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On Ensemble returned from a great weekend at the 2nd Annual Eastern Taiko Conference. It was quite a busy weekend. On Thursday I (Shoji) flew into New York and performed that night with Kaoru Watanabe and Patrick Graham at Zebulan. It was a great way to start the weekend. We performed an all improvised set and it’s always great to perform with musicians like Kaoru and Patrick. The next day we drove to Wesleyan and met up with Maz and Kris who were on tour with Taikoproject. The three of us spent the weekend leading workshops and getting a sense of the East Coast taiko community. Through our tours we’ve met quite a few of the East Coast groups but it’s still surprising how quickly groups are springing up.

On Saturday we performed a great concert with Kaoru Watanabe, Patrick Graham, Kenny Endo, Miles Endo, Isaku Kageyama and TAIKOPROJECT. In the first half we played an integrated set with Kenny, Kaoru and Patrick based on our ongoing TAIKO 2.0 collaboration. Isaku and Miles joined in for a couple of pieces and really added to the mix. In the second half Maz and Kris switched costumes and took the stage as TAIKOPROJECT. I joined them to perform “Omiyage” then Kenny led a rousing 8 person version of “Symmetrical Soundscapes” to end the concert. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some video of the concert soon in the meantime enjoy these photos from Ben Pachter’s flickr account.

All in all it was a great weekend of taiko. A huge thank you goes out to Cheryl Tan and the organizers of the 2nd annual Eastern Taiko Conference who did a great job organizing the conference. At each one of these taiko gatherings there are a ton of behind the scenes people who helped make all this happen. Stuart Paton and Burlington Taiko were carting drums around everywhere, David Cheetham came all the way from Vegas and was a life saver producing the concert, there were helpful volunteers everywhere and somebody made hundreds of warm musubi to greet the participants as they arrived. As a workshop leader and performer we have the easy job just show up teach a workshop and play but the real props should go to all the organizers and volunteers who make these events possible.

On Ensemble recently went on tour to Wyoming and then to Texas. As you know, we drive EVERYWHERE. It helps save cash and, even though it’s still burning fuel, it’s better for our carbon footprint versus flying. Fun time on the road!

-Approximate miles driven in the van – 5,563 plus
-Shoji and Kelvin’s approximate time spent in the van – 49 plus
-Maz and Kris’ approximate time spent in the van – 90 plus
-States passed through – California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas
-Time zones passed through – 3 (Pacific, Mountain, and Central)
-Number of Lecture/Demonstrations – 7
-Number of Concerts – 3
-Times chains had to be used – 2
-Approximate cups of rice made – 30
-Approximate curry lunches (Punjab Choley from Trader Joe’s) consumed – 13
-Approximate tofu dinners consumed – 10
-Times our gas light went on – Once. There was a stretch of the 10 freeway in Texas where there were no gas stations for like 150 miles. Abunai!
-We actually had time to watch the 49ers vs Giants NFC Championship game! It was fun, but we wished for a different out come!
-Times I got asked if I was “that guy in the Hangover” – 4. Dang Ken Jeong. Is this a good compliment or a bad one? Maybe it’s time for a haircut.

-Times Kris got asked if he looked like Scott Hamilton – Once, but this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time someone asked him that. Other people Kris has been compared to: Chris Martin of Coldplay, Paul Bettany, Ari Shapiro (voice only), and… Arnold Schwarzenegger???
-I asked Shoji and Kelvin who they’ve been compared to. Shoji said Jake Shimabukuro. Kelvin said Saul Williams.
-Kris won the “Man Card” of the tour. He was the best at backing up the trailer. I had to give up being the driver and he had to take over.
-Kris and I stopped at “The Thing” off of the Interstate 10 Freeway. I can’t tell you what it is. You have to google it. Silly stuff… it was only a dollar, so why NOT? Gotta do at least one silly thing on tour right?

Whew! We made it back to Los Angeles in one piece. Happy to report that the trip up to Wyoming was quite a success! After our two performances in Pinedale we drove through a snow storm to get to Gillette. On Monday we performed two lecture demos at Paintbrush Elementary School then on Tuesday we played a morning show for local 7th graders followed by a concert that evening. We had a great turnout for the evening performance and many of the students that we performed for earlier came to the concert with their parents in tow. Huge thank you to the great staff at the Cam-plex Heritage Theater for brining us out to Wyoming. This marks the second year in a row we’ve had mid January tour out to the Northwest. Hopefully we’ll make it three in a row next year!

We’ve been having a good Wyoming tour thus far. On Wednesday we left Los Angeles early to make it to Salt Lake City for a workshop. Then on Thursday we drove from Salt Lake City into Pinedale Wyoming. Luckily for us the weather was beautiful. On Friday we started the day with a educational performance for the students of Pinedale Middle School. Later that evening we had a great concert performance at the Pinedale Auditorium. A huge thank you goes out to Patrick, Tim, Lars and Dana for bringing us out to Pinedale and for all their work in making our performances a success.

During our time in Pinedale we ended up eating at the Wind River Brewery three times in two days and even made friends with some of the regulars (shout out to Kenny!). Yesterday we drove from Pinedale to Gillette through terrible weather. It was slow going but we arrived in one piece. Tomorrow we’ll be going out to a local elementary school for a couple of lecture demos. Today we finish our tech early and are settling down to watch the Niners!

Our dance collaborator from Sun Valley Idaho, Kristine, sent us these fun photos from a joint performance we did at the local highschool. Thank you Kristine!

I have been remiss in singing the praises of the “On Ensemble”. In January this group performed at the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish South Dakota and what a treat! The concert is still being talked about. The quality and professionalism of this group well exceeded even the University Faculty who attended. Given an opportunity I would not hesitate to have this group perform in our venue again. While this type of entertainment may be new to Spearfish I have been involved in the presenting business for well over a decade and this group was not only pleasing to the audience but a true group of unassuming gentlemen who went out of their way to provide an outstanding concert. All I can say is “Thank you”!

Kris and I are at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago rehearsing for Eric Whitacre’s Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings! We’re performing tomorrow at Roosevelt University and are totally excited as always to be part of this production. We got in yesterday and spent the evening having a lesson and having fun with our host, John Yost. Thanks John and family for hosting us and letting us borrow your drums!

For those of you who don’t know, Paradise Lost is a production we did in Pasadena in 2007 that ran for about three months. It combines operatic singing (with seven leads), a choir (over 200 singers!), acting, choreographed fighting, electronica, cello, a DJ, and taiko (us, of course). The story is about children of angels who were locked in their angel city when their parents left to battle. The parents never came back and the children are forced to govern themselves. This results in internal conflict.

Last year, Shoji and I performed at Carnegie Hall in New York which was a blast! This year, we’re here in Chicago and are at Disney Hall in Los Angeles on June 25. Check it out!

Here is a picture of today’s rehearsal.  You can see Kris and the taiko all the way on the left side.

We arrived home this morning at about 2am. It feels good to be back, but it sure was fun to meet everyone along the road. Thank you to all the groups that hosted workshops, all the friends that housed us, all the venues that invited us to perform, and all the people came to see us along the way. It was a wonderful adventure!

Miles driven: 7465
Workshops taught: 18
Performances: 9
Taiko players met: 252
Car issues: 1 bad coil, 6 bad spark plugs, 1 bad tire and rim
Coldest temp: 6F (near Denver, before wind-chill)
Babies born: 1