Philanthropy
Kuwata has performed with his band, and collaborated with several others annually to donate money towards AIDS research and treatment. To draw the largest possible audiences, Kuwata performs additional Western songs so the concerts are more inclusive to all who will attend. Depending upon the year of the concert, sometimes the chosen songs have a theme.
Kuwata has been joined in benefit concerts by other bands and musicians. Most notably, is the frequent appearance of the members of Yamagu (山弦), a band currently featuring the talents of guitarists Hirokazu Ogura (小倉 博和, Ogura Hirokazu?) and Yoshiyuki Sahashi (佐橋 佳幸, Sahashi Yoshiyuki?). Both artists are master guitarists and the band shows off their talents in an eclectic combination of jazz, blues, and rock, along with their own combination of ambient experimental music. Yamagu is considered a "guitar support unit", in the same way Westerners would think of a horn section. Some of these concert songs included:
- 1996 Theme: Jazz Cafe
- 1997 Theme: Kayou Suspense Theater
- 1998 Theme: All Request Show
- 1999 Theme: Eric Claptoso
- "Little Wing", by Jimi Hendrix, and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?", recorded by Eric Clapton several decades earlier.
- 2000 Theme: Best Songs of The 20th Century Selected By Kuwata
- 2001 Theme: Plays The Beatles
- 2003 Theme: Disco And Soul Of Glory
- 2004 Theme: The Golden Age Of British Rock
- "Time" by Pink Floyd, "Highway Star" by Deep Purple, "We Will Rock You" by Queen.
- 2006 Theme: Stars And Stripes Forever!? My American Heros
- "Proud Mary" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
- 2008 Theme: Hitori Kohaku Utagassen
- 2009 Theme: Movie Songs
Read more about this topic: Keisuke Kuwata
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)