By WARREN FURUTANI

Harry Manaka’s iconic book, “Sansei Rocker,” along with the resurgence of the music that drove the dance scene in the Japanese and Asian American community in the ’60s and ’70s, has experienced a rebirth. One reason is the Sansei generation is now retired and attracted to those special times.

No longer at Roger Young auditorium, Parkview Woman’s Club or Baby Lions, you can now catch Elemental Funk and the singing group Asian Persuasion at venues like the Gardena Elks Club or at Nishi Hongwanji Temple.

But another branch of the music tree from those times was not rooted in the Motown sound or other dance music; it was unequivocally rooted in the jazz/fusion genre. One of the pioneers and practitioners of this trend was Alan Furutani.

Alan passed away Aug. 24, 2023. But the musical tradition that he and so many other musicians established in the community continues and many are still “wood shedding” and playing at obscure venues and on the big stage ala Hiroshima (jazz fusion).

Alan was a sax man and played most of the woodwind instruments (tenor sax, soprano sax and the flute). He also founded many different jazz bands over the years, including Fujazz and Visions. He also played with many other jazz-based groups from So Cal, Nor Cal and the Pacific Northwest. But Alan was not a snob. He also played in several dance and garage bands like Street Flower and the Benjo Blues Band.

Alan’s jazz roots can be attributed to his father, Chuck, and their neighbors when he was growing up. The Stones, Floyd and Vernell, were musicians and Floyd was the owner of CS Music store on Western Avenue in Gardena. Alan, along with his older brothers, Norman and Warren, took music lessons from the Stones. The youngest Furutani brother, Stony, was named after Floyd Stone, whose nickname was Stony.

Chuck was a working man and a 442nd veteran. He met the Furutani brothers’ mother in the swamps of Arkansas in the Rohwer and later Jerome concentration camps. Mary Yamada Furutani was from the Elk Grove area south of Sacramento and Chuck and his family were Terminal Islanders.

Chuck grew up with many different cultural influences, being from an island in the Port of Los Angeles. He was also a Sansei (third generation Japanese American), which made him different from most of his Japanese American peers who were second-generation Nisei.

He was also a jazz drummer and singer who plied his musical trade at small clubs and bars like the Bluebird Club on Western Avenue in South L.A. Chuck indoctrinated his sons in the ways of music, especially Jazz.

Norman, the oldest, played in the marching bands at Peary Junior High School, Gardena High School, and Cal State Long Beach. He also played in the local big band, the Esquires. Warren, the second-oldest, played guitar and was influenced by the folk and protest music traditions of the ’60s.

But Alan played the consummate jazz instrument, the tenor sax. He enjoyed playing groove-based tunes like John Coltrane’s “Equinox and Naima.” Of course, Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” and Herbie Mann’s jazzy blues tune “Comin’ Home Baby” were on Alan’s playlist.

He was strongly influenced by the jazz and R&B sound of the ’70s and such artists as Pharoah Sanders, Grover Washington Jr, and Idris Muhammad. And although the sax was Alan’s main axe, he was an excellent flute player and Herbie Hancock and Hubert Laws seeded his early style.

He and his wife and soulmate, Marsha (Kawagoye), played at the inaugural San Francisco Asian Amerasian Jazz Festival in 1985. Alan started the Amerasia Bookstore Jazz Festival and performed at many more Asian American and other jazz festivals. He and Marsha also played at three San Francisco Nihonmachi Street Fairs and later held down the small stage at the Coffee Cartel Coffee House in the Hollywood Rivera for 17 years.  Marsha is a singer.

Alan worked at many different kinds of jobs to pay the bills. His last job was as a dispatcher for Jo-Mi Plumbing in the Sawtelle area. But make no mistake, Alan was a musician to the end. He was practicing, “wood shedding,” with his last breath.

He will be missed by his family and friends. But his music will live on. The family is having an intimate family gathering to send him off but his musical compadres are planning a musical tribute and memorial celebrating Alan’s music and lifelong commitment to jazz and other styles and music genres in the spring of 2024.

Alan is now playing his flute as he and Obachan walk through his favorite pear orchard and through Ojichan’s strawberry patch.

——————–

Warren Furutani has served as a member of the Los Angeles Unified District Board of Education, the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, and California State Assembly. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.

The post OG-SAN: Reflections — Alan Den Furutani (Oct. 15, 1951 – Aug. 24, 2023) appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

BBC Dragon’s Den star Steven Bartlett said he’s looking for someone to fill a position for “the most interesting job” he has ever hired for which requires someone to film his every move.

The British entrepreneur is also known for his wildly popular podcast, ‘The Diary Of A CEO.’

Bartlett, who is the founder and CEO of Social Chain, an integrated social media company, has shared an advertisement on his LinkedIn profile, searching for a full-time videographer who is “able and willing to follow [him] around the clock and record pretty much everything” for a new YouTube series.

READ MORE: The stunning island beach under 90 minutes from Manchester which ‘could be Barbados’

No degree is necessary as Bartlett says he mainly cares about “your attitude, your work-ethic, your desire to learn and that you’re a good fit for our existing team culture.”

While videography experience is preferred, he and his team are also “willing to teach the right person, with the right attitude the skills they need for the role.”

Additionally, he says he “would love to give this role to someone who has a desire to start their own business in some capacity one day – hopefully this exposure will help you learn about the inner workings of various businesses.”

In the job advert, Bartlett goes on to describe what the job would entail which includes everything from travelling around the world to following him to the gym.

The six details he gives reveals you’ll go everywhere Bartlett goes – “including on international trips to international offices and when we take The Diary Of A CEO to LA and New York.”

You’ll be behind the scenes in his businesses and get to see and record how they are building these companies – Flight Story (Bartlett’s marketing company operating between London, Manchester & LA), thirdweb (software company based predominantly in San Francisco and New York), Team DOAC (The Diary Of A CEO team of 30~ based in London) and more.

The job will require to document the process of launching and creating his new Flight Story HQ – a 12,000 sq ft industrial building taken from The Truman Brewery in the heart of Shoreditch.

Other projects the videographer will get to work on include, The Money School, their prison project and supporting the British Red Cross in Turkey.

Not all situations will be professional as Bartlett wants recording to continue while he is at the gym, training for soccer-aid, DJ-ing and all the other “random things” he gets up to.

Applying is easy, as the businessman says simply send 3 bullet points explaining why you’re the right person for the role to work@stevenbartlett.com and include a link to your Linkedin profile in your email.

Successful applicants will be contacted this week for an interview.

READ NEXT:

The post Dragon’s Den star promoting for somebody to movie him ‘around the clock’ as he jets off the world over appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

By Ashley Nickel for Daily Mail Australia

23:34 28 Jun 2022, updated 23:47 28 Jun 2022

• Queensland renovator Nat Redgrave bought a “crack den” for less than $60,000
• He wants to remodel the three-bed home in Charters Towers in two months
• A burned spoon and box of syringes were found in the Queensland home
• The median price for a three bedroom home in Charters Towers is over $207,000

A handyman has tackled the ultimate home renovation project to turn an abandoned ‘cave’ into a white picket fence single family home. He took less than three months to complete the ambitious work.

Nat Redgrave bought a home in the Queensland town of Charters Towers, two hours south of Townsville, and on Monday shared video of the interior being approved.

He asked about investment properties in the area on Facebook and received a message from the home’s former owner.

“I hadn’t seen it, I just wanted to take some pictures,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“After we bought it, I sat down with a carpenter and his first reaction was, ‘No way mate, you have to cancel this contract.'”

“It’s a doable renovation, just a lot of manual work.”

Scroll down for the video.

Queensland renovator Nat Redgrave bought a three-bedroom “crack den” home (above) in Charter Towers for less than $60,000

Video posted Monday showed the home’s overgrown front yard, burned-out electrical box, dingy interior still filled with the previous owner’s belongings, and dingy kitchen and bathroom.

Mr Redgrave said he bought the three-bedroom home for just under $60,000 and hopes to limit renovation costs to $70,000.

He said he first jokingly referred to the house as a “crack den” but has since found some items that suggest people were using drugs in the house.

“I expected to find a lot from outside the home,” he said.

“I didn’t find much, just a box of syringes and a spoon with a bend and a burnt bottom.”

In a viral video on Monday, Mr Redgrave showed off the filthy interior of the house, the burned out electrical box and the overgrown garden (pictured Monday’s fridge). Mr Redgrave shared photos of what the house looked like after a day of cleaning (pictured). The first video on Monday showed the house was still full of the previous owner’s unwanted possessions (pictured a bedroom in the house on Monday). With the help of friends he cleared out a ton of rubbish Nat Redgrave (above) is determined to convert the Charters Towers ‘crack den’ into a picket fenced family home in just over two months

He said the house is a one-off “cat among doves” in an otherwise beautiful area, adding that locals are excited to see how the eyesore will transform in the near future.

He hopes the home will be “safe, tidy, and pretty” in about two months and will go on the market for about $220,000.

“The house looks crazy, but it has good floors and a good roof,” said Mr Redgrave.

“Kitchen is ok and bathroom is pretty good, just needs a good cleaning.”

“We’re going to put up a picket fence at the front, give it a little nice touch and then it’s ready for sale.”

Several items found in the home suggest the people who previously lived there used drugs, including a bent and burned spoon (above) and syringes. Mr Redgrave said he hopes to turn the house (above) into a “safe, tidy and nice” picket-fence family home with $70,000 in just over two months

Videos of the “crack den Reno” have skyrocketed on TikTok and the hard-working Queensland renovator has racked up over 25,000 followers overnight.

He said he plans to share more of the renovation work, as he’s already torn up the house’s old carpets and removed a lot of trash from the house.

A day after the viral video was filmed, Mr Redgrave shared photos of the house with Daily Mail Australia.

The house (pictured a bedroom in the house on Monday) is expected to sell for around $220,000 following Mr Redgrave’s renovations

Charters Towers is a small town of approximately 11,600 people located 84 miles southwest of Townsville.

The average price for a three-bedroom home in the area is $207,500, according to realestate.com.au, with growth of 8.4 percent over the past year.

The post Queensland handyman to remodel Charters Towers ‘crack den’ into household house appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

San Francisco children were recorded on video having to walk past what appeared to be one of the city’s open-air drug dens on their way home from school.

Ricci Wynne posted the video on Twitter last week, writing that the students were getting off the 14 transit line on 8th and Mission Streets when they encountered what appeared to be the homeless encampment sprawled across the sidewalk.

“This is no back ally [sic],” Wynne wrote. “This is a main artery in our city that has been hijacked bye [sic] drug dealers and now it is pure filth!”

The video shows a stream of children and other passengers getting off the public transit system before the camera cuts to the sidewalk, where a group of apparently homeless people was gathered.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA MOTHER OF FENTANYL USER WARNS CITY IS ENABLING SON’S DRUG USE

Wynne added, “Now ask yourself this question would you want your children to walk through this squalor just to get home from school?”

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

Wynne tagged a slew of politicians in the post including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

Describing himself as a recovering drug addict, Wynne frequently posts videos showing drug addicts and drug paraphernalia on the city streets.

Homeless people are seen on streets of the Tenderloin District in San Francisco, California, on Oct. 30, 2021. -File
(Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The area where Wynne says the video was taken is nearby the Linkage Center in the city’s Tenderloin District, a neighborhood notorious for its rampant drug abuse.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Linkage Center was intended to connect homeless people and drug addicts with social services, but multiple accounts have claimed people were instead shooting up or smoking fentanyl inside.

San Francisco logged 650 overdose deaths last year and at least 700 in 2020. Recovery advocates have said that every one of those deaths was preventable.

Fox News’ Claudia Cowan contributed to this report.

The post San Francisco kids stroll previous open-air drug den on manner residence from college, surprising video reveals: report appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.