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Hi all.  Long time no blog!  I’ve had a nice, busy schedule in January.  Two gigs out in Vegas and a big show in Riverside with TAIKOPROJECT kept me on my toes for the new year.

Over the holidays I went home to Mt. Shasta and visited my parents.  During my stay, we went over to Mark Miyoshi’s to see the new, huge odaiko he’s building.  If you’ve never met Mark, he’s one of the most gracious, great, spiritual people that I know.  He builds taiko from scratch all by himself.  In Japan, you have workers who do each step of building a taiko.  One person who carves the inside out, one person who cures the skin, one person who puts the skin on, etc.  Mark does it all to amazing perfection.  He and his wife, Luisa, have chickens, a bee colony (of which I am enjoying the awesome honey from), make herbal tinctures, among other things.  Mark has been like an uncle to Shoji and myself.  The odaiko he’s building is the biggest he’s built and is part of a bunch of taiko he is building for display at The World’s First Global Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ opening in April, 2010.  Congratulations Mark!  This is a huge honor and it’s a huge honor to have Mark as part of my life.

It’s been a week since our “Works In Progress ‘09″ concert.  I think that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time and what a better way to spend it with some of my favorite people in the world creating great and crazy music.

The name “Falling” came to me as I started composing the melody.  I don’t really know what it feels like to fall in an abyss, but while I was playing this song, I almost imagined myself falling into an abyss just like Ziyi Zhang’s character, Jen Yu, did at the end of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“.  I’d like to thank the On guys for helping me come up with the rhythm section and the koto part.  Kelvin was working pretty hard in this concert!  Thank you to my parents who helped this piece come alive.

Falling – Kelvin Underwood: koto, Shoji Kameda: chappa and shaker, Kris Bergstrom: taiko and shaker, Jeanne Mercer: percussion, Russel Baba: percussion, Masato Baba: fue.

Kelvin has been down to LA a few times now to work on new songs for our “Works In Progress ‘09″ concert on December 12.  We have all sorts of new stuff that’s fun and challenging.  I’ve actually pulled out my old bass for this concert.  It’s been so long, but I miss it.  Here is a clip of Kelvin’s new song with him on vocals and guitar, Kris on taiko, and me on drumset.

Kelvin’s song clip

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!!!

Kris and I both taught workshops this past weekend in UCLA at Yukai Daiko’s Taiko Camp.  Every year, before the school year starts, Yukai holds a taiko camp to which Kris and I both taught at last year as well.  This year, I did one of my newer workshops called “How to Kiai Confidently While Playing Taiko”.  Kiai are hard because it’s another thing added to the form of Taiko.  You’ve got your stance, you’ve got your beats, you’ve got your movements, and then your kiai or vocal shouts.  It was fun, but my voice was all tired from the day before at Chico!  I was very impressed with Yukai this past year and I’m excited to see their advancements this year.  Special thanks to Jessica and Isabella for organizing everything and to Danny for the following picture.

During Taiko Jam, Shoji thanked all of the taiko groups we stayed with during our crazy tours.  From Seattle to St. Louis to Toronto to Boston (and all in-between), we have stayed in awesome homestays.  We are forever grateful to those who have put us up.  This time when we went to Phoenix, AZ for the WAA conference, Shoji and Kelvin stayed with Eileen and Patrick, and Kris and I stayed with Esther and Ken of Fushicho Daiko.  We had a great time getting to know them.  I’ve known Esther for a long time.  She came up to Mt. Shasta to visit Shasta Taiko and Mark Miyoshi when Shoji and I were wee kids.  Ken is a wonderful artist who has traveled the world playing his music and is a proud father of a wonderful kid who dubs himself Miro, “M-I-R-O”.

While Shoji and Kelvin spent time at WAA, I had a very rare experience which was shoe shopping with Kris Bergstrom!  Everyone knows that Kris is a wonderful person, but has extreme traits like his veganism, chooses to only wear shorts, and he usually only shops for food, so shopping for shoes was a brand new experience for me!

Later on, Kris taught an introduction to his 30 Days to Better Shime program to members of Fushicho Daiko and members of their community groups.  It’s a great program and you can download it for free on the above link.

Thank you Esther, Ken, and Fushicho Daiko for a wonderful time!

Bryan from TAIKOPROJECT has been obsessed with finding a warehouse for TAIKOPROJECT’s new home.  We’re close.  This might be it!

It’s a great space.  It will take a bit of work to fix the place up to our satisfaction, but once it’s finished, this will be a great space to be in.  Practices, rehearsals, small concerts, recordings, retreats… this will be a great resource!  And hopefully On can help pitch in to use it too…  =)

A taiko group always dreams of having a nice, big, open space.  I hope this works out.

Last weekend Bryan from TAIKOPROJECT and I went to Japan to celebrate Asano’s 400th Year Anniversary.  I can’t believe there has been a company (let alone a taiko company) that has survived for 400 years.  Can you believe that?

The weekend was filled with performances, drum sales, merchandise sales, meeting many taiko people, and a reception.  Congratulations Julia Asano!

Here’s Bryan in front of a huge odaiko.  At the end of the weekend, there was a fun odaiko jam where we got to play this odaiko.  It was probably the biggest taiko I’ve ever hit in my life and in the process, Yoshikazu Fujimoto, lead odaiko player from Kodo, lent me his odaiko bachi and I totally broke one!  I’ve never done that before.  Maybe I should take lessons from him…

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