Top row, from left: Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal, Kitaro, Wes Studi, Peter Coyote. Bottom row, from left: David Amram, Martha Redbone, Charlie Hill, Seiichi Tanaka, Koichi Tamano.

Kitaro, San Francisco Taiko Dojo and Koichi Tamano are part of a benefit concert for the Longest Walk 2 on Saturday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at The Fillmore, 1805 Geary Blvd. at Fillmore in San Francisco.

Hosted by Dennis Banks and Floyd Westerman, the event will also feature Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal, Wes Studi, Peter Coyote, David Amram, Martha Redbone, Charlie Hill, and surprise special guests.

On Feb. 11, 2008, Longest Walk participants will embark on a five-month journey across America, walking over 4,400 miles and arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 11.

The Longest Walk 2 is being led by American Indian Movement co-founder Banks, who is commemorating the Longest Walk of 1978, which successfully brought attention to 11 bills introduced in the 95th U.S. Congress that would have abrogated treaties protecting remaining Native American sovereignty. All 11 bills were defeated.

“Similar to 1978, the Longest Walk 2008 is a peaceful, spiritual effort to engage with the public about the disharmony of our environment by leading an effort to clean up our communities,” said a spokesperson for the event. “The Clean Up America Campaign is a national effort taken up by the Longest Walk participants to clean up our country’s highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route.

“This monumental task will engage walkers in a global effort at a grassroots level to promote harmony with our delicate environment. Longest Walk participants will carry specially marked trash bags to separate the collected refuse into trash bins and recycling bins. A rotating team of walkers will pick up trash along the way with trash pokers, leaving a health trail of earth in their path.”

Following are profiles of the artists:

• Dennis Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement in 1968. He has had acting roles in the movies “War Party,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” and “Thunderheart.” “Still Strong,” a recording featuring Banks’ original work as well as traditional Native American songs, was completed in the 1990s and re-released on CD in 2001. Banks is the co-author of the acclaimed books Ojibwa Warrior and Sacred Soul, and the founder of the Nowa Cumig Institute, which supports Native American youth programs. He travels the globe lecturing, teaching Native American traditions, providing drug and alcohol counseling, and sharing his experiences.

• Floyd Red Crow Westerman made his big-screen debut in “Renegades,” playing Lou Diamond Phillips’ Lakota Sioux father. Kevin Costner cast him in “Dances With Wolves,” and Oliver Stone cast him as a spiritual guide in “The Doors.” His other credits include “Lakota Woman,” “Grey Owl,” and “Hidalgo,” as well as the TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Judging Amy,” “Northern Exposure,” “L.A. Law,” “The X Files,” “Roseanne,” and “Dharma and Greg.” Well-known on the country-folk singing circuit, he released his first album, “Custer Died for Your Sins,” in 1970. This was followed by “The Land Is Your Mother” in 1982. His concerts in support of human rights for indigenous people have taken him to Canada, Europe, and Central and South America. As a leader in the North American Indian Movement, he is involved in recognition of treaty, land and religious rights, as well as sovereignty and mascot issues.

• Kris Kristofferson achieved success as a country songwriter at the start of the 1970s. His songs “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “For the Good Times” were all chart-topping hits. By 1987, it was estimated that over 450 artists had recorded his compositions. He has also had a career as a film actor, appearing in over 50 films. In 1977 He won a Golden Globe for “A Star Is Born.” His other credits include the “Blade” trilogy, “Lone Star,” “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Blume In Love,” “Cisco Pike,” “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” “Fast Food Nation,” “The Wendell Baker Story,” “The Jacket,” “Silver City,” and “Disappearances.” The three-time Grammy winner has recorded 26 albums, including three with pals Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings as the Highwaymen.

• Taj Mahal, a two-time Grammy winner, has been playing his own distinctive brand of music — variously described as Afro-Caribbean blues, folk-world-blues, hula blues, folk-funk, and a host of other hyphenations — for more than 40 years. Caribbean, Hawaiian, African, Latin, and Cuban sounds and rhythms mix with folk, jazz, zydeco, gospel, rock, pop, soul, and R&B, all layered on top of a solid country blues foundation. A self-taught musician, he plays more than 20 instruments, including the National Steel and Dobro guitars. His remarkable voice ranges from gruff and gravelly to smooth and sultry.

• Kitaro, born as Masanori Takahashi, is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. His stage name, given to him by friends, is that of a Japanese television cartoon character. Kitaro started his solo career in 1977. The first two albums, “Ten Kai” and “From the Full Moon Story,” became cult favorites of fans of the nascent New Age movement. During his first symphonic concert at the Kosei Nenkin Kaikan in Shinjuku, Tokyo, he used a synthesizer to recreate the sounds of 40 different instruments. It was his soundtrack for the NHK series “Silk Road” that brought him the international attention. He struck a worldwide distribution arrangement with Geffen Records in 1986; in 1987, he collaborated with Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead) and Jon Anderson (Yes), and his record sales soared to 10 million worldwide. He was nominated twice for a Grammy, and his soundtrack for the movie “Heaven and Earth” won a 1994 award for best original score. His biggest musical success was the Grammy Award in 2001 for his album “Thinking of You.”

• Wes Studi is best known for his powerful portrayal of Magua in “The Last of the Mohicans.” More recently he starred as Detective Joe Leaphorn in Tony Hillerman’s “Skinwalkers,””Coyote Waits” and “Thief of Time” on PBS’ “American Mystery.” His other film credits include “Geronimo: An American Legend,” “Dances With Wolves,” “Powwow Highway,” “Street Fighter,” “Deep Rising,” “Heat,” “Undisputed,” “Mystery Men” and “The New World.” He has appeared on TV in “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” “Into the West,” “Superfire,” “Trial of Standing Bear,” “Longarm,” “Streets of Laredo,” “Return to Plum Creek,” “The Broken Chain” and “Crazy Horse.” Also a musician and songwriter, he plays bass with the band Firecat of Discord. Currently the spokesman for the Indigenous Language Institute, he is fluent in Cherokee.

• Peter Coyote, an actor who has appeared in over 120 films, is also an Emmy Award-winning narrator of over 100 documentaries and 14 audio books. He has penned his own memoir, Sleeping Where I Fall, and contributed to other books and publications. He is an activist who has championed a multitude of political and environmental causes as well as a songwriter, guitarist and singer. He recently played a vice presidential candidate in the TV series “Commander in Chief.”

• David Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, written many scores for Broadway theater and film, two operas, and the score for the landmark 1959 documentary “Pull My Daisy,” narrated by novelist Jack Kerouac. He is the author of two books, Vibrations and Offbeat: Collaborating With Kerouac. A pioneer player of jazz French horn, he is also a virtuoso on piano, flutes and whistles, percussion, and folkloric instruments from 25 countries, as well as an inventive, improvisational lyricist. His most recent work, “Giants of the Night,” is a flute concerto dedicated to the memory of Charlie Parker, Kerouac and Dizzy Gillespie, all of whom Amram knew and worked with.

• Martha Redbone, known as “The Voice,” is the hottest contemporary artist in Indian country. With multiple awards to her name, she has built a passionate fan base across the country and is leading the way in spreading awareness of Native American culture worldwide with the release of her latest album, “Skintalk,” on labels in Europe and Japan, where she has been touring to sold-out houses. Her music has been hailed as “fabulous” by Mojo Magazine and described as “Aretha Franklin meets the Neville Brothers at a powwow” by Performing Songwriter. Billboard Magazine called her “the kind of woman who sets trends.” Redbone is involved in Banks’ Sacred Run/Longest Walk projects as well as the United Houma Nation of Louisiana, which is still struggling to overcome the destruction wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

• Charlie Hill is a renowned stand-up comedian who has appeared on the David Letterman and Jay Leno shows. He was a staff writer for “Roseanne” and was featured on “Moesha.” He is the inspiration and talented leader of Club Red and the Club Red Players.

• San Francisco Taiko Dojo and its founder and leader, Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, have gained worldwide attention in the last 35 years, performing in Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, across the U.S., and throughout California. Notable performances include Carnegie Hall, before Emperor Hirohito, Hiroshima’s 50th-year commemoration of the atomic bombing, the Ashland Music Festival, the Vanderbilt House International Festival in North Carolina, the Black Ships Festival in Rhode Island, at the Oakland Coliseum for Nelson Mandela, the Ticotin Japanese Museum in Israel, and the Major League Baseball All-Star Game celebration. “My life’s work is to popularize taiko to the world,” said Tanaka.

• Koichi Tamano is an internationally renowned butoh dancer. A student of Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of butoh, he has taught, performed and choreographed this haunting and emotionally charged form of Japanese theater throughout Europe, the U.S. and Japan. In 1972, he founded the Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance Company in Tokyo; in 1979, he created a new base for the company in Berkeley. Tamano has devoted his artistic spirit to expanding and refining this controversial post-World War II movement style, which has been described as disturbing, shocking, provocative, exciting, spiritual, dramatic, grotesque, erotic, violent, and cathartic. He has appeared in the International Taiko Festival at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley and in Harupin-Ha’s “Fetus of Nature” in Hiroshima, Tokyo, Nagoya, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is $80 in advance, $100 on the day of the concert. Those who donate $250 or more will sit in a VIP-only section, attend a pre-concert meet-and-greet with the artists, and be served a catered buffet.

Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com and www.thefillmore.com.

For more information on the Longest Walk, visit www.longestwalk.org.

About Us | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: copyright 2006-2008 by Hokubei Mainichi, Inc.; all rights reserved