Takio Ito

Among the first to successfully combine the folk music of Japan and the rock and roll of the United States and Europe, Takio Ito has continued to explore a cross-pollination of musical influences. In December 1997, Ito joined with Colombian opera singer Gloria Patricia Londono A. and Chilean actress Elsa Poblete Bustamante to perform an original folk musical, Agua Dulce Rejuvenecimiento, in Tokyo and South America. Ito's earliest recognition came when he won a folk singing contest in Hokkaido, Japan in 1963. Although initially influenced by min'yo, a traditional, centuries-old...