Our next performance will be at Drom on Friday January 16th at 8pm. We’ll be joined by frequent On Ensemble collaborator and amazing Japanese and Western flutist Kaoru Watanabe. Tickets are $15 and are available at the Drom website.
After our gig in Brattleboro we hit the road at 4am to make a 10:15am sound check in New York for our APAP showcases. Both showcases went well and we’d like to thank the great tech crew at our showcases who watched over our massive amount of equipment and made everything run so smoothly. It isn’t easy getting a drumkit, turntable, koto and eight taiko into a tiny conference room in an orderly fasion.
I had a little free time during the day so I spent it at Museum of Modern Art taking in some Miro, Picasso, Kandinsky, Warhol, Pollock and Matisse. I was particularly struck by the photography of Mikhael Subotzky whose portraits of a small desert prison town were beautiful and thought provoking. I also found the Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927-1937 quite fascinating. I’m always interested in how an artist evolves and continues to explore over time. The range of Miro’s exploration in this ten year period is astonishing and something to admire and strive for.
Tomorrow we head up to Boston for a couple of workshops with Odaiko New England. Then we’ll be back in New York at the end of the week for our gig at Drom.
Our performance in Brattleboro was great fun and we have many people to thank. First of all a big thank you goes out to Todd Roach and the Loft for presenting us at the New England Youth Theater. I was blown away by the community of world percussionist that Todd has nurtured in Brattleboro. It’s great to see the arts thrive in smaller more rural communities. Another great big thank you goes out to Patrick Cooperman of Cooperman drums for letting us stay at his beautiful home in Grafton. Cooperman drums makes some of the best frame drums around and his house is full of great antique drums… a drummer’s paradise.
Finally a huge thank you goes out to Patrick Graham for coming down and playing with us. Patrick should be familiar to On Ensemble fans and he has a new solo CD coming out soon called “Rheō“. I got a chance to hear some of the tracks on “Rheō” and they sound amazing. Patrick has a series of CD release concerts coming up in Montreal so check them out if you are in the area:
“Rheō“ - A concert series marking the release of Patrick Graham’s first solo CD, featuring guests Ben Grossman (hurdu-gurdy & electronics), Kaoru Watanabe (fue & flute) & Tomomi Morimoto (contemporary dance)
January 22nd-23rd
8:00pm
MAI, Montreal arts interculturels
Montreal, Quebec
Wow… I’m well into my 30s now! This is unofficially my and Shoji’s 25th year of playing taiko. Can you believe it? How special it is to still be playing with each other. Thanks Shoj for all the great years.
Last year was a pretty good year for me personally. Although things were tough for loved ones around me, I felt like I did a lot of growing up. I finally feel comfortable being the person I am. It’s in my nature to be a follower and I’ve always been told I should make an effort to be a leader, but that’s asking someone to be someone they are not. I feel like I can be a quiet leader and supporter. I feel confident with the skills that I have to be strong. I don’t have to be “over the top” or a “go-getter” to be respected. I’ve finally found out that I just have to be myself.
Some highlights of being 30:
-Driving across country and back SAFELY with Kris.
-Putting on a successful show at the Ford Amphitheatre with TAIKOPROJECT featuring guest artists San Francisco Taiko Dojo and making Tanaka-sensei proud.
-Going to Japan once to visit Courtney, going back a second time to help Kris receive his “natori”.
-Playing with TAIKOPROJECT in Hawaii. I MISS Hawaii. Thank you to Kenny and Chizuko Endo for being a big part of who I am.
-Adopting two abandoned kittens that Byron (my roommate and fellow TAIKOPROJECT member) found. We nursed them, gave one away to Yuri and kept the other one who Mika named “Tabi”. She has three grey feet and one white foot.
-Courtney’s return from Japan!!! A year is long.
-Shasta Yama with On Ensemble. Always awesome to play for the home crowd.
-Our home concert “Yobu”. At first it started to feel like, “why do we do this to ourselves?” But then, when the show started and we saw our family, friends, and fans, it was definitely worth it. Thank you all for coming!
Here’s to another year. Hope this one is better.
Okay so that bit about never eating Denny’s again was a little premature. Navigating to Phenom Phen in time for dinner in a snow storm was a bit of disaster and ended with me looking for dinner at a gas station. Sigh. Oh well…
Currently downloading the newest “TV on the Radio” album for tomorrow’s drive. Five days in a van packed with equipment is a perfect time to catch up on some listening. I’m a music junkie and must get frequent suggestions for new music to check out from my suppliers. Two of my best suppliers of new music are both named Dylan. Dylan number 1 recommended: Efterklang and Amiina, Dylan number 2 recommended: The Octopus Project and A Silver Mount Zion. All four have been fantastic listens this trip but I need more! Dylans if you read this please send more… Also if your name is not Dylan and you have a good suggestion I’m all ears.
Also… One of the periods of music that both Kelvin and I are into these days is Jazz from the mid-late 70s. We took in a good amount of Pharoah Sander from that period today. Old and New Dreams self titled debut from 1979 is still one of my all time favorite albums. Also Maz’ father Russel Baba released his first album “Hisashi” and Hiroshima released their debut album in 1979. 1979 kind of seems like a theme… so I’m also looking for more suggestions for must listen to Jazz albums released in 1979.
I’m pleased to announce we have sent this year’s thank you gifts to all 83 donors! This year we offered our greenest gifts yet — an all organic cotton FoundatiOn Team t-shirt and a recycled-cotton, reusable On Ensemble grocery bag, sent in an all-recycled container!
Maz recycling boxes
Every donor received the ’08 FoundatiOn Team CD, featuring 4 brand-new tracks. Without a doubt, this is the best FoundatiOn Team CD we’ve made. Shoj poured tons of work into the tracks, and the CD design is extremely cool!
FoundatiOn Team CDs and t-shirts
Thank you again to all our donors. Some love is headed your way!
Did you know there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than there are McDonalds, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy’s combined? This is according to Jennifer 8. Lee’s recent TED talk. (Everyone in On Ensemble is addicted the TED talks YouTube channel) But it isn’t just Chinese food anymore… Kelvin and I just ate at an amazingly good Indian restaurant in Lincoln Nebraska called the Oven. It was FANTASTIC! Great food, great atmosphere and extremely reasonable prices considering the high quality dining experience. No more crap Denny’s stops on the road for us… Armed with a little internet access and our trusty GPS we are on a mission to find the best Asian restaurants between LA and NY. Tomorrow night we’re going to try Phnom Penh in Cleveland. We’re also taking suggestions and are especially on the look out for restaurants that have decent vegetarian fare:)
We also desperately need a great restaurant suggestion (Asian or otherwise) along the 15/70 route in southern Utah. We end up stopping in that area a lot and a great restaurant to stop at would greatly improve my quality of life…
Kelvin and I just finished our workshop with Denver Taiko and Mirai Daiko. We taught them “Omiyage” a piece that I originally wrote for TAIKOPROJECT and have since released under a free art license as a gift to the North American Taiko community. Bryan Yamami first conceived of a piece called “Omiyage” for TAIKOPROJECT (re)generation that TAIKOPROJECT would workshop to the various communities it would visit. I have Kris to thank for expanding the “Omiyage” concept in terms of releasing it under a free art license. My work and On Ensemble’s music and recordings are released under a more restrictive creative commons, attribution non-commercial, share-alike license, but I often have interesting conversations with Kris regarding free art and admire his commitment to the concept. I wanted to do something under the free art license and “Omiyage” was a logical choice. We’re working on putting together more free art work for the taiko community including more pieces and programs like “30 days to better shime”.
Watching “Omiyage” grow and take on a life of it’s own has been very rewarding. Yuta Kato did a lot to refine the choreography of the piece and spread it through workshops from Long Island to Hawai’i. Maz and the TAIKOPROJECT cast continues to refine their version of the piece and I keep finding more and more YouTube videos of groups performing the piece. There is even a group from Japan posting “Omiyage” videos.
Kelvin and I would like to send out a huge thank you to Aiko and Yuji Kimura for taking such great care of us during our short stay. Denver Taiko and Mirai Daiko did and fantastic job and learning the piece and I’m looking forward to seeing where they take “Omiyage” and who they teach it to!