Sad news about Godiego's guitarist, Takami Asano
Takami Asano, legendary guitarist and backing vocalist with Godiego, passed away on Tuesday 12th May 2020, at the age of 68. The cause of death was "ischemic heart failure".
He was a co-founder of the band, and performed on all the band's classic songs which feature in Monkey, such as "Monkey Magic", "Gandhara", "Holy and Bright" and "Thank You, Baby". He is also credited with performing the guitar in Masaaki Sakai's "Kono Michi No Hatemademo" (Japanese lyrics set to the tune of "Thank You, Baby"): YouTube: Masaaki Sakai's "Kono Michi No Hatemademo.
Godiego has been regularly performing concerts in their home Japan in recent years; the last of which was in Tokyo on November 16, 2019.
Here he is on the right-hand side in the photo below, when I was lucky to enough to meet Mickie Yoshino, Takami Asano and other Godiego members after a Godiego concert in Tokyo in 2008.
News networks, social media have been filled with tributes over the past few days.
I would like to share with you one of my favourites, where Keisuke Kasai shares his memories of Asano-san, while paying tribute with a performance of "Gandhara":
Here's a video that Takami Asano posted to YouTube in 2016 where he is teaching a class, tells them about Godiego's contributions to "Monkey" and demonstrates (from around 03:40 onwards) how to play "Monkey Magic" and "Gandhara" on guitar:
My condolences go out to Mickie Yoshino and the other members of Godiego, and of course to Asano-san's family.
R.I.P. Asano-san
