Released on September 15th, ‘Bring Minyo Back!’ is a captivating music documentary that chronicles the Minyo Crusaders’ journey since 2017. In this article, we delve into the film’s exploration of the past and present of traditional music, intertwined with the band’s vibrant activities.
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Fusing folk traditions with a global beat: the Minyo Crusaders’ musical alchemy
A music documentary film documenting the activities of the Minyo Crusaders over the past five years, “Bring Minyo Back! was released in theaters.
Based in Fussa, Tokyo, the Minyo Crusaders are a band that fuses folk songs from around Japan with the world music, including cumbia, Latin and Afrobeat. The band’s unique sound transcends genres and generations, attracting a large audience; their first album, “Echoes of Japan,” was released in 2017 to much acclaim, including praise from Peter Barakan and Ry Cooder. Since then, he has expanded his activities, performing at large festivals and in prominent national and international media outlets, with a successful world tour in 2019 that will take him to Colombia, various European countries, and more.
Director Yuji Moriwaki has been filming Minyo Crusaders since 2017 and accompanied them on their world tour. He has closely followed the band as they reconstruct folk songs and bring them to modern audiences. The film was screened at Peter Barakan’s Music Film Festival 2022, a music film festival supervised by Peter Barakan, and received high acclaim. This time, the film will be shown in its entirety, including footage from the 2022 European tour.
