FEATURE: Woman producer striving to market Asian women singers

Asian Economic News, July 16, 2001

TOKYO, July 13 Kyodo

Chika Asamoto is a professional saxophonist in her own right but nowadays she is working hard as a producer chiefly to promote talented Asian women singers.

Last summer she produced and marketed a recording titled ''Forever Peace,'' a duet sung by her husband Masaki Ueda and Indonesian singer Reza. It was released in Japan, Malaysia and other Asian countries and topped the charts for a long time in Indonesia.

Asamoto has also put out an album by Ash, a Vietnamese artist who grew up in the Middle East, Europe and the United States and who now lives in South Korea. She sold the albums through AMS Record, a recording company she established in 1999. She also released her own work, ''Humble Heart,'' last year.

Music critic Hiroshi Matsumura, who is well versed in the Asian music scene, regards Asamoto as a pioneer. ''Many Japanese tourists go to Southeast Asia but few are interested in the local music. The Japanese media have not taken up (Asian) music much recently. It must be hard (for Asamoto) to introduce Asian singers to (Japanese and other Asian markets),'' he said.

A third-generation Korean resident of Japan born in Osaka in 1960, she studied music at schools in Japan and the U.S., including the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Asamoto became the first professional woman saxophonist in Japan when she joined fusion group ''Crystal Moon'' following her return from the U.S. in 1985. She turned solo three years later and went on to play with such luminaries as David Matthews and Mark Egan.

Her solo career seemed to taking off when suddenly in 1994 her record company came under new management and terminated its contract with her, axing an album she recorded in London that had just been released.

That experience, she recalls, made her realize firsthand the tough realities of the music business. Asamoto found out the hard way that an artist like her was in a weak position despite the confidence she gained as a performer.

She was down in the dumps until a friend in the U.S. suggested she capitalize on music sites on the Internet that were growing fast at the time.

Without relying on any recording company, she thought she could continue as an artist via the Internet.

She went on to produce dance music albums for herself and young artists and sold them over the Internet.

Asamoto set her eyes on a global perspective in an effort to create music that could be accepted universally. In this respect, she views Asia as one of the world's markets.

She and her husband were highly impressed by Reza when they heard her sing in Bali, where they own a villa. They bought her CD and contacted her recording company to get permission to issue her songs in Japan.

''Chika and Masaki came to see me and said they wanted to release my songs in Japan,'' Reza said. ''I was really surprised.''

Ash, who has performed live in Japan a number of times, regards Asamoto as a big sister.

Malaysian singer Ning calls her a ''sincere person whom I can trust,'' adding, ''She and I are headed in the same direction.''

South Korean rhythm and blues singer Kim Johan prompted Asamoto to take an interest in Asian music. She had some idea about Korean artists since Asamoto's husband had earlier made inroads into South Korea. Kim's singing talent gave her a tangible feeling about the depth of Korean music.

''I wondered if Korean (musicians) realized that no one in the world can imitate them in their performance as Asians,'' she said.

Asamoto's ''phantom album'' that vanished in 1994 turned up recently in the corner of a secondhand bookstore. Next to its title, ''Asian Heart,'' was the line, ''What I want more than a kiss is a sax.''

However, a letter dedicated to Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was printed on the back.

While writing it, Asamoto said she wondered, ''Is Japan going to do nothing when there is an Asian woman who is striving to hang in there?''

That marked Asamoto's first step to focus her attention on Asia.