Not too many Japanese guitarists get plucked out of obscurity to play Switzerland's world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival-only one, to be specific.
"If you can't get signed by a major, then you will never acquire a significant fan base."
"The producer of the festival, Claude Nobs, was approached in Tokyo by the international marketing department at my record company, Toshiba-EMI. He agreed to meet me," recalls Kotaro Oshio in an interview held at a Tokyo recording studio. "He asked me to play for him, and Claude likes blues, so I played some blues for him, and some originals. In Japan, if you're asked to play for an executive, it's unlikely that you will be signed then and there. Often nothing comes of it, but Claude asked me to appear immediately."Such were the serendipitous events that saw Oshio, 35, make his international debut in 2002 on one of the most prestigious stages the world has to offer, even before he had issued his first major label album. In fact, events have happened so quickly for the tousled Osaka native that even he seems a bit bewildered.
As recently as 2001, Oshio was another struggling Osaka musician trying to eke a living out of the Kansai live houses. He had released two indie albums featuring his solo steel-string guitar work in 1999 and 2001, gradually building a local following.
Word of mouth led an A&R man from Toshiba-EMI to come to Osaka for a closer look but, says Oshio, after many years of fruitless efforts to woo major labels, his expectations were low. "Even when an A&R guy came to see me, I never imagined things would reach this point. But he was really serious about working with me."
Record label heft and the selection of Oshio's song "Blue Sky" as the theme to a TV talk show meant that he was soon a national topic. It didn't hurt that his smoldering good looks made him a hit with the ladies, but Oshio's real strength lay in his passionate and original approach to the steel-string guitar, which draws on folk, jazz, and New Age.
Yet Oshio wasn't one of these perfectly formed virtuoso instrumentalists-the kind that Asia seems to turn out like flawless Toyotas-who master their instruments when barely out of diapers. Rather, he was a bit of a late bloomer, beginning the guitar only at age 14.
"At first I was into Japanese folk music-I took a fairly conventional singer-songwriter approach," he says. Heading to Tokyo to attend a music college, Oshio returned to Osaka after graduation, joining a rock band with whom he played electric bass. But after years of slogging away without scoring a deal, the guitarist was at a turning point. "When aspiring pop musicians reach around 27, they begin to quit if they haven't found success; the need to get a 'real job' and marriage take their toll."
Despite parental pressure, however, Oshio wasn't ready to give up on music. "I felt like I wanted to continue even on my own," he said. "I again picked up the acoustic guitar and started playing around solo, and gradually began to make a living at it."
Citing guitarists from Windham Hill innovator Michael Hedges to Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page to jazz great Wes Montgomery as influences, Oshio set about perfecting a style that utilizes open tuning, harmonics and finger-tapping to create the illusion of more than one guitar being played at once.
His sophomore release, this summer's Dramatic, showcases a range of Oshio originals, from the breezy counterpoint of the opener, "Splash," to the sweetly intimate "Happy Island" and even an interpretation of Ravel's "Bolero." Bringing out the best in his handcrafted Greven guitars (which have been made for everyone from Eric Clapton to Johnny Cash), Oshio's music is easily accessible without being "easy listening."
He says his compositions are the result of a lengthy trial and error process. "I start with a theme, and then try and express that on guitar," he says. "When I compose, I play my compositions at a very early stage for people and gauge their responses. If the response isn't good then I'll shelve that idea." Dramatic debuted at No. 24 on the national sales charts, quite remarkable for an instrumental album, and went on to a second life when many of its tracks were selected as theme music for radio and TV programs.
In spite of the growth of independent record labels in Japan in recent years, Oshio thinks that for solo instrumentalists, signing with a major is still vital for getting exposure. "There are not that many individual Japanese guitarists who have signed with major labels," he says. "If you can't get signed by a major, then you will never acquire a significant fan base."
Having cemented his status by playing the Montreux Jazz Festival again this summer and touring concert halls across Japan, Oshio is now in a position to branch out and experiment a bit. He's worked recently with everyone from shamisen prodigy Hiromitsu Agatsuma to French jazz singer Clementine. But when asked who he would most like to collaborate with, his answer is surprisingly conventional: "Mariah Carey: one-on-one!"
Kotaro Oshio made a stunning debut at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2002. Not only did he amaze the audience with his solo performance, but he was also invited to the jam session with BB King in the main hall, where everyone was talking about “that incredible Japanese guitarist”!
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