Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Mr Phippen,
    I’m not sure that I am the best one to welcome you to this forum (as I only joined recently myself), but I just had to say hello, as I am a big fan of your music.  My CD/Alarm clock contains your CD Night Songs, which gently wakes me up every morning for work.
I’m glad to hear of someone else who is not afraid to be called “New Age”. It’s just a label/style of music, and like any other style (country, pop, rock etc.), there is good New Age and Bad New Age. But somehow all New Age music seems to have gotten a bum wrap, and allot of musicians I know threaten to break their instruments over your head if you dare to call their music New Age. I like to tell people that I have embraced my New Ageiness.
Also, IMHO, I don’t think you should have to apologize for not playing the Shakuhachi in a traditional way. While I am personally drawn to the history and tradition of this great instrument, allot of the master players also perform their own compositions or even use the instrument in other musical styles, most notably Jazz. I ran into a different yet similar issue with performing on the Native American flute, where some people felt that I should not perform the instrument for money as I was not of Native decent. I like to quote Odell Borg of High Spirits flutes who said that "As a French horn is a particular type of musical instrument, "Native American flute" refers to a particular type of musical instrument…”. This statement can then be stretched further to say that you don’t need to be French or play French music to perform the French horn. I feel as long as you show the proper respect to any given instruments history and tradition, expanding the scope of an instrument and increasing the number of people who play and get to hear them can only be a good thing for the future of said instrument. 
Of course it also helps that my all time favorite flute recording (on any kind of flute) is “Daughter of the Mist” from the CD Echoes of the Past, which you just happen to have played on a Shakuhachi!
On a last closing “note”, I have been having a little trouble obtaining some of your newer recordings, is there any place on the web I can order them from? I also look forward to the possibility of picking your brain about other world flutes (in the proper forum topic section of course!) Thanks.

No Kidding, You like "Daughter of the Mist"??? Your all time Favorite flute song??? You honor me and I thank you. You would smile if you saw the 1.8 that I lipped down to C# to play that song on. No root, Raw bamboo bore, Thank you so much for your kind words. My new CD's are at my website www.peterphippen.com  just click on the Image. or I play one of Ken's Flutes, some world flutes and a Edo shakuhachi on the Lifescapes recording Zen Garden at all Target stores.

Thank you,
Peter

Medit8b1 wrote:

Mr Phippen,
    I’m not sure that I am the best one to welcome you to this forum (as I only joined recently myself), but I just had to say hello, as I am a big fan of your music.  My CD/Alarm clock contains your CD Night Songs, which gently wakes me up every morning for work.
I’m glad to hear of someone else who is not afraid to be called “New Age”. It’s just a label/style of music, and like any other style (country, pop, rock etc.), there is good New Age and Bad New Age. But somehow all New Age music seems to have gotten a bum wrap, and allot of musicians I know threaten to break their instruments over your head if you dare to call their music New Age. I like to tell people that I have embraced my New Ageiness.
Also, IMHO, I don’t think you should have to apologize for not playing the Shakuhachi in a traditional way. While I am personally drawn to the history and tradition of this great instrument, allot of the master players also perform their own compositions or even use the instrument in other musical styles, most notably Jazz. I ran into a different yet similar issue with performing on the Native American flute, where some people felt that I should not perform the instrument for money as I was not of Native decent. I like to quote Odell Borg of High Spirits flutes who said that "As a French horn is a particular type of musical instrument, "Native American flute" refers to a particular type of musical instrument…”. This statement can then be stretched further to say that you don’t need to be French or play French music to perform the French horn. I feel as long as you show the proper respect to any given instruments history and tradition, expanding the scope of an instrument and increasing the number of people who play and get to hear them can only be a good thing for the future of said instrument. 
Of course it also helps that my all time favorite flute recording (on any kind of flute) is “Daughter of the Mist” from the CD Echoes of the Past, which you just happen to have played on a Shakuhachi!
On a last closing “note”, I have been having a little trouble obtaining some of your newer recordings, is there any place on the web I can order them from? I also look forward to the possibility of picking your brain about other world flutes (in the proper forum topic section of course!) Thanks.

Last edited by Peter Phippen (2006-07-13 21:06:40)

Ken,
Glad to be here, thanks for your help. I hope I have something to offer.
Peter

Mujitsu wrote:

Peter,

Thanks for taking the technological leap to join the forum! I look forward to your contributions.

Ken

Peter Phippen wrote:

Sometimes I wonder if I even know how to play flutes of anykind since I just play what I "feel" and Improvise 99% of the time.

Hi Peter - I'm glad to see a familiar face here!  I love ALL of your music - so I think it's best for me to say that your music is truly inspirational - and I'm going to start my own Shakuhachi journey now!

As far as "New Age" - I don't worry too much about labels - and yes, I guess "New Age' does tend to get a bum rap here and there - but we certainly do need a NEW AGE - so whatever. :-)

See you at ZION.

Lorrie