EPK for Sugar Brown
Welcome Presenters, Venues, Festivals and Media
Title Track from his latest album Toronto Bound
"True to my production principles, we recorded the album live-off-the-floor and onto 1” magnetic tape. This is like jumping onto a fast-moving train without knowing where it is going. Braden Sauder was the analog train conductor and recording engineer. He also recorded me singing and playing two solo and acoustic songs, somewhere down the line, west of the Junction. Peter J. Moore ultimately mastered the tracks down the street.”
Sugar Brown plays Lousy Dime at Hugh's Room Live from his new album, "It's a Blues World (Calling All Blues)", released March 2018. Michelle Josef on drums, Russ Boswell on bass, Nichol Robertson on guitar, and Sugar Brown on vocals and guitar. Video by Renee Lear.
Sugar Brown live at the Toronto Blues Summit, 2014. With Michelle Josef, Victor Bateman, and Julia Narveson.
Sugar Brown plays Tom Wait's "Down, Down, Down," at Toronto's Dakota Tavern with Michelle Josef, Russ Boswell, and Jordie Edmonds. Video by Renee Lear.
Dr. Ken Kawashima, PhD. developed his signature sound -- a visceral and sometimes dark approach to the blues -- at a handful of smokey bars in Chicago's West Side and Tokyo. Playing with a majority of black and white musicians, the issue of race would quickly become the so-called elephant in the room for Kawashima, who is of Japanese and Korean descent. In fact, it was his own skin tone that would inspire Kawashima's longtime mentor Taildragger to bestow him with his stage name, Sugar Brown (http://sugarbrownmusic.com). In the documentary short, Sugar Brown: The Shade of Blues, filmmaker Justin Lee explores racial issues within music, or as Kawashima argues, how "there's no essential race to a genre of music -- it's a fabrication".
Photo: Scott Doubt. Sugar Brown live at Maple Blues Awards, January 2017
Blues that will move you...
There is something to be said about the dedication, ambition, and determination of a scholar; the drive to be the best and to offer his best work on whatever project is presented. Enter Sugar Brown, aka Dr. Ken Kawashima, PhD. Kawashima is a professor of East Asian history, as well as a scholar of music. His chosen musical endeavour is classic blues music and a concerted effort to record and preserve the unmistakable Chicago blues sound that harkens back to Chess Records famous releases. Sugar Brown’s two album releases have stunned listeners and reviewers around the world, with his ease and force in playing and singing the blues. He quickly earned recognition for his classic style and raucous performances from the media and festival bookers coast-to- coast.
Recently, Sugar Brown’s repertoire has morphed beyond Chicago blues and into a more chaotic and wild space shared by the Texas blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins and Frankie Lee Sims, as well as the trance-like blues of northern Mississippi’s R.L. Burnside. Sugar Brown’s highly developed song writing, guitar prowess and vocals reveal his many diverse grooves, shades, and styles.
Sugar Brown’s blues is sweet, dark, inconsolable, raw and wild.
Noteable quotes:
“He clearly comprehends the emotion that infuses blues, as do the comrades in his band. Poor Lazarus sure brings pre-1950’s- style blues back to life!”
- Blues Blast Magazine
The Toronto-based history prof-cum-retro blues artist Sugar Brown continues to cut his own path, merging vintage sounds and styles with an individual, particularly literate lyrical bent”
- Roots Music Report
“Here you have a Japanese/ Korean-American singer- songwriter and guitarist performing the deeply African-American traditions of Chicago and droning Hill Country trance blues way up north in Toronto, Canada. If you think it might be a disaster and couldn’t possibly fly, rejoice. Sugar Brown will shake you up just a little...You want to press the replay button because this hard-driving record is pure musical pleasure and highly addictive. This is sure to raise some eyebrows in bewilderment, but it is pure fun and excitement.
- Living Blues Magazine