Takeo Ishii (石井 健雄 Ishii Takeo, born May 3, 1947) is a Japanese yodeler active in Germany.

Biography

Ishii was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. At high school, he was a loner, but it was during this time that he first heard yodeling on the radio. Following his father, Ishii went to university for mechanical engineering. In his spare time he became engrossed with the zither and the hammered dulcimer, and learned to play these instruments. Using Franzl Lang's records, he taught himself to yodel, and began performing on Japanese television. During a six-month period where he studied abroad in Germany, Ishii went to Switzerland, where he sang at a beer hall in Zurich. He soon started earning money from this. From there he sang in front of Lang, his idol, and Lang took him under his wing. He performed on television with Maria Hellwig, and after that became known in German language circles as the "Japanese yodeler".