Daily Archives: May 20, 2009

Former Megadeth “charisma guitarist” Marty Friedman (46) has been unashamedly gushing about his love of the J-pop scene for a few years now. And today he’s cashing in on the mismatch of heavy metal axeman and sugar sweet pop music with the release of “Tokyo Jukebox,” an instrumental album of J-pop covers. Friedman performed a few guitar licks for reporters at the Tokyo Tower observation deck yesterday, including his take on Mr. Children’s “Gift” and a little enka in the form of Ishikawa Sayuri’s “Amagigoe.” Friedman performed as a member of Megadeth during their most successful decade from 1990-2000. After moving to Japan, he joined X Japan guitarist Pata and Luna Sea drummer Shinya as a backing musician to rock singer Aikawa Nanase in 2005. A more unlikely pairing was with J-pop star Suzuki Ami on NHK’s “Kohaku Uta Gassen” that New Year’s Eve. He also performed last year on a mini-album of covers by African American enka singer Jero. In March, he performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. A famous Friedman anecdote is that he auditioned for legendary rockers Kiss, but was turned down because he was under six feet tall.

Tokyo Jukebox tracklist

1. Tsume Tsume Tsume (Maximum the Hormone)
2. Gift (Mr. Children)
3. Amagigoe (Sayuri Ishikawa)
4. Story (AI)
5. Polyrhythm (Perfume)
6. Kaeritakunatta yo (Ikimonogakari)
7. Tsunami (Southern All Stars)
8. Yuki no Hana (Mika Nakashima)
9. Eki (Takeuchi Mariya)
10. Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (SMAP)
11. Romansu no Kamisama (Hirose Kohmi)
12. Ashita he no Sanka (Alan)

Former TV announcer Yorichika Mitsuko died yesterday of cancer-related heart failure at a Chiba Prefecture hospital. She was 53. She is regarded as the first announcer to become an “idol” in her own right, establishing a trend that still continues today. Yorichika joined NHK in 1978 and within two years was hosting the “Terebi FaSoLaTiDo” variety show with popular talentos such as Tamori. Real name Shikanai Kasareen Mitsuko, she was born in Hiroshima and learned piano and cello from an early age. Her father was a Japanese-American and she attended the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. With her exotic looks, fluent English and professional level musical skills she was regarded as Miss NHK and was the first female announcer to host a variety show on the network. In 1981 she left NHK for Fuji TV, a rare move at the time, and appeared as an assistant presenter on the “Ogawa Hiroshi Show.” She later became a newscaster on the late-night “FNN News Report 11:30.” She quit TV in 1984 after marrying Fuji TV vice president Shikanai Haruo, with whom she had two children. But her husband died in 1988 and she returned to TV in 1993. She made her acting debut in the 1996 NHK taiga historical drama “Hideyoshi.” She was regularly involved in the classical music scene, as a concert planner, emcee and magazine writer. She was diagnosed with esophageal cancer two years ago, but chemotherapy treatment allowed her to continue working until as recently as last month. She was hospitalized a week ago and developed pneumonia last Friday.

• We reported yesterday on measures Avex were taking to prevent the spread of swine flu at concerts this week. But they announced last night that they were going one step further and canceling shows by Hamasaki Ayumi, Koda Kumi and Otsuka Ai. The six shows were all scheduled over the next few days in the Kansai region cities of Osaka and Kobe, where recent flu outbreaks have been concentrated.