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Cicala-Mvta is One of Japanese Most Exciting and Original Groups. Both Traditional Chindon and the Retro-futuristic Sound of Cicala-Mvta is an Entirely Natural Combination of the Old and New, the East with the West. (Amazon review)

Cicala Mvta is a group described by some UK music critics as the most impressive exponents of contemporary Japanese grass roots music. The music presents old-fashioned and brass band music. Featuring chindon, a kind of Japanese drum, saxophones, clarinets and tubas, Cicala Mvta's music is a kind of street music originally played at funerals or the openings of local shops. But the band blends the cheesy music with social critique, thus creating a sarcastic outlook, in both its musical style and in its stage performance. (TAIPEI TIMES By Yu Sen-lun Jun 18, 2004)

Before TV commercials, drum and woodwind bands would march through the streets of Japan carrying banners advertising products or stores. Bandleader WATARU OKHUMA modelled his band after these Chindon groups and named it CICALA-MVTA .(Pronounced Shi-ka-la Moo-ta, it means Mute cicada after the epitaph of a great Japanese street singer songwriter) All in all, it is a wild ride, as Cicala Mvta views klezmer, Balkan, Turkish, early jazz and free jazz music through their Japanese street band lens, which has something to do with topology and physics and their bent view of musical reality. (Radio National ;Australia)

THE NAME OF THE BAND
It derives from the inscription on the epitaph of Soeda Azembo(1872--1944) ; a legendary street singer.

“ A CICALA-MVTA CHE CANTAVA E LA SVA MOGLIE CHE L' AMAVA ”
(The mute cicada that sang and his wife who loved him)

This is from the epitaph for Soeda Azembo (mute cicada) the greatest street singer-song-writer of popular music in Japan, before the 1920's --- the beginning of the days of mass culture. In those days the street-singers used to sing and sell the songbook on the street. And the incredible point is that before radio broadcast and SP records, his comical and sarcastic songs often became a mega-hit in the whole country. Also he is known to create the first modern protest song in the movement of the early socialists in Japan. His pen-name derives from the ironic humor that the "mute cicada" loudly sang ! But it was not humorous , that after the mid1920's, the hard oppression of the militant totalitarism and the development of mass culture industry got him really mute.

WHAT IS "JINTA" ?
The first western music formally imported into Japan was brassband-music as a part of military technology, like in many other colonized countries. The military brassbands not only played marching music but also western classics, to demonstrate the western music to the people. At first it was entirely a high-culture.thing. But it didn't take a long time to find it's cheap imitators. Most of those commercial bands were recognized in official to be vulgar or kitsch , but lots of them became be popular in downtown Tokyo. People intimately called those bands "Jinta" , one of the predecessors of chin-don.

--SHORT HISTORY--
1960 OHKUMA Wataru born in HIROSHIMA pref.
1979 He started music career in an avan-garde rock band in TOKYO
1985 He met CHIN-DONG tradition and started clarinet
1994 He organised his own band later named CICALA-MVTA
1998 CICALA-MVTA released their 1st album”CICALA-MVTA”
2000 The 1st Euro tour around 8 countries more than 20 cities
including at ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL (London with BLUR),BBC radio recording,etc.
2001 The 2nd album “DEKOBOKO” was released
2002 The 2nd Euro tour including Roskilde festival(Denmark), Roots festival (Holland),etc.
2003 appeard at FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL (japan)
2004 released the 3rd album “GHOST CIRCUS”
petit-CICALA-MVTA appeard at THE ASIAN MUSIC FESTIVAL (Taiwan Chiayi)

アバンギャルドとチンドンのストリート魂が絶妙にシェイクされた大熊ワタルのクラリネットに、サックス、ヴァイオリン、ギター、トロンボーン、テューバ、ドラムが刺激的かつ絶妙に絡む。 ロック、ジャズ、トラッド…あらゆるジャンルの垣根は完璧に踏みにじられ、シカラムータの破壊--再生のメリーゴーラウンドに乗って、すべては爆笑と号泣の渦に巻き込まれていく。 「東京アンダーグラウンドの底力」と言われた曲者揃いの超異才集団による脳天直撃サウンドは、国内外で常に反響を呼び続けている。 １９９４年頃より、クラリネット奏者大熊ワタルがリーダーとなり活動を始めた「大熊亘ユニット」を、９７年あらたに「ＣＩＣＡＬＡ--ＭＶＴＡ--シカラムータ--」と命名、戦前の大道演歌師・添田唖蝉坊の墓碑銘--下記--にちなんでいる。

「A CICALA-MVTA CHE CANTAVA ELAS VA MOGLIE CHE L'AMAVA」
----「歌を歌った声なき蝉と彼を愛したその妻に」の「声なき蝉」--

１９９８年、初アルバム『シカラムータ』を発表。
１９９９年、ヨーロッパでのＣＤ配給開始。
２０００年、夏のヨーロッパ８ヶ国２０数ヶ所にわたるツアーで反響を呼ぶ。
２００１年、２ndアルバム『凸凹--dekoboko--』発表。
２００２年、再びヨーロッパのフェスティバル巡業。
２００４年、３rdアルバム『GHOST CIRCUS』発表。
２００６年、公式ライヴ盤、４枚目のアルバムとなる『生蝉　namazemi』発表。台北市主催「Taipei Art Festival」に出演。
また、TBS「NEWS23」、NHK-FM「セッション５０５」、英BBCラジオ、独ZDFなど、放送出演も多数。

--主な出演コンサート--
●FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL'03--２００３--
●デンマーク、Roskilde Festival--２００２--
●アムステルダム、Roots Festival--２００２--
●ロンドン・バービカンセンター、Urbanbeat Festival--２００１--
●ドイツ・ルドルシュタット、Tanz&Folk Festival--２０００--
●ロンドン・ロイヤルフェスティバルホール、BLURのオープニングアクト--２０００-- →Paul FISHERによるライヴ・レポート--英語--
●横浜寿町フリーコンサート--１９９９/２０００--

★”楽隊”の行進のあとについていく少年に、私をもどしてくれました。大熊さんのクラリネットにしびれています。--小沢昭一/俳優--
★ブレーキのとれたヤポネシアン・トラッド。ユーラシアを迷走する、月夜の為のユニゾン放屁か、はたまた吹奏か。ベスト・コンポにシカラムータを。さあ、アイラー達を呼べ。俺も三線を持って行こう。　--中川　敬/ SOUL FLOWER UNION--
★大熊ワタルにとって、おそらくすべてはヂンタなのだ。バルカン・ヂンタ、バルトーク・ヂンタ……そしてアヴァン・ヂンタ。真の独創性は思いがけないところからやってくる。--平井　玄/音楽評論家--
★これを聴かずして、日本のジャズを云々するのはあまりにも不毛だ。--スイング・ジャーナル誌　佐藤英輔--