NakaNaka presents: BoNenKai! performance / Bella Gaia Live ensemble

Dec 18th (fri)DROM 7:00 doors open 7:30 pm BoNenKai Performance! featuring Kaoru Watanabe, Tomas Fujiwara and members of the Bella Gaia Ensemble 8:00 pm BELLA GAIA Live Ensemble - "A Poetic Vision of Earth from Space"

Come celebrate the closing of 2009, NakaNaka style. Kaoru will be leading an ensemble of musician friends in a joyous celebration of a year's worth of laughter and pain, love and hate, and the spiraling nosedive of the world's economy, featuring the sounds of taiko drums, the koto, and a wide assortment of western and other eastern instruments.

Following BoNenKai! will be a special screening of BELLA GAIA (Beautiful Earth). This extraordinary film successfully simulates space flight, is a 'Living Atlas' multimedia journey of our world, and expresses the deeply moving beauty of planet Earth as seen through the eyes of astronauts. Created by award winning director and classically trained violinist Kenji Williams, and in collaboration with NASA, BELLA GAIA(TM) features live performances by Williams and such musicians as Kaoru (flutes and taiko), Yumi Kurosawa (koto), Shanir Blumenkrantz (bass, oud), Lale Sayoko (belly dance) and A.R. Balaskandan (mridangam, kanjira and violin) against a large-screen backdrop of orbiting visualizations of Earth from space.

more info and clips of this amazing film here: bellagaia.com

Special taiko workshop in Manhattan!

Dec 6th 2 to 4 pm @DROM For this one day only, I will bringing my taiko (Japanese drumming) class from Brooklyn to the East Village. Expect to be moving your body in ways you never have before, engaging muscles you didn't think you had, and getting a taste of the discipline, joy and energizing group spirit that comes with playing taiko. $20 per person (for first time participants) $5 pair of bachi (sticks) $15 Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center t-shirt

performance with Alicia Hall Moran

TONIGHT! (sorry for the last minute...)Dec 5th 8 pm Alicia Hall Moran + Gordon Voidwell We had a great first show last night. Alicia is an amazing singer who for this performance incorporates the emotional depths and dramatic narratives of both opera and Motown. With Tarus Mateen on bass, Thomas Flippin on classical guitar, Clare Bathe on additional vocals and myself on taiko. The Kitchen 512 W 19th st (btwn 10th and 11th ave) http://www.thekitchen.org

NakaNaka presents: Sanble* Dec 9th at 10:30 pm

I will be performing with Sanble again at Drom.  This is a fantastic group of dancers and musicans.

Nov 16th Princeton University Taiko/Fue workshop lecture

JAPANESE TAIKO DRUM WORKSHOP

Monday, November 16, at 1:30pm

McAlpin Rehearsal Hall, basement, Woolworth Center

In this workshop, you will learn about the training of a professional taiko ensemble and the role of the various drums; you will then try your own hands at playing in a taiko drum ensemble.

What is Taiko?

Taiko drums have been played since ancient times and are featured in traditional Japanese musics such as gagaku court music and noh theater.  However, the modern Japanese taiko drum ensemble emerged in postwar Japan when musicians began experimenting with taiko for performances outside the context of festivals and rituals. Over subsequent decades, taiko ensembles developed into a genre of "new" folk performance; they have gained popularity both in Japan and in Asian communities in North America and elsewhere.

One of the foremost taiko ensembles in the world is Kodo of Sado Island. Founded in 1981, the group has given over 3,100 performances on five continents and spends a third of the year touring overseas. Group members are selected following a competitive multi-stage audition and rigorous two-year apprenticeship.

Ensemble taiko drumming is distinguished by tight group choreography—with exaggerated arm movements, acrobatic leaps, and other physical movements—as well as the speed of the rhythm and the power of the sound the drumming produces.

The Instructor:

Kaoru Watanabe trained and performed with the Kodo taiko ensemble (1998–2006), with which he toured internationally and for which he acted as artistic director of the music festival Earth Celebration (2005) on Sado Island, Japan. With Kodo, he worked with masters of the Japanese arts, including the calligrapher Koji Kakinuma and the kabuki actor Tamasaburo, as well as international luminaries such as Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hildago, and Carlos Nunez.

Watanabe currently teaches Japanese and western flute; manages and teaches at the Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center; curates NakaNaka, a performance series inspired by Japanese culture, at Drom in New York City; and performs in Adam Rudolph's Go: Organic Orchestra, RESONANCE, KATARU, EV, and the Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble, among other projects. Watanabe received his BA in Jazz Performance at Manhattan School of Music and has performed and recorded with Stefon Harris and Jason Moran on Blue Note Records.

Space for participants is limited.

Please RSVP to Noriko Manabe at nmanabe@yahoo.com to reserve space.

Additional participants are welcome to observe.

Nov 14th (sat)DROM Reflections In Time- contemporary music for koto/fue/taiko

8 pm Kaoru Watanabe and Yumi Kurosawa will present new compositions and improvisations on the 21 string koto, the shinobue, noh kan, western flute and taiko.

www.watanabekaoru.com www.myspace.com/yumikurosawakoto

9 pm

Kaoru will be leading a taiko jam session- he will be teaching some very simple rhythms for people to try (beginners welcome!)- less dealing with technique, more drunken revelry!

$10 admission- free for students of the Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center

photo by Anna Rozhdestvenskaya

Patrick Graham's Rheo voted top 13 for 2009

The CBC Radio II show 'the Signal' has voted Patrick Graham's Rheo as part of it's Top 13 picks for 2009!!  This CD culminated in a live performance in Montreal about a year ago that featured Patrick, the dancer Tomomi Morimoto, the incredible hurly gurdy player Ben Grossman and myself.  Look for it on iTunes and elsewhere... check out the post: http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/programs/thesignal/2009/10/13/from_top_ten_to_bakers_dozen.html

TWO shows this weekend (LAST MINUTE)

Nov 7th (sat)

DROM

8 pm

$8 (free for students of the KWTC)

85 Ave A (between 5th and 6th st- below Takahachi)

For the 1st set, the wonderful koto player Yumi Kurosawa and I will be doing new music for koto, fue and taiko.  For the 2nd, taiko workshop/ jam session- I will be giving a workshop on simple taiko piece- not so much technique but just rhythm and lots of sweat!  Although there may be only one or two of us there, believe me, it will be a party!

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Nov 8th (sun)

Monkeytown

9:20 (second group out of four)

58 N 3rd st

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

$10 admission, $10 minimum

I will be performing in a very special presentation of Kenji Williams' Bella Gaia featuring the artistry of Dana Leong (cello/trombone), Yumi Kurosawa (20 string koto) and Deep Singh (tabla, percussion and electronics), Kenji (violin) and myself on Japanese and western flutes and taiko.

Kenji has created a stunning, state-of-the-art computer animated film which gives viewers a scientifically accurate (using actual data from NASA) depiction of what it's like to fly over the Earth while displaying natural and man-made phenomena (forest fires, the flight paths of satellites, the changing of the seasons, carbon levels, etc) using creative and beautiful graphics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMsJsePo6OI

Different regions of the world will be featured both visually and musically as the musicians interacting intimately with the film.

The venue Monkeytown- an intimate space with the four walls compromising of towering screens- will very literally engulf the audience in sound and moving images.  Although we plan on performing Bella Gaia in larger venues later, this may be one of the more interesting places to experience the show!

This performance will be a part of a long presentation of other bands both before and after.  With Bella Gaia going on second around 9:20pm.  I strongly recommend coming for dinner and drinks!

KTE tour finished!

Oct 28th, 2009 We finished the tour in Seattle with a triumphant concert at Town Hall last sunday.  Over the course of the four weeks, this group of musicians grew ever more cohesive as a musical ensemble and our rapport both on and off stage grew exponentially. While there were many pieces in the program that were set traditional pieces, much of the music consisted of songs that left plenty of room for improvisation.  Our abilities to react and inspire each other grew as we became increasingly familiar with the way each other played.  By the final concert. there was a lot more listening going on and the pieces really developed a wonderful ebb and flow to them.

One piece in particular, a rendition of the beloved Japanese melody "Haru No Umi" which we used as inspiration for improvisation, really developed a life of it's own by the final concert.  In the case of group improvisation part of the difficulty lays in the individual performers having to constantly shift between the roles of follower, leader, soloist and accompanist, and even having to decide when to stop playing altogether.  Although our rendition of Haru No Umi shifted and grew over the course of four weeks, I feel that the one in Seattle was the richest in depth, with the great range of dynamics and varying sonic density and the most free expressive feeling.

Later that night, after we all went out for dinner and drinks, Miki had to pack and leave at three am to catch a flight to Vancouver on her way back home to Tokyo.  The rest of us left the hotel a few hours later at around 6:30 am.  After checking in and getting passed security, I received a call from Miki because her flight had been cancelled due to mechanical issues.  Of course she didn't find this out until after she had to walk from the gate to the airport in the rain and sat onboard for about forty minutes.  It was a fitting end of a journey that from beginning, a month and a day earlier in Ulaanbaatar, was fraught with organizational problems and unforseeable complications.  Alls well that ends well and after that the rest of the journey seemed to finish without a hitch.  I just hope I make it back to NY in one piece!

A few interesting things that happened besides the scheduled performances include Shinetsog sitting in at a concert I had with Adam Rudolph and his Go: Organic Orchestra as well as a gig I did with Chris Dingman at Le Grand Dakar in Brooklyn.  The combination of instruments at that second one, with Chris on vibes, Tim Keiper on nguni, Mike Fisher on yidaki (or the didgeridoo), my good friend Sylvain LeRoux on fulani flutes, myself on Japanese shinobue and Shinetsog playing the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and singing khoomei (throat-singing) was best described as magical.

Please enjoy these pictures:

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Back from Mongolia!

We're home!  The Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble was in DC for a lecture/dmonstration at the Japan Information and Culture Center and a performance at the Kennedy Center.  Both shows went well with warm responses from the audience.  In general, I would say that people are more exposed to Japanese culture and music- whether it be taiko, manga, sushi or cherry blossom festivals.  Perhaps not so much the morin khuur, aireg, or the Naadam festival- although perhaps if the KTE does well, things will change and elementary school kids in Brooklyn will learn throat singing during music class. I'd like to thank the members and families of Nen Daiko and Rev Kaz for housing KTE during our stay in DC.  We are running on a tight budget and have been surviving mainly through the help of so many loving friends and supporters.

The last few days we have spent getting over jet lag and preparing for some upcoming shows.  There will be a school show wed morning (the 13th) at Aaron Davis Hall, followed by a concert at Symphony Space on fri.  I threw together a last minute show for thursday night featuring the three taiko players of KTE, Tetsuro, Shoji and myself and Nominjin, a huge pop star in Mongolia who due to a strange turn in events ended up being the official KTE translator.

Here is a listing of upcoming stuff:

Thursday, October 15thNominjin, Tetsuro Naito, Shoji Kameda and Kaoru Watanabe Nakanaka@DROM $15 at the door/$10 in advance!! 85 Ave A (below Takahachi) NY, NY 10009

Friday. October 16

Peter Norton Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street, NY, NY

8:00 pm concert www.worldmusicinstitute.org

Tickets: 212-545-7536

Saturday, October 17

Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, L.I.

MASTER TAIKO WORKSHOP WITH TETSURO NAITO, SHOJI

KAMEDA, KAORU WATANABE

12 noon-2pm.

Tickets: www.stonybrook.edu/wang

Information:  wangcenter@stonbrook.edu

Call 631-632-4400

Saturday, October 17

Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, L.I.

8:00pm Concert

Tickets: www.stonybrook.edu/wang

Information:  wangcenter@stonbrook.edu

Call 631-632-4400

Sun., October 18

Japan Society, 333 E 47th Street.

TAIKO WORKSHOP WITH TETSURO NAITO,

12:30-2:30pm (SOLD OUT); 3:00-5:00pm. www.japansociety.org/performingarts

Box office: 212-715-1258

Mongolian Tour Report Day 10

[gallery] Today was one of the best days of my life!  We went out for a drive deep into the countryside for a picnic, saw the new towering Genghis Khan statue, rode a horse, pet some goat and sheep, ate lots of homemade food in a gher and went to a music shop where I bought limbe flute music, Mongolian music CDs and a mouth harp.  It was our last full day in Mongolia and it finally felt like we arrived in the country after being in Ulaanbaatar for two weeks.

We have Shinetsog and his parents to thank for the picnic.  We ate horse meat, potatoes, coleslaw, various types of tart cheese type foods and washed it down with shots of Genghis Khan Vodka.  His brother had brought a whole vat of airag (fermented mares milk) fresh from the countryside the day before and I fell in love with the stuff- ignore what I said about it in a previous post- and drank a decent quantity of it.  Later on, inside the gher, I was partaking in various milk teas, tart buttery, and cheese like dishes.  Even though I'm lactose intolerant, I couldn't help it: not only did I want to be polite in the face of such hospitality, but also the fact that I would rarely ever again have a chance to each such foods in such a location?

A few interesting things I saw: how they charged their cell phones, watched tv and listened to the radio all by solar electricity; the outhouse that consisted of four low wooden walls and a hole in the ground with many years worth of stuff piled high; the herd of sheep and goats that went into the gher when no one was looking at ravaged the table of food we had been eating; a sheep that drank from a goats teat- apparently the sheep had lost it's mother right around when the goat lost it's child and they just found each other; a lifestyle with close to no carbon footprint- burning animal dung for cooking, making butter by wrapping the cream in dried intestine skin, not bathing, killing and making your own meat, etc etc.; the generosity of people who are willing to open their homes to and literally share all they have in the world with complete strangers.

Mongolia Tour Report Day 9

A taiko school and ensemble is beginning here in Ulaanbaatar which will be lead by Mr. Huluguu and his compatriots.  The drums were donated by the Miyamoto Unosuke Co of Tokyo and the inaugural workshop was given by Tetsuro, Shoji and I.  We started off with Tetsuro leading a session in how to take care of the drums, putting together stands, tightening the drums, putting the drums on the stands, etc.  Shoji then lead them through SF Taiko Dojo's Seiichi Tanaka sensei's standard practice piece, Renshu Daiko.  The kids were all training to be percussionists so were very quick to pick things up and were absolute joys to work with. By the way, I had my first sip of fermented mare's milk.  I had heard so many stories about how incredibly bitter it was and how it gave everybody diarrhea.  Hearing all these horror stories, I somehow got it in my head that it was an incredibly potent alcoholic drink.  Anyways, before the workshop started, Huluguu was drinking something white out of a regular plastic bottle.  I asked what it was and to my surprise he was drinking the legendary stuff right in the afternoon.  Oh, so it wasn't alcoholic?  Not really was the answer.  I tried some and it WAS incredibly bitter and tart but I only had a sip to get the taste so I ended up fine on the other end.  Other than that, my first encounter with fermented mare's milk after all that giddy anticipation was stunningly anti-climatic.  Of course, I did drink it out of a plastic bottle so it was probably wasn't the best stuff and I hear that it's less tart the fresher it gets and that I probably should try some fresh.  Despite all I said, it was crazy to see Huluguu was just downing the stuff as if he'd just spent 50 days crossing the Gobi.

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In the evening, we were invited to Tserendorj's home outside the city.  He has recently opened a beautiful place where people can stay and experience Mongolian culture without having to deal with the dust, the animal dung and lack of flushing toilets.  In his multi-storied building there was an actual Ger inside the front room while the dining room was decorated to feel like the inside of one, with felt walls held up with colorfully painted latticework.  There were musical instruments, riding equipment, old tools lining the walls and the room was set up so Tserendorj and his son Soyol could entertain guests with their music.

Tserendorj, who is seventy year olds, is the only traditional Mongolian magtaal (praise song) singer living in Ulaanbaatar.  He is also recognized as Mongolia's official morin khuur (horse-head fiddle) player, an extremely distinguished title considering the morin khuur is Mongolia's official instrument.  Tonight, he spoke at length with passion, knowledge and pragmatism about his efforts to carry on traditional Mongolian music and culture.  In every sense of the word this man is a living embodiment of that tradition and he carries himself with the great dignity and esteem he holds for the art.  He is always either dressed in an impeccable suit and cowboy hat or in traditional garb, even when walking the streets of Manhattan as he did ten years ago and will do so again in a couple of weeks.  It is an honor to be performing with such an esteemed figure and it was beautiful to see him performing with his 28 year old son, a man who will continue the tradition for decades to come.

Among the many pieces Tserendorj performed for us, he improvised magtaal in commemoration of the evening, and for his new found friend "Miki san" the koto player.  It was an unforgettable evening and for that I heartfully thank Tserendorj and his beautiful family.

Mongolia Tour Report Day 8

Final concert in Ulaanbaatar was tonight.  Although attendance wasn't quite what we hoped it would be, the music and energy and flow of the performance was great.  Although there is still some work to do, the group has really grown into a cohesive unit in the last few days.  The pieces have developed their own personalities and feelings- something completely different from what they had been.  The Ode to Ulaanbaatar praise song has been augmented with koto to give it an even livelier bounce to it.  The sound of Miki's koto blends with that of the morin khuur in such an organic way that there is absolutely no culture clash- yet it retains it's distinctively Japanese sound- this I feel is due to Miki's wonderful interpretation and sensitivity. I really can't express enough thanks to all the people who made the concert possible- Huluguu, volunteer students from the Music and Dance School, Khaan Bank, Nomin, Asel, Byamba, and everyone at ACM and many others that I am remiss in not naming here.

Mongolian Tour Report Day 7

I haven't written in my journal in a few days due to a intense rehearsal schedule, compiled with a multitude of mini crises, much time spent traveling, loading and unloading instruments and LOTS of time waiting for Mongolians who among their many wonderful traits, do not list good punctuality as one of them.  Here is a listing of some of  what the last few days have consisted of: rehearsals, press conference, rampant tardiness, people disappearing inexplicably, someone making or accepting a phone call in the middle of rehearsal, the arrival of the Miyamoto Unosuke taiko (hooray), having to move all those extra taiko, the securing of more daytime rehearsal time, getting noise complaints due to the added daytime rehearsals, a press conference in a large room where I sat with diplomats and heads of cultural institutions being interviewed by maybe five reporters, consumption of large quantities of meat, beer, and vodka, offset by very healthy vegetarian food graciously donated by Nominjin's restaurant, a school concert, lots of dust, dry air, under-heated rooms, over-heated rooms, long walks in search for restaurants in subfreezing temperatures, witnessing almost daily alcohol-fueled altercations in front of the hotel, crossing of very busy streets with no traffic signals, a regrettable failure on my part of the imbibing of fermented mare's milk that will undoubtably be rectified presently.  Wish you were here!

Mongolia Tour Report Day 4

In the evening we worked through the remaining pieces that we hadn't touched yet.  One was an improvisation I simply called "Shizukesa", a piece that evokes the sound of the wind, the earth, insects, etc.  Another was the Japanese classical piece "Haru No Umi" which Miki suggested we use as a starting off point for improvisation.  After running through it a few times, trying different approaches and moods, Khongorzul declared she liked the piece, that it reminded her of the Gobi desert.  I told her that the name of the piece meant "The Sea at Springtime"and she responded right away that in many ways the desert and the ocean are similar- the way their horizon looks, their endless vastness. I have to say here that my friend Nominjin, an incredibly accomplished singer in her own right, acting as one of our translators did an amazing job communicating in great detail and feeling about the music at hand in two languages.

The young morin khuur and khoomei master Shinetsog in rehearsal

Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble: October 3, 2009 @ Khan Bank Theatre

 

KHOOMEI-TAIKO ENSEMBLE Mongolian, Japanese and US artists come together for a fascinating collaboration, highlighting the popular Mongolian art of khoomei (throat singing) with the driving rhythms of Japanese taiko (drums). The Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble features Shinetsog Dorjnyam (khoomei), Shoji Kameda and Tetsuro Naito (taiko), the legendary folk musician Tserendorj Tseyen (magtaal-praise songs, morin khuur - horsehead fiddle, jaw harp), Kaoru Watanabe (fue and Noh Kan-flutes) and Miki Maruta (koto - zither). The program also includes the captivating voice of Mongolia's urtiin duu (long song) vocalist Khongorzul Ganbaatar, a featured artist in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.

The Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble 2009 programs are supported in part, by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Asian Cultural Council and the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program.

Presented by World Music Institute in association with Asia Society.

  TOUR SCHEDULE:

MONGOLIA Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 Khan Bank Theatre 7:00 pm Seoul Street - 25 Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia

Information please call 96 779885 or 99 702593

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WASHINGTON D.C. Friday, October 9, 2009 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 6:00pm 2700 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20566

Tickets and Information: 800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600

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NEW YORK Friday, Oct 16 Symphony Space 8:00 pm 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, NY 10025-6990 Tel: 212.864.5400 World Music Institute for Tickets 212 545-7536

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NEW YORK Saturday, October 17, 2009 Charles B. Wang Center Theatre 8:00pm - 10:00pm Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY

Reserved seating for all VIP ticket holders. Reservations highly recommended. Please reserve your tickets by e-mailing wangcenter@stonybrook.edu or call (631) 632-4400.

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NEW YORK Tuesday , October 20th The Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. 10:15AM & 12:15PM 1 University Plaza Brooklyn, NY 11201

Contact Community Works – performances@communityworksnyc.org or (212) 459-1854

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WASHINGTON Friday, October 23 Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee - Stanley Civic Center 7:30 pm 123 N. Wenatchee Avenue, Wenatchee, WA 98807

Phone: 509-663-ARTS(2787) Email: tickets@pacwen.org

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WASHINGTON Sunday, Oct 25 Town Hall Seattle 7:30pm 1119 Eighth Ave. Seattle, WA 98101

Tel:(206) 652-5858

Mongolia Tour Report Day 3

Yesterday, we had a full day of shooting for National Mongolian Television.  Considering that as an ensemble we only really began to exist the previous day, I think we did a pretty decent job pulling off five pieces (three of them completely unrehearsed).   We were treated to a delicious vegetarian lunch/dinner at our friend Nominjin's restaurant.  After about four hours of shooting, we did a radio interview.  Evening was more rehearsals where the Japanese and American musicians (who I call NihonTai - the Japan team) worked out some of our pieces so the rehearsals with Mongorutai -the Mongolian team- would go smoother.  At night, we went to the Modern Nomad for some Mongolian cuisine.  I had the Nomad's Delight, a combination of pork, beef and horse meat, and washed it down with Chingess beer.  A t-shirt being sold at the restaurant said "MEAT IS FOR MEN, GRASS IS FOR ANIMALS".  My sentiments exactly. Today, we rehearsed at the Ulaanbaatar Music College, where we will performing on thursday.  Huluguu, a local professional percussionist who is helping organize our activities our here, brought his band to perform for us before we started practice today.  This band wrote the soundtrack for an Oscar nominated film, the Weeping Camel.  Each member was a virtuoso of their respective instruments, whether it was Mongolian koto, traditional oboe and saxophone type instruments, a bass morin khuur, percussion and of course throat singing.  It was such an inspiring beginning of the day.

We then rehearsed for another five or so hours.  We refined some songs we'd been working on and worked on some new repertoire.  I have to say here, that Shinetsog, the 25 year old morin khuur and khoomei master is simply fantastic.  We worked on Shoji's piece After Rain, a piece in a five beat rhythm, many long sections and some tricky counting issues.  Shinetsog only had to listen to parts of it once or twice and he just "got" it.  A simply fantastic musician.  We worked on a piece Tsukiyono that I wrote for two fue, again a tricky piece with many odd meters, sudden speed ups and slow downs, odd repeats with lots of improvisation.  Even before he had mastered the form he was playing with great emotion and virtuosity.  Working with him and the other musicians has been a truly humbling experience.

Mongolia Tour Report

Sept 25th,  2009 Day 1 Last night, we arrived in Mongolia after a 14 hour plane trip from JFK to Seoul plus another 3 hours to Ulaanbaatar.  We were picked up at the airport by Byamba and Soyol, the children of the great Tserendorj, the venerable praise song singer who will be performing with us.  This morning, I woke and took a walk to Subhaatar Square, a huge open space in the middle of the city with a mammoth statue of Genghis Khan presiding over it.  It was chilly compared to NY- around 50 degrees, but nothing compared to what I was expecting - I saw that a few nights ago it got down to the low 20s.  I saw an elderly man wearing traditional garb sitting at the square with a tray on his lap, selling a telephone.  Not a cell phone, but a white office phone.  Our eyes met briefly and I considered taking a picture but I was still too new to the country to risk incurring the wrath of a telephone peddler.  Fifteen minutes later I saw a woman selling fruit and a couple of office telephones.  I didn't realize it was such a lucrative product.

This afternoon, Tetsuro, Shoji and I attempted to make a stand for one of the drums since we didn't bring enough due to budget and weight restrictions for our luggage.  Lacking the appropriate power tools we started trying to hand screw the thing together but after much sweating and heavy breathing, we had to leave to go to rehearsal. The rehearsal at the Khan Bank Theater was a lively, open exchange with all the musicians offering their ideas and their artistry.  I created an outline for the overall concert and for the structure of the pieces, but I also left wide open spaces for improvisation and interpretation.  Despite it being our first time making music together we were somewhat familiar with each other, greatly thanks to our many skype sessions over the last year or so.  I felt very comfortable working with them and I have to thank my good friend Nominjin for her wonderful translation work. 

We fleshed out two pieces, one a praise song that Tserendorj wrote for the ensemble.  Shoji and Tetsuro created some taiko parts to accompany his chanting and to accompany solos by the other members of the ensemble.  Khongorzul, despite feeling under the weather, sounded absolutely incredible when she sang.  If I had to pick one word to describe her singing I would say "piercing", but I'd have to follow that word with an explanation: by no means is her voice screeching, painful or annoying, but it cuts through the air and hits you directly in the heart.  It is so strong and so pure and so full of soul that it makes you want to smile and weep at the same time.  Am I exaggerating?  I challenge any one out there to listen to her sing in person and tell me then if you think I'm exaggerating...

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NAKANAKA-Kaoru Watanabe and Tamango with friends!

NAKANAKAKaoru Watanabe and Tamango with friends! Sept 18th, 2009 (fri) 9 pm to 11pm $10 in advance $12 at the door DROM 85 Avenue A New York, NY 10009 http://www.dromnyc.com/

Kaoru Watanabe, NY-based Japanese taiko drum and Japanese flute player with long time collaborator Tamango, tap dancer/singer/percussionist.  Be prepared to witness two extraordinary improvisors capable of creating moments of intense energy and drama, drawing from Japanese drumming and flute traditions, jazz music, Brazilian and various African rhythms and Amazonian Creole culture.    There will also be a performance by some of Kaoru's taiko students in the physically demanding piece Miyake.

The Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble (KTE)-update

Hello friends, I and my colleagues are in final stages of preparation for the The Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble (KTE), An exciting new project which explores the possibilities of discovering new vital connections between the cultural traditions of Mongolia, Japan and the United States. KTE combines the American tradition for conceptual exploration of cross-cultural synthesis with ancient Mongolian and Japanese folk music traditions, bringing acclaimed musicians together from the three countries for a series of workshops and performances in Mongolia and across the United States. The instruments used by the KTE musicians include the taiko (drum); koto (Japanese zither); shinobue and noh kan (Japanese bamboo flutes); moorin khuur (horsehead fiddle); and Mongolian jaw harp. A wide variety of singing styles are featured in the program including Japanese folk song and Mongolian praise song, long song and khoomei (throat singing), a remarkable technique in which one performer sings two or three distinct pitches simultaneously.

Among the musicians are two former members of the iconic Japanese taiko group Kodo, Tetsuro Naito and Kaoru Watanabe; the long song singer Khongorzul who gained international notoriety while performing with Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble; the venerable Tserendorj, an officially recognized treasured institution in Mongolia with over forty years of experience; Shoji Kameda a regular member of the GRAMMY-nominated band Hiroshima and On Ensemble; Shinetsog a young khoomei master and Miki Maruta, an acclaimed Tokyo-based koto player.

I'll be leaving for Mongolia on the 24th for a couple weeks. We'll be back in the NY area at Symphony Space, Peter Norton Symphony Space, Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts in New York, The Charles B. Wang Center of SUNY at Stony Brook in Long Island. We'll also be in Washington DC and the Seattle area. Please check out the website for more info! http://khoomtai.blogspot.com/