Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Jam wrote:

This sounds great, I've always wanted to see shakuhachi and biwa together, wish I could go.

Ooops!
Sorry if I implied that biwa and shakuhachi were going to be played together - that's not the case (although it does make for a nice combination!). Yoko will do one of the Heike biwa songs by herself, then I'll probably play a couple of shorter honkyoku (just to give her voice a break), then we'll play a couple of sankyoku together (with her on shamisen and vocals).

Congrats Elliot!!

janemukei wrote:

Hi Elliot,  Your gigs sound GREAT....too bad I'm so far away! Best wishes for stellar performances.  Hope they will be recorded?  for all of your fans to hear and buy at camp!   Jane

FANS??....I have FANS!!!!????
Seriously, thanks for the good wishes. I think they'll both be fun performances. I rarely get to play with Yoko these days, and it's even more unusual to be able to play an entire gig with TWO string players (and I think they're open to more gigs together).
I'm so grateful for all these blessings.

Yungflutes wrote:

So many cool happenings this weekend.

Indeed. Really a lot! It's nice to think about!
Good luck to you, Elliot.
Let's all try to blow for Phil's fast recovery at some point this weekend!

Attended the concert in Hanford... very nice. A great piece for two Koto at the end by a blind composer (modern piece), don't recall the name of it.. no Shakuhachi in that one but pretty amazing Koto playing. Elliot sounded great!

Wow. Both gigs went remarkably well, and both were completely sold out!

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes. And a BIG thanks to the Forum members who came from afar for added support!
Here's a photo from the Hanford gig:

Lance wrote:

Attended the concert in Hanford... very nice. A great piece for two Koto at the end by a blind composer (modern piece), don't recall the name of it.. no Shakuhachi in that one but pretty amazing Koto playing. Elliot sounded great!

Thanks for the kind words Lance! The piece for two kotos is called Sarashi Fu Tegoto and it's by Michio Miyagi. Shirley and Brian were awesome, in spite of the fact that they had a little extra pressure put on them since there was a woman in the audience who just happened to be a koto sensei from the Miyagi school! I was sitting next to her during the piece and the lady was (softly) singing along with every note and tapping her hand checking their rhythm. But it's a beautiful piece and I thought they did a superb job all around. I'm hoping to talk them into more sankyoku performances (they actually specialize in more modern music).

The second concert, this one with Yoko Hiraoka, was also a blast, but that was a given - Yoko's a dream to play with. She knows Jiuta backwards and forwards and is always right on the money. Her biwa piece, Nasu no Yoichi, from the Heike tales, really went over well. Her voice just immediately captivated the audience.
Photo:



For both concerts we did a Q&A with the audiences to help them get a better handle on the music, and they were obviously fascinated by what they heard.

Oh, and, Perry, Monty wasn't there for the second gig, but Kayo came! She just happened to be in town for a lesson with her Tea teacher along with the folks who own the gallery that hosted us, so she decided to come. I didn't really expect Monty - it's hard enough to get him down the hill and into town to check his mail! Monty, if you see this, you really need to get out more!

Thanks again to all,

Elliot

edosan wrote:

Thanks for the great pics, Elliott. You look just like Musashi Miyamoto taking his ease between campaigns

And it's a little-known fact that Musashi honed his skills by quickly dispatching those who dared to call him "Four-eyes"...