Aboriginal activist Hu De-fu (胡德夫, commonly known as Kimbo) makes a long overdue return to the big stage tomorrow night with a concert at Legacy Taipei (傳音樂展演空間). Performing for the first time under his full Aboriginal name, Ara Kimbo, the musician will showcase songs from an upcoming album.
“It’s been a long time since I performed. I am 60 now and I want to perform under my Aboriginal name at least once,” Kimbo told the Taipei Times earlier this week. In addition to premiering new songs from his upcoming album, Kimbo, who has not played a solo concert at such a large venue since the 1970s, will cover classics by Bob Dylan and Don McLean. Aboriginal acts Samingad (紀曉君) and Matzka (瑪斯卡) will appear as guests.
The new album — tentatively titled Sky High Mountain Blues (大武山藍調) — is scheduled to be released next month.
Photo: Taipei Times
Part Puyuma (卑南族) and part Paiwan (排灣族), Kimbo grew up in Pingtung and became interested in music when he joined a choir while studying at Tamkang Senior High in Taipei.
In the 1970s, he befriended folk singer Lee Shuang-tze (李雙澤) and started performing self-penned folk songs at venues in Taipei, including the Leofoo Hotel and the coffee shop at the then-Columbian embassy. His sincere, heartfelt folk tunes earned him the moniker “Father of Taiwanese Folk” (台灣民歌之父).
After Lee drowned at the age of 28 in 1977, Kimbo premiered his now-famous song Formosa (美麗島) at the funeral.
“When we went to Lee’s home after his death, we found the lyrics for Formosa there,” he said.
The tune soon became an anthem among political activists. After the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, Formosa was associated with the banned Formosa Magazine (美麗島雜誌) and Kimbo was barred from radio and TV.
Undeterred, Kimbo opted to use his music as a platform to push for social reform. He campaigned for the Northern Students Alliance (a group of Aboriginal university students), for the Aboriginal miners killed in the 1984 Haishan mining disaster, and against the construction of a nuclear waste dump on Lanyu Island. He helped found the Minority Affairs Council in 1982 and established the Alliance of Taiwan Aborigines two years later.
Kimbo’s political activism derailed his music career until his first album, In a Flash (匆匆), was released in 2005.
“How can you hear people cry and howl and turn your back and not face it?” he said. “I might have missed out on fortune and success, but I was honest to myself.”
He went on to win both the Best Lyricist and Best Song of the Year Golden Melody Awards in 2006 for the single Wind of the Pacific (太平洋的風).
“Good music is honest music that gives people blessings, dreams and hope,” he said. “A good song is a canto that glorifies the Earth and its people.”
Though he has found success, Kimbo’s activism is undiminished.
“I want to help refine governmental policies so that the many outstanding Aboriginal singers I know can have the chance to release their works,” he said.
Kimbo is scheduled to perform at the Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) on June 25.
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