There are a few musicians that shown amazing potential at a young age with a ukulele. Hawaii’s Jake Shimabukuro and Taimane (who was discovered at a young age by Don Ho), Taiwan’s Feng E (who has quickly received worldwide attention) and Japan’s Kondo Toshiki (Family Name is Kondo, first name is Toshiki).
Kondo is one of those rare talents that had the opportunity to have professional music releases and also success at a young age.
How impressive is this young musician?
Born in 2007, he started playing the ukulele in 2014. In 2016, he won the Sony Music Sonic Academy Ukulele Contest at the age of 9. He then went on to win the 8th Ukulele Contest in Kansai for qualifications and he would later be endorsed by Hawai’i’s leading ukulele brand, Kamaka.
In 2018, his first single “Soran Bushi” was produced by Jake Shimabukuro. And he’s been releasing music nearly every year since then!
His mini-album “Let’s! Ukulelation!!” (released back in March 2019) and his first full-length album “With ‘U'” (released back in November 2019) is now available on Amazon for the world to check out this young talent.
The album was created while he was in sixth grade and is pretty much his elementary school graduation memorial album.
The album is primarily ukulele solo albums with the exception of “Around the World”, “Harihariharinezumi” and Kondo singing on “Forever Friend”.
For the first track, Kondo had the opportunity to collaborate with MONKEY MAJIK to play the ukulele for the popular song “Around the World” which was featured in the hit Fuji TV drama series “Saiyuki”. MONKEY MAJIK sings the chorus on the album while Kondo Toshiki jams on the ukulele.
I have to admit that I was surprised because rarely do you have a major artist or group collaborating with a ukulele musician (unless you are Jake Shimabukuro) on an album. So, that was pretty cool to see!
The second song on the album is “Dancing Hero”, a cover of the popular Oginome Yoko ’80s song (which she brought back in 2014 for a new modern release) which became popular in 2017 when the Tomioka Dance Club did a ’80s dancing video of the song, which was then made into a popular song in South Korea in 2018 by Celeb Five.
And Kondo Toshiki plays this song and its melody chorus pretty cool, but they added a dance track to go along with the ukulele playing. Which wasn’t bad at all. Typically when you hear dance tracks with ukulele, it’s something sounds like it came from the ’80s, but this was sounds modern and cool. So, I dig it!
Now, I’m going to tell you the primary reason for me purchasing this album was to hear Kondo Toshiki’s cover of Saito Kazuyoshi’s cover of “Aruite Kaerou”. I absolutely love this song and it’s a song that I am learning to play on ukulele. But typically you don’t hear younger people jamming to “Aruite Kaerou”, but Kondo is jamming on the uke to this song! How cool is that? Great job and fantastic ukulele playing on this song.
The fourth track is “Ukulelation”, which is pretty much the cover track and for those who follow Kondo on YouTube or TikTok, know that he can play multiple instruments and this is where I make the comparison with Taiwan’s Feng E, the ability to jam and play ukulele and combine the tapping on the uke and just jam. A short track though at 1:37!
For the fifth track, it’s “Umito Ukulele” and I believe that every album should have a ballad and this is Kondo’s ballad for “Let’s! Ukuleleation!!”. Sweet and beautiful! Cool track!
For the sixth track “Harihariharinezumi”, this track is a collaboration with musical stage actor Ishimaru Kanji, which is a fast upbeat collaboration which features Ishimaru singing on vocals and Kondo having speaking parts in the track. Catchy track!
For the final song “Forever Friend”, the song features Kondo Toshiki singing and playing ukulele with a band playing alongside him. Showing some music diversity on the album.
Overall, “Let’s! Ukulelation” is a short but cool mini-album featuring covers of popular Japanese songs with a major collaboration with MONKEY MAJIK and actor Ishimaru Kanji. An album showcasing his ukulele solo playing but also with a band and more.
For the the cover of “Aruite Kaerou” and the collaboration with MONKEY MAJIK was more than enough for me to give “Let’s! Ukulelation!!” a try and I enjoyed it.
It’s quite evident that at the age of 13, to have played this well since 2014 and immediately taking off two years after he has started, winning competitions, playing in front of heavily attended festivals and to be endorsed by Kamaka may put him in ukulele prodigy status. And to think, he’s just starting out.
All I can say is if you love ukulele, keep your eyes on this kid, Kondo Toshiki and just watch him grow as a musician and support his music releases!
