 2005 with two MCs: Pinch, a DJ and long time friend of the members, and Mr Keb Darge, founder of The Legendary Deep Funk movement, who shouts out at the end of the whole show, 'Hontoni bikkuri shitadesune mo, Osaka Monaurail sugoku jozu ne. Moichi do over here! (What a surprise! Osaka Monaurail plays real good. One more time over here!)' This live album includes 24 tracks and two hidden secret tracks, and features both many originals and covers: Soulful Strut (The Young - Holt Unlimited, 1968), Pick Up The Pieces One By One (Above Average Black Band, 1975), Theme From Shaft (Isaac Hayes, 1971), Soul Pride (The James Brown Orchestra), Alligator Bogaloo (Lou Donaldson, 1967) and Mother Popcorn (James Brown, 1968).
In summer 2006 Osaka Monaurail toured 6 cities as backing band for living legend, Ms Marva Whitney, known as Soulsister Number One, The First Lady Of Funk and one of The James Brown's Original Funky Divas, the first diva in the James Brown Revue of the late 60s. Her hits include It's My Thing, Unwind Yourself, Sunny and You've Gotta Have A Job (duets with Mr JB). She has two albums released under the JB productions: IT'S MY THING (1969) and LIVE AND LOWDOWN AT THE APPOLO (1970). Marva Whitney came all the way from Kansas City, Kansas, USA to tour from up-north Sapporo to down-south Okinawa, in which she visited and did a show on the way to Vietnam with James Brown in 1968. The chemistry between Osaka Monaurail and Ms Whitney was far better than just good, and all the venues were packed out up and down Japan. This tour will be remembered for a long time by soul music fans in Japan. (You can find more about her and the 2006 tour at www.marvawhitney.com)
On the off days of the busy one-and-a-half week tour, Ms Whitney and Osaka Monaurail went into studios to finish her first solo album in 36 years. This album came out in December of the same year (only in Japan) as I AM WHAT I AM. This funk bomb will blow minds of the funk world especially when it's put out through Freestyle Records in Europe spring 2007. The album contains new funk tunes as I Am What I Am and Soulsisters Of The World, a self-cover of the original 1967 single, Saving My Love For My Baby. Also she recorded her own version of Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose, one of many James Brown funk classics, and two more cover versions: He's Mine by The Platters and Every Little Bit Hurts. Osaka Monaurail also did two instrumental tracks for the album: It's Her Thing and We Sing Soul. Ms Whitney closed this album with one of her greatest personal favorite songs, Peace In The Valley.
Osaka Monaurail is very proud of this achievement, and Marva Whiney is coming back to Japan in summer 2007 to participate in Fuji Rock Festival, the biggest rock/pop music festival in Japan. SHOUT! Productions and Soulpower, the management and booking agent for Ms Whitney, headed by DJ Pari, also plan to tour in Europe and Australia in 2007.
Nakata left RD Records, of which he was one of the founders, in autumn 2006 to revive the same SHOUT! Productions as an independent record label. The label has signed or is working with many artists: Marva Whitney, Osaka Monaurail, Cauliflowers (soul/swing) and The Takosan (soul/rock).
The band's first European tour was in November 2006, when Osaka Monaurail performed in 6 cities: London, Southampton, Montpellier, Berlin, Hamburg and Wiesbaden.
The first release under the new SHOUT! Productions was REALITY FOR THE PEOPLE, the 5th album from Osaka Monaurail. The opening track Quicksand features a fast-driving but very cool rhythm section. Ceora is a Lee Morgan bossa-nova original with a novel bogaloo arrangement.
After 15 years, Osaka Monaurail hits the biggest rock festival and another European tour. After all, as leader Nakata says, "...the Japanese kids' long journey of learning how to play funk never ends". The current line up in 2007 is: Ryo Nakata (vocal and keys), Kentaro Yamagata and Seiji Sakakibara (trumpets), Katsutoshi Hiraishi (trombone & flute), Shimon Mukai (tenor saxophone & baritone saxophone & flute), Dan Hayami and Yuichi Ikeda (guitars), Dai Nakamura (bass) and Kensuke Okuse (drums).
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