Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Congratulations Geni! Keep up the great work!

KL

Hey, congrats, man.  Nice work!

And good for the New England Conservatory for supporting shakuhachi.  I'm guessing this isn't a common area of interest for their grad students.  Or is it?

-Darren.

Congrats Geni!

Hey, that really is great news! Contemporary improvisation? I thought NE Conservatory was more classically oriented, but I'm thinking of what it was 30 years ago. They may have had the program back then too, I never even visited, but I had some friends that studied there.

Congratulations!!

philipgelb wrote:

way cool, Geni

NEC is one of the best music schools in the US. the list of teachers and alumni over the years is amazing!!! Cecil Taylor, Marilyn Crispell, Steve Lacy, Ran blake, George Russel and countless others.

And Jimmy Giuffre! Anybody who hasn't heard him should check it out. His music is very relevant for improvising on shakuhachi because he plays the clarinet at a similar volume level.

Giuffre started out as a sophisticated arranger/clarinetist in swing. Then he did some fascinating "progressive" jazz in the late 50's. One of his hallmarks was that he played without a drummer. Clarinet/trombone/guitar was one of his formats. His trio with Paul Bley on piano and Steve Swallow on upright bass was one of the pioneering free jazz groups but he didn't get enough credit for that probably due to political issues (they were all white). Later on he did some work combining blues with free jazz and world music, actually kind of like what I'm doing now. He has been a big inspiration. Some of that music used flute and bass flute on songs with Buddhist/Hindu themes. I saw him do some of his last gigs, reuinited with Bley and Swallow. By now Swallow had switched to electric bass. Gary Peacock subbed one night. It was incredible. Unfortunately he got ill and can no longer play. One of the most unique and individual voices in jazz.

Tairaku wrote:

One of his hallmarks was that he played without a drummer.

That comment made me curious about what recording I remembered. Even though this website, http://www.omnitone.com/store/artists/giuffrejimmy.htm , has an album that says he's in a trio with Paul Motian, Paul Motian isn't on that album. The record I was thinking of is Quiet Song with Bill Conners because I remember the song "yea guitar" on it (it's easy to remember because it was titled that because someone said that during the otherwise purely instrumental session). Apparently I was just getting Paul Motian's collaborations with Paul Bley and Paul Bley's collaborations with Paul Motian confused. That was all very nice stuff back then.

Giuffre's trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow made 3 studio recordings in 1961 that are absolutely brilliant. ECM re=issued 2 of these on a double CD set. Hat art then released several live recordings that trio did in Europe, the same year. One of my favorite ensembles.

I believe Akikazu Nakamura also went to NEC for grad school

phil

Congratulations Geni, that's great news! Just back from a trip to the U.S.A. and saw your post.  I got to play shakuhachi under the beautiful cherry trees in full bloom at the University of Washington in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and then for a flock of Canada geese at a pond near Emory U in Atlanta...

Last edited by Daniel Ryudo (2007-04-05 22:02:42)