Compostela

Reedist and drummer Nakao Kanji, tuba player Sekijima Takero and leader and alto saxophonist Shinoda Masami were the Japanese band Compostela. Active during the early '90s, this talented and clever group of musicians brought a new element to the Japanese jazz and rock worlds: chindon music. A cultural tradition, chindon is a way of advertising new businesses utilizing musicians dressed as samurai and geishas who publicly perform uplifting, brass/woodwinds-based music that's a hybrid all sorts of influences, including Eastern European folk music. Compostela took this street mus...