The Band Toto Asia
Toto was expanding its production facilities in the overseas market and doing business in France, Germany, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the People's Republic of China. North America was seen as a market that would grow for bidet and washlet toilet seats, in contrast to its "base" markets in Japan and China.
Dhaniram Toto was documenting Toto words to ensure that the future generations could comprehend them. Many words were replaced by foreign ones. For instance, dui, which is Bengali for verandah was being used.
Origins
Toto's early history, which began in 1917, was a reflection of Japan's rapid economic growth. In the early years of its existence, the company made products to meet the demand for modern and contemporary urban housing. It had the first tunnel kilns in the country to produce ceramics continuously. It also pioneered automation to allow production control, which allows for greater efficiency and a more consistent production.
The company began expanding internationally in the late 1980s to profit from new markets and sales opportunities. The company established the Cera Trading Company to import and sell other manufacturers' products to expand its line of sanitary earthenwares as well as plumbing fittings. This strategy increased sales and expanded the firm's market share.
In the late 1990s, Toto had shifted its focus to research and development of household appliances that are water-related. It also upgraded its distribution system to better serve customers and improve profit. The company embraced a just-in time approach to supply chain management and applied the same approach for its sales process. This resulted in a higher level customer satisfaction.
Toto has continued to innovate on the toilet technology. Its latest toilet, for instance it has an extremely powerful tornado flush that is more ecologically friendly than traditional toilets. The company uses recycled water for its manufacturing process and also has a green purchasing policy. Apart from toilets, Toto manufactures faucets and bathtubs, as well as hand dryers that are more energy efficient than standard models.
The company's first museum opened in 2015, and it has exhibitions about Toto's iconic products and their evolution and its group companies (all related to ceramics) as well as the history of plumbing and other products like bath units and, in a separate gallery, Toto products sold around the world. The museum also has a bathroom with a washbasin and other toilet innovations.
Before the formation of Toto the band, members of the group did session work for various musicians. Keyboardist David Paich, drummer Jeff Porcaro, and guitarists Mike Porcaro and Steve Lukather all performed on the album Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs. They also played on records by Steely Don, Seals and Crofts and Sonny and Cher.
Discography
With a name like Asia one would think that the group would be prog queens and kings - but it's actually a fairly straightforward rock group. The group began as a quartet, and they released two albums - 1979's self-titled debut album and 1980's Armed to the Teeth. However, even though the group have a diverse musical background, their biggest success was achieved in 1982 with Toto IV.
The album was a huge blockbuster, but it was not without its own set of issues. Record companies put the band on the place with the directive "give us an album that's a smash or we'll drop you" and the pressure was on them to meet the deadline. Toto was able achieve this through the aid of the hit song "Africa."
Toto's musical mastery owes a lot to their previous experience since the members were session musicians for artists like Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, and Seals and Crofts before starting the group. Their distinctive sound has become the standard of '80s music, influencing many contemporary artists.
The album begins with a hefty dose of hard rock, with songs such as Running Out of Time and Unknown Soldier showcasing the bands ability to write fantastic AOR songs that slowly build their hooks into your mind. The album also contains slow, jazzier tracks like The Little Things and Chinatown. The album concludes with Great Expectations, a song that mixes folk with distorted AOR and could sound totally wrong, but works wonderfully well.
After Toto IV, the band's fortunes began to wane. David Hungate left the band to pursue a solo career, and the band had several drummers. In 1984, Bobby Kimball left the band following drug-related charges. The band continued to play with Michael Porcaro, Steve Lukather and Michael Porcaro.
토토사이트 꽁머니 released Isolation despite the turmoil. It was not as popular as IV. The band was able to release a chart-topping album, Kingdom of Desire, in 1992. This album marked the conclusion of the original Toto lineup and was the first to feature a new singer, Simon Phillips.
Tours
The band has performed all over the globe to an audience of millions, with sold-out shows across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and New Zealand. The band's repertoire is huge and their catalog has accumulated over billion streams on streaming services across the globe. The band's music has inspired generations of fans.
Steve Lukather and Joe Williams have formed a strong colorful friendship that is thriving professionally on a worldwide basis. In 2018 the duo celebrated 40 years of Tours Around The Sun by a hugely successful tour around the world. The album of the same name debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. The band's new tour features their greatest hits and rarely live cuts, alongside a selection of songs from Lukather and Williams their individual catalogs.
TOTO has a customer satisfaction rating of 20 according to its Net Promoter Score which measures how likely customers are to recommend the brand. Promoters are people who give a high score to the company and encourage others to utilize its products or services. Detractors are those who rate the company poorly, and can even actively discourage others from using their products or services.
Join Toto to experience a unique cultural encounter in Asia. This highlight tour of a region that the French used to call Indochine provides luxurious accommodations, a day on a luxury cruise ship in Halong Bay, and an exploration of the mysterious temples of Angkor Wat. It also includes a night in the charming city of Luang Prabang. This UNESCO World Heritage City is a feast for your senses. This is a trip you don't want to skip!
Line-up
Turn Back, the band's third studio album is a return to a classic sextet structure, and an even more consistent and powerful album with a sharper edge. Its edgier sound was indicative of the maturation of group and featured drummer Bobby Kimball's increased ability on the drums and a more confident, mature vocal delivery from singer Joseph Williams. David Paich's keyboard work was also sharper, more complex, and less derivative on previous recordings.
After touring to promote the album, the group recorded a live show in Amsterdam which was released as a two-CD set called Falling In Between Live on Eagle Records. The group released a brand new studio album a few months later and then embarked on a world tour support it. In this time keyboardist Greg Phillinganes filled in for Paich and bassist David Hungate left the group to spend more time with his family.
In 1998, Paich and Lukather started searching through old demo tapes and tapes to make a new record featuring songs that had never been recorded before. The album was released as a double album titled Then & Now in 2001. It was the first album by the band without one single track titled "A". The album also included a previously unreleased track called "Kari-Anne".
By 2003, Toto had begun to decline in popularity. The group's fourth album, Old Is New, was a commercial flop and the vocalist Williams suffered from a bad laryngitis infection which limited his singing capabilities. In addition, Hungate returned to Nashville and drummer Leland Sklar was replaced by Shem von Schroeck.
Downes along with the other original members of Asia--Wetton, Palmer, and Howe--convened a meeting in England in early 2006 to discuss the possibility of formally restructuring the band. The lineup, with the exception of Howe who was occupied with Yes during that time, was renamed Toto XIV. They toured extensively.
In 2010, the band reunited for another reunion tour with a slightly different line-up, including guitarists Mike Porcaro and Steve Lukather, drummer John Pierce, bassist Shannon Forrest, and multi-instrumentalists Warren Ham and Dominique Taplin. The band also had an appearance by singer Michael McDonald and a backing vocalist named Mabvuto Carver.