Here are some pics from our stay in Ashland. Ashland is a great little town just 1.5 hours north of Mt. Shasta. It’s home of the Shakespeare festival and now the home of Kelvin. I think this was a great move for Kelvin. Many opportunities have surfaced for him including the play, “Death and the King’s Horseman” that Kris, Shoji, and I had the privelge of attending.
Kelvin at “Death and the King’s Horseman”
We got a write-up in Chicks With Guns Magazine for “Ume in the Middle”. It’s a nice write-up and features an interview with the four of us. It’s too long to include in its entirety but you can check out the Chicks With Guns Magazine website for the entire article and interview.
Today we’re headed from Mt. Shasta to Tahoe for a series of lecture demos for Arts for the Schools and a concert on Friday. More from the road soon!
“Ume in the Middle” continues to get radio adds and spins throughout the country. We were #2 on the CMJ New World Adds charts for issue #1102. Here’s an updated list of some of the new radio stations that haved added “Ume in the Middle” to their playlists and are starting to play tracks from the album: (more…)
Taiko Jam 09 tickets just went on sale. You can purchase tickets on line from the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center website. If you are a fan of taiko this is the concert for you featuring Kishin Daiko, Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko, Portland Taiko and us! Tickets often go quickly because it’s held in conjunction with the North American Taiko Conference so don’t wait too long to get your tickets!
We had a great weekend in Ashland, we had a lecture demo, a full concert and a hands on workshop and got to hang out with family and got to see Kelvin perform in “Death and the King’s Horseman”. A big thank you goes out to Ariella for brining us up to Ashland. A huge thank you goes out to our great sound guys Tom and Sebastian for their work in making our concert a success. And last but definitely not least a huge thank you goes out to everybody who came out to the concert. It was a great audience to play for and it’s always fun to be back in the great state of Jefferson.
On Wednesday we’ll be heading down to Tahoe for lecture demos and a public concert on the 15th. It’ll actually be our second trip to the Tahoe area. Arts for the Schools is celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary season and was one of the first presenters to believe in our group so we’re really looking forward to returning to North Lake Tahoe.
Got a nice “Ume in the Middle” review from A & A:
Some really pretty avant garde stuff. The pieces are composed, and I don’t hear a lot of improvisation. The real astonishment here is the wide range of sounds used to complete the songs. That these sounds (vocals, instruments and some electronics) come from a small group of people is most impressive. The best part is that even when the ensemble heads for the extreme, the center holds. Fascinating.
We’ve had a busy couple of days. On Wednesday we drove from LA to Mt. Shasta had a nice dinner with my parents then rehearsed for four hours. It’s been great being back up in Mt. Shasta as the apple blossoms are beautiful this time of year.
On Thursday we spent all day rehearsing then drove up to Ashland on Friday for a lecture demo. After the lecture demo we hung out with Kris’ family and got to see Kelvin in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of Wole Soyinka’s “Death and the King’s Horseman“. It was a fantastic production and has really made me interested in reading more of Wole Soyinka’s work.
We got a nice write up in the Ashland daily the Mail Tribune ahead of our upcoming performance at the Unitarian Center. More from the road soon!
Okay I though 3.5/5 stars was bad but we just set a new record low for an On Ensemble album review. 1.5 stars from In Tune magazine a weekly entertainment tabloid, published each Friday by The Daily News in McKeesport, Pa. According to the rating scale 1.5 stars means “Run for your life”. Ouch. Well at least it was honest and was an actual review as opposed to a descriptive definition and at least we got a strong reaction. In the spirit of “no press is bad press” here is the full review:
The avant-garde musical stylings of On Ensemble, which fuse traditional Japanese drums (taiko) with modern elements of rock, hip-hop and electronica, probably will appeal to many listeners. Sadly, I’m not one of them, as I have no desire to revisit “Ume in the Middle”.
I found this nine-track mostly instrumental collection to be a challenge to get through and, despite my best efforts, couldn’t embrace the music of Masato Baba, Kristofer Bergstrom, Shoji Kameda and Kelvin Underwood.
Songs such as “Waiting” and “After Rain” – with the latter’s use of bamboo flute and bizarre, wordless throat singing – are intriguing, if not enjoyable, and I kind of liked “Butoh-bot Malfunction.” But for the most part, this is a record that is too out there for my taste. Perhaps I’m just not sophisticated enough.