Word: kubota
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Toshi Kubota always had a little bit of soul. Growing up in Japan's rural Shizuoka prefecture, where his parents still run a store near Mount Fuji, he watched Soul Train and, despite poor radio reception, strained to hear stations that played rhythm and blues...
...Kubota has chiseled good looks, bedroom eyes, dreadlocks and hysterical, fainting female fans. In other words, he's a star in Japan. His current, almost impossible dream: to be the next big thing to hit the rhythm and blues music scene in America. "When people look at me, I am not sure if they want to listen to my music," says the thirtysomething Kubota, who has been living in New York since 1994. "But when I sing in front of them, they change their attitudes...
When he discusses the beauty of soul music and his attempt to imbibe the African-American history behind it, Kubota is like a kid in a candy store. But he also reveals a weariness over his attempt to convince America, and particularly its black musicians, that Japanese have soul too. "There are two different kinds of African-American people," he says. "One is very conservative: they believe that R. and B. or soul music is only for black people. The other type is ready to listen to any kind of music, or they are ready to listen...