Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

shaman141 wrote:

Does anyone know of a particular maker or makers that Watazumi favored? I know he made his own Hocchiku, but I would be curious to know if anyone had info about the makers that crafted his awesome Hocchiku.

Thanks,

-Sean

His favorite maker was Okubo Kodo, who was a Kinko maker who made conventional jiari flutes in his youth and then in later days started making long jinashi flutes (or hocchiku in Watazumi parlance). I have played both kinds. His jiari flutes are very nice but the long ones are spectacular.

Sorry, Okubo Kodo is deceased. I encountered his flutes through various friends here and in Japan who have them. I only played one of the type (jinashi) Watazumi liked, the rest were more conventional Kinko flutes, but nice. I am glad you like your Murai flute, he's a good guy. If you like that you might want to check out Al Ramos' site. He makes some hocchiku which are similar. I picked one up recently. That crew (Murai, Okuda, Kiku Day, Kodama, Ramos) make flutes in a particular style.

shaman141 wrote:

Do you know the incredible bassist William Parker? I was speaking to him last night before a show here in Montreal and he mentioned that he plays Hocchiku and actually met Watazumi.-Sean

Yes, I've seen Parker play a few times in NYC, but I never saw him play shakuhachi.

One of my students, the poet David Budbill, plays shakuhachi pretty regularly with William Parker. They have a trio CD together with the drummer Hamid Drake, "Songs for a Suffering World," on which both David and William play shakuhachi.

Hello Sean --

Several sources for getting it are listed here at David's site:

http://www.davidbudbill.com/songsfasw.html

Best wishes,
Phil.