In terms of travel, I went to Boston, my first time working outside of NY in a long time- to work with students at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. I am looking forward to hearing what the incredible musicians of the Silkroad can do with the composition. I dislike inelegant mashups of disparate music. I love Gagaku I love contemporary groove-based music. The trick is to write something that brings together all these elements so that when taken as a whole, it somehow makes sense, even if it shouldn't. I wanted to create a piece where we can also improvise and dialogue and groove out. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the individuals of the Silkroad who would be playing the music- people who deal with music from China, Ethiopia, and Black American Jazz.
I wanted to write something inspired by Gagaku, both in its traditional form and how modern composers such as Takemitsu Toru, Ishii Maki, and Minoru Miki reshaped it. We will workshop it at an upcoming retreat and debut it on tour in 2022. I was a guest with Elena Moon Park at Lincoln Center, and then, by chance, just about a week later, I played on the same stage with Mark de Clive-Lowe and bassist Parker McCalister and drummer Anwar Marshall.Īlso, I was commissioned by Silkroad to compose for the ensemble. TWO of my trios happened to be there: Bloodlines with cellist Marika Hughes and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck and BORGUSAKAGU with Brazilian percussionist Rogerio Boccato and Sameer. At a recording/birthday party for my great friend, tabla and jazz drummer Sameer Gupta featuring many incredible musicians, including Martha Redbone and Charlie Burnham.
Arun is a wonderful violinist who specializes in Carnatic music of Southern India and how it can exist in other contexts.īy July, I was working more and more in person with other musicians. It's always a pleasure to explore vast musical worlds with Adam. Adam is such an important figure in the last years of my life- playing with him and in his Go: Organic Orchestra has blown open my mind and connected me with so many other fantastic musicians. Having a creative outlet during the pandemic pushed me to create and grow as an artist and stay connected with people in ways that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.Īround the same time, I worked with the great Adam Rudolph at the Jazz Gallery with Marco Capelli and Arun Ramamurthy. I want to again thank the folks at kaDON, the people who joined both in person and watched the archive, and the extraordinary artists who joined me: Wu Man, Tamangoh, Sumiyoshi Yuta from Kodo, and Kiyohiko Semba and Takahashi Kaori. I finished OTO GA TATSU- my online concert series.
Ableton japanese taiko percussion update#
Please feel free to comment or contact me, and I will try my best to respond!įirst of all, an update to what I've been up to the last half-a-year: I want to use these writings to announce upcoming performances and reach out and communicate with people interested in my music and my life. However, as live performances slowly pick up, I plan to get back into the writing process. However, in the last year and a half, I took a break from writing these, finding it discouraging to look at how things performance-wise really came to a stop even though I was staying active and busy developing my music and just dealing with things. Pre-pandemic, I would write monthly to let people know what I'm up to and document and assess my artistic growth. It's been a few months since my last mailing. It only made sense at that time to present a solo show since I had spent all of 2020 developing solo works in my studio while in quarantine. At that time, I wasn't sure how things would play out regarding the pandemic and vaccinations and how big of a concert it should be. I will be performing on Sunday, November 7th, 2021, at Joe's Pub, a venue in the heart of NYC that has presented my work for years. I am thankful for the health and well-being of my loved ones, and I often think of those we have lost and those who continue to be affected by COVID.