In January 2003, Pacific Time producer
and director Nina Thorsen put together a list of albums from
which she frequently draws music clips for Pacific Time.
If you are interested in buying one of the CDs below, you
can support KQED by purchasing it through Amazon.com. Simply
click the link in the album's title and you will be taken
to the item on Amazon's site. Most of these CDs are
also available from other sources.
Pacific Time Hit Parade
by Nina Thorsen,
Producer and Director, Pacific Time
My first-ever list of some of the great Asian and Asian-American
music that you might have heard on Pacific Time!
Great production music (that's the formal name for the stuff
you hear for 15, 20 or maybe 30 seconds between stories on
a lot of public radio programs) is not always great music.
In fact, there are some pieces that I use on the show that
I wouldn't listen to for more than 15 seconds, and conversely,
there are a lot of really great CDs that don't work at all
for the purposes of production music, mostly because they
take too long to go somewhere. But here are some CDs that
work both ways, at least for me. All of the CDs listed here
are currently listed as available through Amazon.com, and
if you buy them through our page, KQED will get a little bit
of money, some of which might even trickle down to my CD budget,
and so I'd thank you very much! However, you might also find
some of these in stock in your local record store, and any
store that does special-order CDs should be able to get them
for you.
1. Khac Chi Ensemble - Moonlight in Viet Nam
This is in the #1 spot because it was the first acquisition
of the Pacific Time music library, actually predating the
premiere of the show by about six months because I bought
it for a California Report story on Memorial Day weekend of
2000. The Khac Chi Ensemble is a Canadian group playing traditional
Vietnamese music and instruments, but in modern arrangements
and with some electric components; some vocals and some instrumentals.
This is a very nice, very listenable CD with excellent liner
notes.
2. Cui Jian - Power of the Powerless
This was the second CD that I bought in anticipation of the
premiere of Pacific Time, and like the Khac Chi Ensemble,
I used it in both the pilot and the first program on November
16, 2000. It also contains the single most requested piece
of music on the program, "Slackers (Hunze)," a slamming
combination of rock and Chinese percussion which is often
heard as one of the 59-second mid-show music breaks (if your
station doesn't use this as a cutaway opportunity). In fact,
it was my discovery that the first 42 seconds and the last
17 seconds of this piece could be edited together that led
me to create the 59-second mid-show music break. Well, enough
of that trivia, this is a superlatively good CD and you ought
to lose no time in adding it to your record library. Cui Jian
is variously compared to Dylan, Lennon, and Springsteen for
his pioneering role in Chinese rock and his social commentary;
but this CD is enjoyable even if you don't understand Mandarin
and don't know anything about modern China. The liner notes
have the lyrics in Chinese and an English translation and
that's it, but you can find out more about Cui Jian on his
Web site: www.cuijian.com.
3. Various Artists - The Rough Guide to Japan
Various Artists - The Rough Guide to Okinawa
Various Artists - The Rough Guide to Indonesia
Various Artists - The Rough Guide to Hawaii
All of the Rough Guide series (at least all of these four,
which I have; there seem to be about 90 in all) are terrific,
wide-ranging surveys of each genre from very traditional to
very pop; quite a lot is music that is difficult or impossible
to get elsewhere in the U.S. and it's great value for money.
If you don't like any given cut on the CD, don't worry because
the next one is almost certainly going to be nothing like
it. The liner notes are knowledgeable without being academic,
and will help a lot if you're interested in finding out more
about the different kinds of music. The Rough Guide to Japan
contains the second-most-requested piece of music on Pacific
Time, which is the fabulous rendition of the James Bond theme
by the Surf Champlers.
4. Shonen Knife - Let's Knife
Shonen Knife - Happy Hour (Import Version)
Shonen Knife - Brand New Knife
Shonen Knife, in their own words, is an "u-u-ultra eccentric,
super-cool, punk-pop" band, comprised of (now) middle-aged
women from Osaka. This is my favorite band on earth. But a
lot of people don't like them. It's not that it's an acquired
taste -- certain of my colleagues have been obliged to listen
to a considerable amount of Shonen Knife since Pacific Time
went on the air, and it hasn't helped. Many people take their
songs at face value and think that the band is shallow and
cute. This is not true, but if you really don't like things
that appear to be happy and sweet on the surface, you probably
won't like Shonen Knife. But if you do, I'd say these three
albums are the best places to start collecting their considerable
output. "Let's Knife" is the most uniformly cheerful,
including the must-have "Riding on the Rocket" and
the Ventures homage, "Milky Way," which I have used
for closing music on Pacific Time several times, because it's
a rare instrumental. "Brand New Knife" and "Happy
Hour" have a wider range of songs, and if you get certain
pressings of "Brand New Knife" or the import version
of "Happy Hour" you will get two versions of several
of the songs, one in Japanese and one in English. Shonen Knife
is still performing and recording, although founding member
Michie Nakatani is no longer with the group. In addition to
being a great bass player, she wrote the most thoughtful songs,
of which "The Perfect World" on "Brand New
Knife" and "Catch Your Bus" on "Happy
Hour" are two examples. Unlike practically any other
rock or pop band in history, Shonen Knife doesn't write songs
about sex or drugs (okay, except for catnip) which makes them
an excellent choice for giving to kids. Or extremely immature
adults ... like me!
5. Takako Minekawa - Cloudy Cloud Calculator
If, on the other hand, you have a difficult college-age person
to shop for, who rolls his or her eyes at most attempts to
be cool, try this. Your worst-case scenario is that the kid
already has it. It's highly crafted synthesizer-based music
which is completely dependent on a reliable source of electricity
for its very existence, but which is also sweet and happy
and optimistic in a sophisticated way. This has a wonderful,
extremely slowed-down version of "Telstar" with
a lot of jungle sound effects mixed into it for some reason,
which I've used for end music a couple of times. Play this
for your friends and see how long it takes for them to figure
out what the tune is!
6. Won Il - Asura
If you go to Amazon's page for this you'll see they have the
artist's name as "Mon" Il, but this is a typo. This
CD is out of print, but apparently Amazon can access some
used copies. Anyhow, whatever source you use, I would strongly
advise you to get your hands on this CD. Won Il is a South
Korean musician and composer who recorded this album in Los
Angeles with a bunch of musicians and instruments from all
over the world: accordion, Irish pipes, Asian drums, synthesizers
-- you name it, it's probably on here; I think there's maybe
even an autoharp. Moods range from cheery polka-ish numbers,
to a moving song about Korean reunification, to a haunting
and solemn piece that I used for the mid-show break on the
September 13, 2001 edition of Pacific Time.
7. Various Artists - Club Nisei
Club Nisei (there's also a sequel, Club Nisei Encore!) is
a collection of original recordings nicely remastered from
the 1940s and 1950s by Japanese-American big bands in Hawaii.
It's a lot of fun and cannot fail to please anyone who enjoys
the music of that era. The songs include popular numbers of
the time like "Tokyo Boogie" as well as versions
of folk songs like "Asadora Yunta" and the all-time
Bon Odori hit, "Tanko Bushi," which had a lot of
people calling in search of the CD when I played it on the
show.
8. Shang Shang Typhoon - Shang Shang Typhoon 2
Shang Shang Typhoon is a Japanese group influenced by the
Okinawan folk boom as well as Hawaiian and Latin sounds and
traditional festival music. On this CD they are playing (as
far as I can tell) all original songs, rather than traditional
ones, with the exception of a cover of "Let It Be"
which by itself is absolutely worth the steep import price.
The other songs are all excellent too; one of my favorites
is "Yokokusa Burning Night," which is an extremely
happy and cheerful song that never fails to elevate my mood,
although the lyrics seem to have something to do with American
military bases on Okinawa. Instrumentation includes guitars,
drums (both taiko and rock-band), Chinese gongs, accordion,
piano, banjo and kazoo, and the vocals include a lot of the
classic sweet female high harmonies that you hear in Japanese
and Okinawan singing; the general effect is a really wild
party! Shang Shang Typhoon has released a number of CDs; though
this is the only one I've heard so far.
9. Jiang Jian Hua - The Earth
Jiang Jian Hua plays the erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed
violin, with a couple of large ensembles of Chinese musicians.
This incredibly lovely record seems to be out of print, but
Amazon lists it as possible to order used. Whatever struggles
you might have to go through to find it will be amply rewarded.
The instrumentation is lush, and could so easily have become
a sort of "101 Strings Do The Chinese Classics,"
but instead is beautifully restrained and tasteful. All pieces
are instrumental; they include some traditional, some modern
compositions in a traditional style, and two popular Okinawan
songs from the last couple of decades: Shoukichi Kina's "Hana"
(Flower) and Kazufumi Miyazawa's "Shima Uta" (Island
Song), in which it's possible to hear the affinities between
Chinese and Okinawan music.
10 . Shoukichi Kina - Peppermint Tea House
Shoukichi Kina - The Music Power From Okinawa
So far I think I have used far too many superlatives in making
up this list, so let me try to restore a bit of credibility
with some criticism: the pink-and-blue jacket art for Peppermint
Tea House is kind of ugly, and reading the notes is almost
as challenging to the eye as reading old issues of Wired.
So, after you buy this CD -- which you absolutely must do
-- if you don't care for it either, you could refold it so
that the lyrics were on the outside. Well, enough of finding
fault. Shoukichi Kina is the great Okinawan musician and "Peppermint
Tea House," a compilation, is an excellent introduction
to his work and to Okinawan music in general. It includes
Kina's best-known songs, "Haisai Ojisan" and "Hana,"
and Ry Cooder plays on three of the cuts and wrote the liner
notes. "The Music Power From Okinawa" was originally
released in 1977; it contains two songs that are also on "Tea
House," and it has a less-polished feel, but it's also
very good. Shoukichi Kina is excellent car music. Either one
will keep you or your friends and family wide-awake during
a long journey!
11 . Nguyen Le - Tales From Viet Nam
No complaints about the CD package here; this German label
issues CDs in heavy card folders instead of jewel boxes, and
it's printed in an elegant design that would hardly need wrapping
to make a lovely present. And the music is great too! Jazz
guitarist Nguyen Le was born in France to Vietnamese parents.
For this CD, he brought traditional Vietnamese musicians together
with European jazz performers to improvise on folk tunes.
It's sophisticated, elegant, and engaging.
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