Hello all! Thanks for visiting my website. Here is a very belated report of a trip I made to Japan in June. More updates coming up soon including: Taiko Conference report and word about a new upcoming project Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble, which teams up musicians from Mongolia, Japan and the US.
Week One June 1- 7th
Start the week off right with meetings, rehearsals, a couple of shows and a workshop. The first performance was at a cozy, intimate jazz club called "In F" in Oizumi Gakuen. This is one of my favorite clubs in Tokyo- the owner Sato san is a true music lover who always matches me up with great musicians. This set was with the pianist Tsuboguchi and trumpet player Ruike. Sato san is from Niigata prefecture, the same prefecture I lived for eight years, and has many types of Niigata sake- some of the best in the world.
After that I had a performance at Super Deluxe, a revisiting of a show I did a couple years ago called RESONANCE. This year's RESONANCE II featured Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Tamango (tap), Mio Matsuda (vocals), Yuu Ishizuka (taiko) and Daniel Rosen(ceramics) and two guests artists Junji sama, an eighty four year old Nihon Buyo (classical dance) master and Artio, a Senegalese drummer/dancer. It was an incredible evening with some very beautiful moments.
Daniel had created a screen of ceramic plates on which he projected video and images throughout the concert. He set up a camera above his head to shoot his potter's wheel. On this he placed bits of paper, shaped pieces of clay and splashed paints of various colors- continuously creating and destroying spinning designs and collages. All of this was projected live onto three different screens throughout the space. Often times the video was being projected directly on the performers themselves. There was wide array of combinations between performers- Tamango and Yuu, Tatsuya and myself, trios, quartets as well as full group improvisations. I really thank SuperDeluxe for having us again, as well as the audience, the many volunteers who helped out and to the audience who continuously supports the arts.
Week Two
Had meetings and dinner with many old friends. On wednesday, performed in a quartet as part of the Sengawa Jazz Festival with my old friend cellist Sakamoto Hiromichi, the great drummer Yoshigaki Yasuhiro
Tamango and myself at the Kickback Cafe. This was my first time performing with Yoshigaki san - the level of creativity, sensitivity and responsiveness was fantastic. Tamango and I in our years of playing together had two firsts in a row- a dance duet followed by a fue duet- both in one extended improvisation. The staff at the Kickback were incredibly accommodating and personable.
We traveled to Kyoto on Saturday and loaded in at the Urban Guild. I found out later that that this venue was recently converted from a number of small bars into one large room with a small stage, an old out-of-tune upright piano and simple wooden furniture. This place also houses regional championships of a game where wooden disks are flicked against others to knock them into holes with rules very similar to that of the game marbles.
About an hour before the show started, Daniel encouraged a few of us to go out to the streets and try to lure some last minute audience members. We went out to the Kamo river and Tamango sat in with a college band jamming to the euphoric college kids dancing around them. We passed out some fliers but didn't expect too many of these kids to come to our concert. When we were almost back to the venue however, a young couple came up and thanked Tamango for his dancing. We got to talking and in the end they not only came to the show, but they sat in the front row and pretty lead the audience with their shouting and hollering . The energy of the crowd was incredible and this fueled the performers to even greater heights. By the end of the evening, the audience was on their feet dancing- I'd say quite an accomplishment for an avant-garde, multimedia, multidisciplinary performance art show!
The next day we performed in Osaka in the venue Full Bloom. This place was more a lounge for dance parties then a music venue so we had to be a little creative with lighting and sound constraints. Many of Tatsuya's friend and family came to support and one small girl in particular was very endearing. Not shy at all, she allowed strangers to pick her up and swing her around. Later she asked to look at the bottom of Tamango's feet, which were blackened from dancing barefoot. At first she seemed in awe of his great feet- the tools of the artist, capable of creating both thundering stomps and whispered shuffles all in impeccable rhythm- but after a close inspection, she dismissively turned around to her mother and commented dryly that they were dirty.
The next day, I traveled back to Kyoto and did an intimate performance at a quaint restaurant/ cafe called Otoya. The founder of the Kyoto Taiko Center, Mr. Higashi acted as host and we bantered between the pieces. At one point, he asked the audience for requests and I tried to respond in kind. Among the requests were for a song that evokes a bamboo forest (she was an artist who works with bamboo), music from the Tamasaburo/Kodo production of "Amaterasu", "When the Saints Go Marching In"and "Amazing Grace". It was interesting to me that people requested decidedly western melodies and no Japanese ones. The people that requested the pieces told me that they were learning those pieces- and not Japanese repertoire- in a fue club where they were learning to play.
The next two weeks entailed my hanging out in Tokyo, taking a lesson and otherwise jamming out with the 15th generation Noh Kan player Isso Yukihiro for about 8 hours at his house, hanging out with the great fue maker Ranjo at his studio in Chiba prefecture, meeting up with friends and relatives, including the acclaimed calligrapher Kakinuma Koji and the taiko maker Yoshi Miyamoto. I was able to see some Noh, a taiko/beatbox/jazz piano show, and performed a final time at In F with the great violinist/vocalist Ota Keisuke and the drummer Masanori Amakura. Besides these two wonderful musicians, many guests joined in on two, three or four songs each: the shamisen player Tanaka Yumiko, the bassists Shanir Blumntkrantz, Todd Nichols and Sugawa Takashi, the dancer Mami Nakase and last but not least the Noh Kan player Isso Yukihiro. The music went from heavy to playful, absurd to sentimental. With so many great musicians contributing their art, the room was full of laughter and good feelings. I had a really great time and have so much love and appreciation for the musicians , the audience and especially the owner of In F, Sato san.
I returned to NY the next day, the 26th of June.
