Takashi Hirayasu

Takashi Hirayasu (平安隆) was once guitarist with possibly Okinawa's most famous group, Shokichi Kina and Champloose. He was an important contributor to some of the band's classic material, including the1980 album 'Bloodline' featuring Ry Cooder. After quitting Champloose he set about putting together an album to encompass his wide ranging musical influences. Among the unmistakably Okinawan melodies are rock guitars, plus African and Caribbean rhythms. Mangetsu no Yube (A Full Moon Evening) was written by Takashi Nakagawa of Soul Flower Union (see track 3) and Hiroshi Yamaguchi of the group Heat Wave, for the victims of the Kobe earthquake. The song is fast becoming a classic of Japanese music, in much the same way as Kina's 'Hana' before. Probably, the best Japanese song of the 1990s. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.