Collaborations in Japan
Working with the people you see
here has provided some of the high points of my life in Japan.
Roba no Ongakuza One of the most creative approaches I've seen to blending early European music with playful theatricality is presented by "Roba Musical Theater". Dance, puppetry, mime, etc. add a gleeful element to this group, which has also mastered dozens of medieval and Renaissance instruments. Their arrangements of traditional tunes and original composition in traditional styles are inspired. |
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Capriol, Early Music and Dance Research Society
Dedicated to the research and practice of European Renaissance and Baroque dance, these locals can cut a caper with the best. I was delighted to be able to add to their repertoire with a workshop on English sword dancing, and another on tabor pipe and bones. Associated with the dancers are some fine players of bagpipes, flutes, viols, etc. Occasionally all of this is folded into a theatrical theme, costumed up and put to the stage.
E.M.D.R.S. performing a "Mother Goose"
themed productrion
This shot features "planchette" puppets in a Comedia flavored show
This shot features "planchette" puppets in a Comedia flavored show
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Wadaiko, the Japanese group drumming tradition that sometimes resembles martial arts, has practitioners all over Japan and the world. One world famous group of these extreme drum nuts sets a standard others dream of attaining. Kodo hosts a gathering on Sado island, their home base, every Summer. Earth Celebration welcomes some of the world's greatest musicians, with a resounding emphasis on percussion. In the shadow of the giants a Fringe Festival offers other earthlings a gorgeous environment for revelry. While participating in the Fringe I found myself suddenly involved in an onstage jam with Kodo member Saito Hideyuki, and later in a concert on the island I was joined by member Subasa. Life can be good. |
Tezukuri
Gakki no Kai, The Handmade
Instrument Club
Dozens of people in the greater Tokyo
area, mostly housewives, have made their own instruments. There are
Hackbretts (hammered dulcimers), plucked zithers, and plenty of little
gadgets,
but the main emphasis is on bowed psalteries.
50 psalteries
playing together sounds like wind in the trees of a magic garden.
Some members are pictured with instigator Kato-san and Grego with Mazja.
An offshoot from that circle of friends took root up north in Akita, where they now teach and perform. They are
Tezukuri Gakki Esnemble: Psalter Friends
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Mishaal American dancer Mishall has studied her art in the U.S., South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the middle east. Your eyes and heart are helpless under her spell. For years the man on the crest of
the modern primitive world music wave here, Mishall's husband Goro has
inspired a generation of dijereedoers. He also plays Arabic drums and
flutes, African kalimbas, and makes some of his own instruments. At the
show pictured left and below we're joined by Amamania
on strings and hand drums.
Dreamy, lovely stuff.
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Butoh dance was originated by Kazuo Ohno, Tatsumi Hijikata, and his wife Akiko Motofuji. I was invited to perform with her and a group of her students at a gallery opening. Rehearsal started with the group stuff. Then, while the rest continued their work, she and I worked up a solo dance. She invoked birth, flowering, maturity, and life's end, all to four tunes I played on my psaltery. She was an easy, inspiring partner to accompany. |
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On opening night she called to say she was in the hospital, resting from a heart attack, and to please go on without her. I was later told that the life she danced in our rehearsal was the final dance of her life. It was gorgeous. She was gorgeous. |
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Canadian Terry
Press and his Japanese wife Nobuko perform a style
of mime rare in it's depth and impact. Doing the musical
accompaniment for their production of "Little
Life Story" was a
delightful and moving experience. |
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Stress Busters
Musical madman Takapaachi has his fingers on the pulse of the fun side of music.
What do you get when you cross a trumpet full of bad jokes with a music-puppetician?
Whatever it is, it's good for what ails ya.
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Dalma
Mori While I approached puppetry from a
musical perspective, Dalma Mori came to music and puppetry from a
painter-sculpter background. Or did the chicken precede the egg?
However it happened, his mastery of multi-media results in the wizardly
miracle of your smile being one of his creations.
His work is so far "out of the box" that he would probably be airborn and space-bound were it not for the grounding earth anchor provided by equally creative partner Eriko. |
Tomochika
She'a a popular comedienne (and vocalist) from the Kansai area.
After doing a silly little skit, Mazja played a duet with her in this episode of her
search for the perfect back-up band on the weekly channel 4 TV show "Utawara"
