Interview: Kaoru Watanabe talks Japanese etiquette, studying, teaching, and performing

photo by Max Whittaker

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Kaoru Watanabe, a friend and wonderful musician based in New York. We first met while I was living in Honolulu and playing with the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble. Kaoru and I have performed together in a variety of configurations over the years and I always have a fantastic time. I especially appreciate his musical openness and keen ear which constantly kindle spontaneity and real interaction on stage as we improvise. Kaoru, like myself, is all about the music, and I think this philosophical bond can be heard in our conversation.

For this interview, I asked Kaoru about etiquette in Japanese culture and more specifically within traditional arts. My interest in this topic has grown as I learn more about 礼儀作法 (reigi sahou, or etiquette system) through my Edo Bayashi studies with Kyosuke Suzuki sensei. At the beginning of the interview, I mention Suzuki sensei’s video interviews I produced for the Online Edo Bayashi Gathering in February 2021. Here is the link where you can find three videos dedicated to this topic:

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7974529

As I had anticipated, Kaoru shared valuable insights he gained through a wealth of experiences in the US and Japan. I can relate to his fluency in both cultures so it felt easy and natural to conduct the interview. The included music are excerpts from three of Kaoru’s pieces: Merge, Shinobu, and Bloodlines. I am grateful to Kaoru for his time and look forward to the next time we can record another interview on a different topic.

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Website
http://www.watanabekaoru.com

Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBL_1I2mRPcVK2gvyRAeNA

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kaorufue/

Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center
http://www.taikonyc.com

Kaoru Watanabe, a New York-based composer and musician specializing in Japanese flutes and percussion, works with such groundbreaking artists as Laurie Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma, Wes Anderson, Bando Tamasaburo, Simone Leigh, and Jason Moran. Watanabe is known for the artful and innovative ways he merges traditional Japanese music and theater elements with the contemporary Western world.

Originally from St. Louis, MO, where his parents played in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Watanabe played classical music as a child before going to the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz flute and saxophone. He then spent a decade in Japan, re-discovering and diving deep into his cultural roots as a member of the iconic taiko drumming ensemble Kodo. Watanabe studied a wide variety of traditional Japanese folk dances, songs, drumming, Noh, Kyogen, tea ceremony, woodworking, and rice farming to deepen his understanding of Japanese culture and the function and place of the performing arts within it.

As a solo artist, Watanabe seeks to collaborate with artists who embrace both tradition and innovation, such as Eva Yerbabuena, Imani Uzuri, Tamangoh, Adam Rudolph, Alicia Hall Moran, Rhiannon Giddens, Jen Shyu, Susie Ibara, Hassan Hakmoun, Zakir Hussein, Gamin, Vernon Reid, Wu Man, Tseyen Tserendorj, and many others.

As a composer, Watanabe writes for various, often unconventional instrumentations and explores a wide variety of compositional techniques. He has written orchestral works for the Sydney Symphony, premiering them at the Sydney Opera House. Watanabe composed music for the Academy Award-nominated Isle of Dogs soundtrack and three separate commissions for Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad ensemble. Watanabe's compositions often explore social justice, politics, history, and heritage. He has written a piece called Iki, meaning "breath," a mantra-like performance-art piece for Eric Garner. Watanabe has written for prepared koto about the Japanese fighter planes used in WWII, a symbol of both the beauty and genius of Japanese culture and the evil and destruction it perpetrated. During the pandemic, Watanabe developed a body of work that uses electronics to sample and playback his flutes, drums, and voice live, allowing him to create ensemble works solo that he titled INCENSE.

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Interview: Yuta Kato talks Suzuki sensei, Saburo sensei, Hachijo, and Yodan Uchi

I had a fun time talking with Yuta Kato about his experiences in Japan. There were a lot of different topics we could have covered in this interview but I primarily wanted to hear about Yuta’s studies with the two very important teachers we have in common: Kyosuke Suzuki sensei and Saburo Mochizuki sensei. This discussion brought up many ideas we find important such as artistic integrity, teaching skills, the value of studying in Japan, and the different points of view on Sukeroku Daiko’s iconic piece Yodan Uchi. I also asked Yuta to share his story about becoming a passionate advocate for Hachijo Island, its taiko style, and the culture of the people there. This topic prompted us to converse about concepts like the importance of ryuha and iemoto (school and its leader) in traditional arts, striving for honesty in our soloing, efforts to connect people by removing barriers, and the valuable lessons that kumidaiko players can acquire from traditional Japanese music.

The impetus for this interview came in part from my recent discussion with Yuta and Masa Miyano about the upcoming event DONference at Asano Taiko US. In addition to covering the details and logistics, I felt like we touched upon some important concepts which could be covered in greater depth. If you haven’t checked that out, I would recommend it as a good supplement to this interview. I would like to thank Yuta for taking valuable time out of his schedule to talk with me. I think we were able to go beyond the surface and talk genuinely about some very meaningful things in music and life.

Yuta and Masa interview
https://www.eienhunterishikawa.com/blog/interview-yuta-and-masa-talk-about-donference

DONference website
https://www.solatidon.com

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Yuta Kato was born and raised in California to a Japanese-only speaking family. Introduced to taiko by Kagami-Kai, a local rice-pounding group, he decided to further his studies with San Francisco Taiko Dojo at the age of 10. Since then he has been a part of UCLA Kyodo Taiko, Nihon Taiko Dojo, Getsuyoukai, and professional groups: TAIKOPROJECT, ON Ensemble, and Portland Taiko. From Fall 2007 until Winter 2011, he resided in Japan to study under masters of various traditional Japanese music. Upon returning to the US in 2011, he served successfully as Coordinator for the 2011 North American Taiko Conference, one of the largest gatherings of taiko players from around the globe.

Kato is also a sought after taiko instructor and has been invited to teach throughout the world. He currently resides in California serving as the principal and instructor for LATI (Los Angeles Taiko Institute) housed at Asano Taiko US, which opened in 2013. He performs as a member of UnitOne (Torrance, CA).

Los Angeles Taiko Institute
https://taiko.la

Asano Taiko US
http://asano.us

Interview: Masayoshi Ishikawa talks Mujo Suite, Fukushima, and blending taiko with jazz

Composer and pianist Masayoshi Ishikawa

Last summer Masa contacted me about the possibility of collaborating on a performance of his composition for taiko and 18-piece jazz orchestra. I quickly said yes because it sounded like an intriguing and unusual project with an underlining special significance. Originally from Fukushima Prefecture, Masa wrote Mujo Suite to commemorate the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster of northeastern Japan. After a half year of planning, we performed Mujo Suite at the University of Iowa on February 22. I also conducted lectures and workshops for a variety of classes during my residency, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Iowa City. I am very grateful to Masa and everyone involved in this project for the warm welcome and wonderful hospitality provided. Thank you also to Soten Taiko for kindly providing the taiko for this residency - it was immensely helpful. The photos and concert video are included at the bottom of this page.

I had a great time talking with Masa for this interview. We covered a lot of topics including the details about Mujo Suite, his background in Japan and the US, composing for Japanese instruments, my University of Iowa residency, his recent visit to Fukushima, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Eitetsu Hayashi, his teaching philosophy, and much more. Masa writes beautiful music and is a fantastic jazz pianist, and he speaks with much thoughtfulness, humility, and gratitude. The interview also features several samples from his album Dialogue which is linked below along with his facebook page.

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Originally from Fukushima Japan, Masayoshi Ishikawa grew up in a city called Aizu Wakamatsu. Throughout his primary and secondary school years, Masa actively participated in several choirs. He came to the United States in 2003 to begin his formal musical training in Seattle Washington, where he first found his passion for piano and the art of jazz.
As a pianist, Masa has performed at many jazz festivals and concerts in Italy, China, Japan and the United States. He was chosen to perform as one of the five finalists for 2016 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. Masa enjoys interacting and cultivating meaningful relationships with listeners and other musicians through performing music.
Masa is also passionate about crafting music with various instrumentations. His composition, Hotaru (firefly), was selected as the winner of 2014 Downbeat Student Music Awards in Graduate Original Composition for Small Ensemble. In 2019, Masa released his first jazz studio album titled Dialogue, which consists of ten original compositions written for vibraphone, piano/keyboards, acoustic bass/electric bass and drums. Several of his compositions have been published from UNC Jazz Press.

In addition to his latest project (Mujo Suite) with Eien Hunter-Ishikawa, Masa wrote and premiered another jazz orchestra multi-movement work titled Suite for the Forgotten in 2015. The suite is dedicated to people who are currently living in Fukushima under the uncertain health impact to the radiation exposure from The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants meltdown in 2011. In this composition, Masa employed a string quartet as well as French horn into the traditional jazz big band instrumentation.

As a sincere respect to Stevie Wonder, one of his musical heroes, Masa presented Stevie Wonder Recomposition Project in 2013. In this project, he selected multiple Wonder compositions to recompose for chamber jazz ensembles with various instrumentations.

He holds two Master of Music Degrees-one in jazz composition from the University of South Florida and one in jazz piano performance from the University of Northern Colorado. He received Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Composition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2015. In 2016-19, Masa served as a Visiting part-time Assistant Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. Currently he serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Iowa.

Masa’s Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/MasaIshikawaMusic/

Dialogue
https://music.apple.com/us/album/dialogue/1467830569

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University of Iowa Residency Photos and Mujo Suite Video

Mujo Suite - Three Movements for Jazz Orchestra, Taiko Drums and Shinobue I. Foreword/Finale (0:00 - 16:26) II. Prayer (16:26 - 25:47) III. Prologue (25:47 -...

Mujo Suite I. Finale

Mujo Suite III. Prologue

Rehearsal with the Mujo Suite band

Jamming with Giauna during the jazz seminar class

Teaching Edo Bayashi rhythms to the percussion seminar class

Practicing taiko patterns in the music therapy class

Lecture on the history and evolution of taiko for the world music class

Photo with Masa after the concert

Poster for the Mujo Suite performance

Interview: Abe Lagrimas, Jr. talks music, working with taiko players, and his new album

Abe Lagrimas, Jr. (photo by Greg Hatton)

I recently had a fun conversation with Abe Lagrimas, Jr., a Los Angeles-based musician, composer, educator, and author. Abe and I have been working for the past several years as members of On Ensemble and it's always a pleasure to share the stage together. He is an outstanding musician who plays drums, vibraphone, and ukulele, and consistently adds color and spark to elevate the music. Audiences love his technical flair, yet as a bandmate I truly appreciate Abe's fine-tuned ear and his flexibility to instantly adapt to any situation. He makes any band sound better and it's no surprise to learn that he is very much in high demand. In addition to On Ensemble, Abe and I have worked extensively with the preeminent taiko artist Kenny Endo. It's always interesting for me to chat with musicians with similar points of view, and as a jazz musician, Abe had some very insightful observations about working with taiko players. It would be wonderful if everyone shared such an open and forward-thinking mindset about art, culture, and everyday life. This conversation also contains more humorous bits than usual, reflecting Abe's easygoing personality.

The interview features music from Abe's fantastic new self-titled album. The excerpted tracks are: Alternate Route, Sunday Dance, Nu'uanu Mist, End Of The Road, and Tanimoto. The album features a great group of musicians playing Abe's jazz-leaning original compositions, expressing a nice balance of varying feels, tempos, and moods. The links for the CD and digital download are below, and I highly recommend you check them out. Abe's website is also worth visiting to learn about upcoming shows, find his previous albums, and sign up for his newsletter. 

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Website
abelagrimasjr.com

Physical Album
https://squareup.com/store/abelagrimasjr/item/abe-new-cd

Digital Download
https://passoutrecords.bandcamp.com/album/abe-lagrimas-jr

Abe Lagrimas, Jr. is a musician, composer, educator, and author who plays the drums, vibraphone, ukulele, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. In 2012, he competed in the highly prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Drums Competition and has worked with many artists such as Eric Marienthal, Eric Reed, Kamasi Washington, Dontae Winslow, Barbara Morrison, Michelle Coltrane, Jake Shimabukuro, Kenny Endo, and continues to be an in-demand session musician in Los Angeles. 

As a solo ukulele artist, Abe is a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award recipient and has released multiple albums in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Abe has been featured at ukulele festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Reno, Chicago, New York, and Hawaii. His international performances include Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Great Britain, and toured extensively throughout China having performed in twelve cities. 

Abe is also an educator and has authored the first ever ukulele curriculum for instrumental music programs in schools titled “Ukulele Ensemble, Beginning Ukulele - Level 1”published by Consonus Music Institute. His latest book "Jazz Ukulele: Comping, Soloing, Chord Melodies" (Berklee Press & Hal Leonard) is available in stores worldwide and on Amazon.

New Conversation with Bachido's Kyle Abbott

Delicious pour over of Kyle's home roasted coffee

During my recent working vacation trip to northern California, I was able to squeeze in a visit to hang out with Kyle Abbott in Santa Cruz. I first met Kyle in February 2016, and on that day I had the very impromptu idea of recording our conversation for my new blog. Part of the reason for my initial visit was to ask Kyle about his experiences selling instructional videos on his excellent website Bachido because I was preparing to start producing my own videos. In the almost two years since, I have posted numerous interviews on my blog and uploaded ten instructional videos in my store. This new frame of reference made our recent conversation especially fun and meaningful for me. It was a fun day of recording, drinking Kyle's fantastic coffee, tasting local beers in town, and cooking a great dinner on the grill late into the night.

Last year I provided some percussion for Kyle's album Frosty: a retrospective Christmas. Full of unusual arrangements of traditional Christmas songs, I always describe this album as the most uniquely interesting material on your holiday playlist. With shamisen, taiko, throat singing, shakuhachi, and various other instruments, it's bound to turn heads and prompt inquiries at your next party. You can contact me for a copy or visit the Bachido store to purchase.

Earlier this year, Kyle and I also collaborated on the planning of "Tataki," a weekend workshop series where taiko and shamisen players gather to try out each other's instruments and to discover how to play together effectively. Unfortunately we had to postpone the event due to not reaching the enrollment minimum and being declined on our grant application. We predicted that it would be a great event, but perhaps our idea was too progressive and ahead of our time? It's difficult to know if the timing was off (March 4-5, 2017) or the interest is not there, but we will be trying again in the future. Subscribing to our newsletters is the best way to stay updated for future event announcements like these. 

We talked long enough that Kyle split it into three segments. The first two are posted on his website's Bachi On The Horn series, and the third is below. We delved into a handful of topics including the importance of feedback from your teacher, hierarchy of ways to study, the value of current technology, and the small world of musicians where interesting connections are constantly being discovered. We started talking indoors, but that room needed to be vacated so we continued out in the back yard. It was a beautifully sunny late afternoon - ideal for recording a podcast except for the dozens (or hundreds) of crows gathering right above us. Hopefully this audio reminiscent of a certain Hitchcock film won't be too much of a distraction. I would definitely encourage everyone to check out all three parts, especially where we discuss the similarities between coffee tasting and music. Kyle and I are both home coffee roasting enthusiasts and this topic came up on our 2016 conversation as well.

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After concert photo in Santa Cruz with Robbie Belgrade, John Kaizan Neptune, and Kyle Abbott

Links

Bachi On The Horn podcast Parts 1 & 2

Frosty: a retrospective Christmas album

Kyle Abbott interview from February 2016

Tataki - Shamisen and Taiko Workshop

Mike Penny interview

Alvin Ryuzen Ramos interview

Kyosuke Suzuki sensei information

After concert photo in Los Angeles with John Kaizan Neptune, Mike Penny, and Kojiro Umezaki

John Kaizan Neptune documentary film

Kenny Endo interview

Monty Levinson website

Eien's instructional videos