Osaka Monaurail: Meeting James Brown & Memories Of Marva Whitney

It's "summer vacation time" in Japan when we touch base with Ryo Nakata and the Osaka Monaurail singer/director reveals, "This is the week when our ancestors come back from the place where they are now. We celebrate that and then we have to go to the cemetery and, you know, go to the temple." When asked whether there is a musical element to these celebrations, Nakata offers, "It's kinda like a quiet thing. Well, there is a very long, big bell sound, which was boooooooong and that's the only music that we have for that celebration."

After admitting he remembers "really clearly" what turned him onto music in the first place, Nakata recalls, "When I was a teenager - I think I was 16 then - there was a TV commercial for a whiskey company in Japan featuring Ray Charles and he was singing his classic, '[sings] What'd I say,' with a modern arrangement - what people call new jack swing, the rhythm. And I was like, 'Wow! What is this?' That moment - it really moved me, it blew me away and it just made me make that quick decision right there, you know, 'This is the thing that I'm gonna do,' so, yeah!"

Nakata has definitely got the funky moves and channels James Brown's showmanship so we're curious to find out whether he was lucky enough to experience the late, great "Godfather Of Soul" live. "Yes," he confirms straight away. "I think the first show that I went to was in 1993 in Osaka, just right after he got out of the jail. And the first time that I met him - I think it was 2003 and I went to the backstage and waited, waited, waited and there was James Brown! And I was like, 'Ah, what's happening, Mister Brown? The show was great!' And he said, '[perfectly impersonates Brown] Uh, you liked it, uh?' And then we shook hands. That was it," he chuckles before adding, "I didn't really wanna meet him, because what am I gonna tell him? 'I'm the biggest fan and I have all your records'? [laughs again] I didn't wanna say that."

Given his self-described Brown fandom, it must have been mind-blowing for Nakata when Osaka Monaurail toured as backing band for Marva Whitney from the James Brown Revue, also producing an album [I Am What I Am] with this supreme vocalist who was famously labelled "Soul Sister Number One" by Brown. When asked to share some tales from his time working with Whitney, Nakata contemplates ("I have many stories to tell - oh, what am I gonna tell you?") before unleashing a string of fond memories: "I have to say this: she basically got outta the music industry in 1970. She had a few records out in the early '70s, but they didn't do very well so she was havin' a good time with James Brown, flyin' in a private jet and stuff in 1969/in the 1970s, but she got outta there and then she kinda got back on the scene. So, like, everything that she knew was from the '60s. So all the lessons that I learnt from her were, like, music industry rules from the '60s; so that was very exciting, too. 

"There was one time I was in Okinawa and we were expecting a rain storm, so we were not really expecting a big crowd on that night... Marva said, 'Oh, why don't you call the General?' I said, 'What are you talking about?' She said, 'Why don't you call the General in Okinawa base and tell him that Marva Whitney's here?' I said, 'Oh, no'," he bursts out laughing. "But, you know, the thing is, like, James Brown would do that, yeah. If James Brown was in Okinawa, he would call the General in Okinawa so that's what she was talkin' about.

"Unfortunately she passed away in 2012. I went to her funeral in Kansas City and I said a last goodbye, and then I met her family and I'm still in touch with the family. 

"On the day that I arrived in Kansas City, Marva's nephew came to the airport to pick me up and he said, 'At the funeral, they're gonna have a lot of things like in the movies.' And I said, 'Oh yeah?' And then when I actually attended the funeral, it was much more than what you would see in movies." Was there live music? "Live, live, live, exciting, exciting, chilling, chilling, chilling celebration of home-grown gospel music," Nakata reminisces. "I will never forget that. That was one of the biggest musical experiences in my life.

"I didn't really wanna meet [James Brown], because what am I gonna tell him? 'I'm the biggest fan and I have all your records?'"

"And her song called I Am What I Am, produced by Osaka Monaurail, was selected for the music for the TV commercial of Ford in the United States and then actually I made some money from them. I was very proud that I could bring some money to the [Whitney] family as well, you know, and everybody was surprised, like, 'Wow!' And people kept calling me and sending me messages, from all the friends and everyone. 'Oh, my god, I heard the music! Isn't it Marva singing?'/'Oh yes!'" 

When it's suggested that Whitney must surely be smiling down on him, Nakata concurs, "She will be smiling up there, yes."