Marcelo Russillo & Hugo Fattoruso in Japan
Hello everyone,
I am in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture today. We came here to inspect a Brazilian ship that had some troubles on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Japan. Why is that so important? well, the ship is only work related making it not that important, nor is Yokkaichi... but yesterday, I spent my evening in Nagoya and that was important!
First, I arrived to Nagoya station at around 3 pm and met my Uruguayan friend Emi Abe for coffee. We had a great time catching up about whas was new in our respective lives as well as critizicing (as only uruguayans can do) everything possible about our time in Japan. It was a very relieving -cathartic- experience. We talked, we went shopping for a gift to her friend, we had fun. Unfortunately she had plans and couldn't come with me to see the main event of the evening.
Hugo Fattoruso in concert at Cafe Dubi!
Yes, as unbelievable as it may sound, I came to go to an Hugo's concert for the first time in my life in Nagoya, Japan. Unusual things happen to unusual people I guess...
The story starts a little earlier this week though. Our friend Ernesto from Argentina has a tango school in Kobe and organized a tango show to present the ensemble Tango Negro Trio which was touring Japan. Croguay Republic attended the event and was overwhelmed with joy at hearing all that Uruguayan-Afro music shaping the history of Argentine tango. It was a well deserved homenage to candombe, havanera and samba for their roles in tango, with a bit of jazz added just for flavor. We had a great time.
The percusionist of the group is an Uruguayan called Marcelo Rusillo who has been living in Paris for 15 years. After the show we went to talk to him and he mentioned he had been with Fattoruso in Nagoya 2 days before. I couldn't believe it. Fattoruso in Japan? I said. How? When? Tell me!! He said I should check on the net for his concerts schedule. So I did; first thing when I got back home that evening.
As it turned out, Hugo was touring Japan since last week together with an old friend of his, percusionist Tomohiro Yahiro, a Tokyo talent born and raised in the Canary Islands. I checked the list and found -to my dismay- that he had had a couple of concerts in Osaka the weekend before. I said, Not Fair!!! the next ones would be in Nagoya before he headed north, completely out of my reach. By a great turn of destiny, this ship we were working on happened to be in Yokkaichi and we were designated to go and work on it during the weekend. Yokkaichi is only 30 min from Nagoya on the local train... hmmmm a plan started forming in my mind right away. What if I can spend my evening in Nagoya before going to the hotel in Yokkaichi?
It seems we were going to Nagoya in the first place (the Shinkansen doesn't go through Yokkaichi) and I was told it was okay to stay there and enjoy my evening as long as I was ready to go at the hotel lobby by 8 am next morning.
I called Emi and we met right after I got to Nagoya as related earlier, then I left for the Cafe where Hugo was going to be playing with plenty of time to spend before the show started. I got there one hour before the designated time and had a chat with the maestro. I was the only other Uruguayan in the room. He seems like a great guy who knows his trade inside out, a straightforward man with tons of talent and who obviously enjoys inmensely what he does for a living. We talked about me and what I was doing in Japan as well as his tour and how Uruguay was like nowadays to his eyes. He's so Uruguayan that I felt like a complete stranger.
The show began by him singing alone, some borrowed songs and some of his own. It was nice, poetic, melancholic, metaphysical as only uruguayan lyrics can be. He played the synthetizer, the drum, an accordion and his own voice in more ways than I can even remember. He was playing a meter and a half away from my table in this tiny cafe with no more than 35 people inside, almost all of them Japanese... he spoke in spanish and nobody translated for him, it made the evening the more special.
He reminded me of my friend Milton Anton, they are the same generation, my father's generation. People who admired the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and from Uruguay, tango and candombe. I wonder if Malvin does something to people. I always said if I went back to live in Montevideo there's where I want to have a house. Sea, beach, an island, candombe and chivitos... what's better than that?
After the concert finished, I ran to Chikusa station and took the subway back to Nagoya station where I caught the train to Yokkaichi at around 22:30. I arrived at the hotel at 15 past 2300 and after chatting with my babicitich went right to sleep in order to be up by 0630 the next morning and continue with my Japanese life.
No matter how I look on the outside or what I do for a living or who I interact with in my daily routine, inside, there's a core of uncorrupted uruguayness that cannot be entirely suppressed. It takes only a drum call -cha-cha-cha cha-cha!- to wake it up and make me want to drink mate and smoke a cigarette while listening to the waves braking in la rambla of my unforgettable Montevideo.
Thanks Marcelo and thanks Hugo for the timely beautiful relief in such a rough week. Keep on drumming.
Gaston
P.S. I recorded some short videos with my mobile. Quality is not the best but it does give some idea of what kind of music he does. Enjoy.
I am in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture today. We came here to inspect a Brazilian ship that had some troubles on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Japan. Why is that so important? well, the ship is only work related making it not that important, nor is Yokkaichi... but yesterday, I spent my evening in Nagoya and that was important!
First, I arrived to Nagoya station at around 3 pm and met my Uruguayan friend Emi Abe for coffee. We had a great time catching up about whas was new in our respective lives as well as critizicing (as only uruguayans can do) everything possible about our time in Japan. It was a very relieving -cathartic- experience. We talked, we went shopping for a gift to her friend, we had fun. Unfortunately she had plans and couldn't come with me to see the main event of the evening.
Hugo Fattoruso in concert at Cafe Dubi!
Yes, as unbelievable as it may sound, I came to go to an Hugo's concert for the first time in my life in Nagoya, Japan. Unusual things happen to unusual people I guess...
The story starts a little earlier this week though. Our friend Ernesto from Argentina has a tango school in Kobe and organized a tango show to present the ensemble Tango Negro Trio which was touring Japan. Croguay Republic attended the event and was overwhelmed with joy at hearing all that Uruguayan-Afro music shaping the history of Argentine tango. It was a well deserved homenage to candombe, havanera and samba for their roles in tango, with a bit of jazz added just for flavor. We had a great time.The percusionist of the group is an Uruguayan called Marcelo Rusillo who has been living in Paris for 15 years. After the show we went to talk to him and he mentioned he had been with Fattoruso in Nagoya 2 days before. I couldn't believe it. Fattoruso in Japan? I said. How? When? Tell me!! He said I should check on the net for his concerts schedule. So I did; first thing when I got back home that evening.
As it turned out, Hugo was touring Japan since last week together with an old friend of his, percusionist Tomohiro Yahiro, a Tokyo talent born and raised in the Canary Islands. I checked the list and found -to my dismay- that he had had a couple of concerts in Osaka the weekend before. I said, Not Fair!!! the next ones would be in Nagoya before he headed north, completely out of my reach. By a great turn of destiny, this ship we were working on happened to be in Yokkaichi and we were designated to go and work on it during the weekend. Yokkaichi is only 30 min from Nagoya on the local train... hmmmm a plan started forming in my mind right away. What if I can spend my evening in Nagoya before going to the hotel in Yokkaichi?It seems we were going to Nagoya in the first place (the Shinkansen doesn't go through Yokkaichi) and I was told it was okay to stay there and enjoy my evening as long as I was ready to go at the hotel lobby by 8 am next morning.
I called Emi and we met right after I got to Nagoya as related earlier, then I left for the Cafe where Hugo was going to be playing with plenty of time to spend before the show started. I got there one hour before the designated time and had a chat with the maestro. I was the only other Uruguayan in the room. He seems like a great guy who knows his trade inside out, a straightforward man with tons of talent and who obviously enjoys inmensely what he does for a living. We talked about me and what I was doing in Japan as well as his tour and how Uruguay was like nowadays to his eyes. He's so Uruguayan that I felt like a complete stranger.
The show began by him singing alone, some borrowed songs and some of his own. It was nice, poetic, melancholic, metaphysical as only uruguayan lyrics can be. He played the synthetizer, the drum, an accordion and his own voice in more ways than I can even remember. He was playing a meter and a half away from my table in this tiny cafe with no more than 35 people inside, almost all of them Japanese... he spoke in spanish and nobody translated for him, it made the evening the more special.
He reminded me of my friend Milton Anton, they are the same generation, my father's generation. People who admired the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and from Uruguay, tango and candombe. I wonder if Malvin does something to people. I always said if I went back to live in Montevideo there's where I want to have a house. Sea, beach, an island, candombe and chivitos... what's better than that?
After the concert finished, I ran to Chikusa station and took the subway back to Nagoya station where I caught the train to Yokkaichi at around 22:30. I arrived at the hotel at 15 past 2300 and after chatting with my babicitich went right to sleep in order to be up by 0630 the next morning and continue with my Japanese life.
No matter how I look on the outside or what I do for a living or who I interact with in my daily routine, inside, there's a core of uncorrupted uruguayness that cannot be entirely suppressed. It takes only a drum call -cha-cha-cha cha-cha!- to wake it up and make me want to drink mate and smoke a cigarette while listening to the waves braking in la rambla of my unforgettable Montevideo.
Thanks Marcelo and thanks Hugo for the timely beautiful relief in such a rough week. Keep on drumming.
Gaston
P.S. I recorded some short videos with my mobile. Quality is not the best but it does give some idea of what kind of music he does. Enjoy.
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