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We just finished up the New York leg of our tour and a lot has happened since my last post.  We had quite a few performances in New York that culminated in a great performance at Symphony Space.  We also had a number of workshops for local taiko groups.  Both Tetsuro and I taught a class at Kaoru’s Taiko center and at the Long Island University workshop there was even a group of students that had come all the way from Bowling Green Ohio!

Kaoru, Tetsuro and I had a performance at Drom with our translator Nominjin who is also a great singer in her own right.  Shinetsog sat in with Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Orchestra and with another gig at a African Restaurant that Kaoru was playing in blowing people away with throat singing and Morin Huur playing.   It was a great couple of day filled with music and some NY site seeing.  We had to say goodbye to Tetsuro yesterday and tomorrow the rest of us head off to Seattle for our last leg of the tour.  More soon!

Hi all!  So, a few months ago, I posted a blog about TAIKOPROJECT looking for a warehouse.  That particular warehouse didn’t work out, BUT Bryan found a new one down in Long Beach and signed the lease!  It’s currently being renovated since it was basically a large space with nothing in it and it needs some work.  That being said, go to TAIKOPROJECT’s website for information about the future Southern California’s only dedicated Taiko studio.  Exciting!!!

My sincere thanks to Kineya Yasoyo and the volunteers that worked to make yesterday’s fundraiser performance happen!

As part of the show, I played “Err”, the solo piece I’ve been working on for the last four years or so. The piece is inspired by CD technology and incorporates puzzles into the rhythms and the musical score. It’s still a work in progress but I’m making small steps here and there. Here’s a clip!

My good friend Kineya Yasoyo has organized a shamisen performance fundraiser for Nichiren Temple in downtown Los Angeles. I will be performing two Kabuki pieces, as well as the newest version of my solo taiko piece, Err. Included with the ticket price, all guests will be served Japanese tea as well. There will be Japanese food for purchase too! If you’re in the area, please come! Tickets are $35 at the door.

Nichiren Temple
2801 E 4th St
Los Angeles CA

Just wanted to give one more shout out to Nen Daiko for their generous hospitality in Washington, DC.  After the Nen Daiko workshop Kaoru, Tetsuro and I headed to NY in our two rent a cars.  I ended up not being able to make it and stopped at a hotel along the way but Kaoru and Tetsuro pushed on and arrived in NY at 3am.  We were supposed to return the cars by noon and I get a call from Kaoru at 11am and in the the eight hours that the car was parked in NY it was broken into!  Can you believe that?  Eight hours…  The passenger side window was smashed and the thieves had tried to steal the GPS unit.  The problem was that it was a rent a car GPS that was hardwired into the car so they were unable to unattach the unit.  Even if they did somehow manage to wrestle the unit free the joke would’ve been on them.  It was like the first GPS unit ever created and it was unusually hard to follow.  It could very well have been my general incompetence but even with the unit I got myself lost a good half a dozen times.  For a touring musician DC is a nightmare.  Between all those crazy roundabouts and split level roads that go under the roundabouts, I think I’ve been lost in DC more that any other city in the nation.

After getting the car returned and filling out the police report Kaoru and I headed to his taiko studio where I met some of his students and taught a workshop on basic stance and form.  I watched Kaoru teach Miyake the first class and his taiko students looked great!  Miyake is one of those songs that was popularized by KODO and most taiko groups play the KODOized version (often without realizing it) which gets turned into a super power taiko piece.  The procession that happens at the beginning  and the song that happens at the beginning and middle of the piece is often dropped in favor of all out power solos.  Kaoru has actually been to Miyake island and has learned the original version and teaches his students both versions with all of the subtle differences between the two.  I personally favor the original version as I find it much more nuanced and musical than a lot of the power versions.

So if you are interested in Miyake or Hachijo or other folk pieces that have been adapted to wadaiko I encourage you seek out the original versions.  There is much to discover and going deeper to the source of the piece will only inform and improve whatever version you end up performing.

The flight from Ulaanbaatar to DC over was kind of crazy.  We left at 12:20am Ulaanbaatar time, flew to Seoul where we had a 6 hour lay over before the 14 hour flight to DC.  When we got into DC it was only 11am the same day and we had to make it through the entire day without crashing.  In DC we had two performances and a workshop with the local taiko group Nen Daiko.  The Nen Daiko folks were gracious enough to let us stay with them during our time in DC and a big thank you goes out to Ms. Nakamura for the great breakfasts!  Being on the road with a sizable group speaking three different languages can be chaotic so it was nice to have the stability of a nice breakfast in the morning!

Our first performance was at the Japanese Information and Cultural Center and the next day we performed at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage where they have free performances everyday the entire year!  They also broadcast the performances via the internet for free and you can watch archived performances at the Kennedy Center’s website.  The performances were fun though I was personally fighting a cold brought on by the tiring travel schedule.  The next day most of the ensemble took the train to New York while Tetsuro, Kaoru and myself stayed behind to give a workshop to Nen Daiko.  Kaoru gave them fue lessons, Tetsuro taught katsugi technique and I gave them a few pointers on Omiyage a piece that I composed for Taikoproject and have released under a free art license.  The basic idea is that the song is free for anyone who wants to learn and perform it with the only rule being you have to give the song away in the same spirit it was received in.  Anyone that knows the song is also encouraged to teach others.  It’s been a surprisingly successful idea a quick youtube search yields a good dozen or so videos of groups performing or practicing the song.

Today was a great day of new experiences.  Shinetsog’s parents prepared a great Mongolian picnic for us.  There were dumplings and horse meat with potatoes and carrots, some great pickles and a variety of Mongolian cheese and curd foods all washed down by a healthy amount of vodka.  Any fantasy I had about being a Mongolian warrior in a past life was but to rest by my inability to finish a full cup of airag (fermented mare’s milk).

After the picnic we went to a giant Genghis Khan statue took a bunch of photos which was followed by another mid day food break.  Then one of Byamba’s friend’s invited us into her ger which was followed by even more food.  We were served milk tea, fresh yogurt and a sweet caramelized cream called Khailmag.  It was really great to see a traditional ger up close.  We watched as the yaks and sheep were fed and even got to ride a horse.  Finally we made a stop a music shop where I spent the rest of my Mongolian money on CDs and small instruments that might some how fit into my bag.

We have one more day in Mongolia then we’ll be headed to DC.  We have so many people to thank for our time here in Ulaanbaatar.  A huge thank you goes out to Hulegu, Nominjin and Byamba for taking such great care of during our time here.  I’m looking forward to a day when I can repay the hospitality.

Here’s a short video of our master magtaal singer Teserendorj and his son Soyol performing a khel khuur duet.