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  GENSBLUE
HONEY 2008-03-13 02:39:10
also in Kamakura...
b&h met up with GENSBLUE, who we first heard of as a contestant at the KIWAYA ukulele contest last year... Mr Yasuda showed us a DVD of the competition
in it, GENSBLUE plays a medley of christmas tunes in the jazz style, entitled "all that ukulele christmas"... and it blew us away!
why?
Mr. GENSBLUE uses a "walking bass" style of playing that has to be seen and heard to be believed... and his technique and expression are beautiful

anyway, we bumped into him at Mr Kobayashi (Kiyoshi)'s open mic jam at Bistro BLUE DRAG Tokyo the other week, and again at HAPPY HOPPY's mini-live at KIWAYA... so we organized to meet for a drink to get to know each other...

we met in Kamakura, and he took us to a restaurant/bar at the back of antique shop... this place apparently has a 100 year history, and has been frequented by many artists/writers/musicians over the year
we drank local black beer and had a great old chat

Gensblue is a gentle and fascinating man who is a leather-worker, making bags using techniques derived from Native American leatherwork
he was originally a classical guitarist who became interested in bossa-nova, and even traveled to Brazil to explore the genre...
this led him to the ukulele as a more portable instrument for travel, and he eventually started a ukulele-circle for beginners
seeing the joy that the ukulele brought to people (especially those who had never experienced playing music before) gave Gensblue the motivation to get deeper into it
he also works with children, teaching them ukulele, and his dream is to replace the recorder in Japanese schools with the ukulele
we're gonna put him in contact with NIPPER, who has been quite successful doing this very thing in the UK

we'll be interviewing GENSBLUE for the Safari upon our return to Japan in SEPTEMBER...
 

  gensblue and honey
HONEY 2008-03-13 02:41:05
gensblue and honey
 
  bosko & gensblue
HONEY 2008-03-13 02:40:20
bosko & gensblue
 
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