Contributing Editor Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen reports:

It may be a cliché to call music the universal language, but for Japanese R&B artist Toshi Kubota, it's just the truth.

"I just want people to listen to my music without any prejudice, without any stereotypes about who I am or what I'll sound like because I'm Asian," Kubota said of Nothing But Your Love, to be released Tuesday (July 25).

The album is smooth soul and slinky funk, a la Earth, Wind and Fire; Parliament; and Kubota's idol, Stevie Wonder. Hip-hop beats and up-to-the-minute production keep Nothing But Your Love from being nothing but an exercise in nostalgia, though, and Kubota's sweet falsetto echoes his influences without copying them.

"I just want people to listen to my music without any prejudice, without any stereotypes about who I am or what I'll sound like because I'm Asian." — Toshi Kubota, singer

The title track (RealAudio excerpt of title track) is an absurdist love song, with such lyrics as, "I'm not your chardonnay/ I'm not your sushi bar/ I'm nothing but your love," set to a gently undulating bassline and lush keyboards.

Kubota recruited many guest producers and artists, including Lucy Pearl's Raphael Saadiq, soul singer Angie Stone, rapper Pras and hip-hop group the Roots.

Stone guests on the sunny, midtempo number "Shame" (RealAudio excerpt), which Kubota said grew out of informal jamming when he and Saadiq invited her to join them in the studio in Sacramento, Calif. "She's a really beautiful, warm-hearted and talented person," Kubota said. "We became so close. Angie is my sunshine."

The Roots' ?uestlove (born Ahmir Thompson), who raps on "It's Over" (RealAudio excerpt), had equally gushing praise for Kubota. "Toshi will eventually be known as a groundbreaker for rewriting the book of what is the definition of soul," he said in a statement through Kubota's publicist. "Soul music is universal and not just a 'black thing,' so to speak."

Pras appears on "Never Turn Back," a Curtis Mayfield-style statement about the importance of pushing onward. "I had a 16-bar space [in that song], and I needed to have something to fill it," Kubota said. "I didn't want a guitar solo, or a keyboard solo, or a saxophone solo. I wanted to have something really groovy."

This is Kubota's second English-language album and his first on a major label. The singer and multi-instrumentalist has released eight Japanese albums since 1987, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide.

"To do an English album, that was my dream, because I just listened to American music, especially soul music, since I was little," said Kubota, who grew up in Shizuoka, a rural town he said was near Mt. Fuji, between Tokyo and Osaka.

"My father and mother are Japanese, and I don't have any friends who listen to soul music, but maybe R&B and soul music is universal," Kubota said from his New York apartment. "That's what I believe, at least, but why? I don't know. That's instinctive."

Kubota said that while the lyrics of Japanese songs were easy for him to understand, the sounds and melodies bored him. He found it easy to re-create the sounds he loved, but singing in English was a challenge.

"Singers are very, very competitive, and there's so much competition to be a singer in America," he said. "I needed to work very hard on the pronunciation of each word. I can keep my Japanese accent, but I wanted to make sure people could understand the words."

[ Mon., July 24, 2000 8:38 AM EDT ]

SUBSCRIBE to Toshi Kubota
Free News and Info Updates via email!
CLICK HERE

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE TO A FRIEND