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Kris w/ Iemoto Katsusaburo and teacher, Katsuyukie Sensei

Maz and I have finished the bulk of our lessons here in Japan. Negotiating the etiquette of the Japanese traditional music world and living up to my teacher’s high expectations is always a bit nerve wracking. But this time in Japan has been particularly useful and a major step for me as a player.

This has to be the most work I’ve ever done for a single piece of music. But it’s looking like we’ll be ready for Yobu on November 8!

First a word on Maz…
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Well Kris and Maz are back from Japan but both off gigging! Kris is on tour with Portland Taiko in Lake Placid, New York and Maz is performing with TAIKOPROJECT in the Tahoe area. I have a weekend off and am spending some time with family in San Luis Obispo. Next weekend I’ll be in San Francisco performing with Hiroshima at the Rrazz Room.

Our new studio album “Ume in the Middle” is nearing completion. We’re working with Chen Design Associates to design the CD packaging and they’ve come up with a great design. The album will be officially released in the beginning of next year but we’ll have some pre-release copies at YOBU, our upcoming annual home concert.

Anyone ever see that movie?  Pretty fun movie if you’ve ever lived in Tokyo.  I’m not really that lost in translation, but it’s always a challenge being in Japan.

I got here on Sunday and now it’s Wednesday evening in Japan.  We’re leaving tomorrow already!  Crazy…

I miss Japan!  Wish I could be here longer, but it’s soooo expensive!  The food is damn good here as well… hard to go back to the Japanese food in LA…

I’m going to leave most of the posting for Kris to do since I’m basically here for him.  I came here to take a lesson from Kikuyu-sensei who has her natori in the taiko realm of nagauta.  I learned the piece  “Taiko No Kyoku” that we’re going to perform for On Ensemble ’08 : Yobu, but I don’t know the form very well, so I needed some guidance.  As you all know, Kris is getting his natori (stage name) for shamisen (Japanese banjo-type instrument), and is here to continue his studies.  We’re going to bring his sensei over for our concert and present this piece and his natori.  Please come support his cause.  This is a huge deal.

I watched Kris’ lesson with the iemoto (head teacher of his school).  A great man.  Here’s a pic of us after Kris’ lesson.

Check back for Kris’ update!

I caught up with some good friends on this trip too!  Thanks for coming out and seeing us/me!

Holy cow, could we pick a worse time to be doing our annual fund raising drive?  Stock markets crashing, bailout debacle, massive amounts of uncertainty in our economy…  crazy. Or maybe donating to money to On Ensemble doesn’t look like such a bad investment anymore.  At least if you give money to us you know where you’re money is going and that it’ll be put to good use.  I mean given the alternatives wouldn’t you rather spend your money on supporting the creation of new music?

A huge thank you goes out to our latest batch of FoundatiOn Team members: Glenn Davis and Jimmy Takagi, Nelson and Naomi Yamagata, Tricia and Steve Trainer, Bryan Yumori, Steve Sano and Linda Uyechi, Sherri and Yutaka Kawazoye, Mary and George Fujimoto, Floyd and Lynda Kameda, JoBeth Prince, and Atsuko Fukunaga.  We’re over a third of the way to our goal!  Thanks for to all of our FoundatiOn Team members thus far!