~椿 Tsubaki Tribute~
The ongoing SOUL SAGA ...
Dedicated to archiving Japanese Soul artists who possessed talent, & charisma that far surpassed their contemporaries, but they failed to achieve mainstream success for some reason or another.
Join us as Doctor Soul Saga archives some of Japan's greatest singers who came, went, and eventually ended up forgotten. The two cream of the crop soul maestros who exemplify this particular phenomenon are...
椿 Tsubaki
Singer. Mainly focuses on ballad compositions.
Click here to learn more...
Genre: R&B, Club, Jpop
Originally a R&B singer. She's mostly known for her soul ballads. (However she's not very well known.)
Tsubaki was quite prestigious when she first debuted,
but was eventually forgotten when she was signed on to a major label a half year after her indie cd dropped.
Fun Fact:
Many people assume that Tsubaki is only 19 or in her early 20's.
She's actually in her 30's. (Tsubaki is 29, but going on 30 by the end of 2008.)
椎名純平
Shiina, Junpei
Singer, & songwriter.
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Genre: R&B, Jazz
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Mister Shiina represents a rather refreshing blend of 70's style funk, Jazz fusion.
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A man who most likely never reached Japan's oricon top 20 due to the maturity of his musical style.
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What a shame as he's possibly the most soulful male singer in Japan.
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Fun fact:
Junpei is Shiina Ringo's older brother.
Let the art of Soul soothe your Mind & Body.
The Doctor's choice:
古内東子
"In Love again"
Toko Furuuchi finally returns after a 3 year hiatus to release a new CD + DVD album called "In love again"
Purchase at Amazon, hmv.co.jp,Yesasia,
You seriously can't get any better than Toko when it comes to the mature sound of soul style music from Japan.
Although I'm holding out hope that Tsubaki may one day succeed her throne.
Forgotten Souls
What never heard of her? Of course not. You can't even find her album listed at hmv even if you tried. She's a classic example of the unique musicians in Japan who came & went nearly unnoticed, and probably would've been forgotten for all time.
Thankfully, the pursuit to document these lost causes is the raison d'être of the Soul Saga.
Dr. Soul Saga
Not a trained physician, nor an actual doctor. Yet he's bared witness to an ailment so devastating that he could not bare to stand by any longer. The ailment of real Soul artists from Japan getting overlooked in favour of modern J-urban artists who in most cases lack originality, artistic expression, and most of all "SOUL".
Soul Saga see's it as his sworn duty to heal as many as he can of their ailment. It's a sad shame that the saga to bring the SOUL to the people will be a never ending battle as this ailment that he speaks of happens to be a full blown epidemic.
© Soul Saga 2008 - Is not affiliated with the artists presented in this website or their representatives. Unless otherwise noted.