Greetings to one and all (or could it actually be down to just one - literally - if not zero by now?),
Another unreasonable amount of time between posts, but due to a couple of pretty darn good reasons:
A) my underpowered laptop PC experienced a major crisis. I use the term major crisis because when a PC takes about half an hour to just bring up Internet Explorer, there's something majorly wrong with it. And that's just getting IE to appear. Moving between web sites, or even trying to watch a YouTube Video, is a whole other story. A Toshiba equipped with 512-meg RAM trying to run Windows Vista (which I have quite belatedly discovered is a prodigious memory-eating system) is doomed to epic fail, and my Toshiba did just that, and
B) I continue to not only burn the candle at two ends, I have added a third end so the candle will burn even faster! So now I am a member of Odaiko New England, bass player for Mary Casiello and also bass player for Centralia! By the way, I would like to state that I have no idea how I find the energy to be part of these three ensembles.
But thanks to my computer-savvy friend Jay, I am up and running again with a far more healthy 2 gig of RAM - yay! Jay-san, doumo arigatou gozaimashita. (insert sincerely-thankful bow here)
So much to write about I don't know where to begin, so I might as well start with Odaiko New England. Have been gigging intermittently all year long, with some satisfying shows performed at Newport's Black Ships Festival, Bellows Falls VT, Salem State College, Boston Pride Parade and Boston Pride Festival (playing a 20-minute set on the main stage at Boston's City Hall Plaza), in addition to cool gigs like playing for Medford's Ebisuya Japanese Market/J Magazine (a Japanese-language monthly magazine published in Boston), the North Suburban Y in Woburn, and others. Will post some links to photos and such soon, but for now I just want to post an entry for the first time in forever.
As for gigging with Mary, the shows have been a bit less frequent & for a variety of reasons. But big news is happening within 8 days: she's having a CD Release Party on September 11, Saturday evening, at Precinct Bar in Somerville (right in the middle of Union Square, to be exact)!! I'm pretty stoked to know that my bass playing is on a commercially-available CD, and that it represents my more mature playing style; let's just say that in the 1980's, while barely beginning to learn & develop some musical knowledge & comprehend what a bass player does and can create within and for a song, my playing was...well, let's be diplomatic and say "enthusiastic". That's a nice euphemism, right?
Centralia, my new band, deserves its own entry so I won't go on too much about it. We are a three-piece band: Harry plays guitars of all varieties and sings, Tony is our skillful and rock-steady drummer, and I play a fairly aggressive bass. Harry actually has to encourage me to play more notes; I'm convinced this is because I have played bass for three decades (this month marks the 31st Anniversary of me strapping a bass guitar over my shoulder & plugging it into an amplifier for the first time), but mainly for groups where the bass is strictly as a supportive instrument. In Centralia, I'm support and "lead bass" practically rolled into one.
By the way, for those wondering where we got the name Centralia from, try googling Centralia, PA. We like the imagery, and for the three of us, we possess such a passion for music that we like to think we've got the 'fire inside'. I have to say, if I didn't have a fierce passion for bass and for music, I wouldn't be playing it in two bands simultaneously 31 years after I took my first lesson in La Porte, IN, with Frank, the 'Big Z', in September, 1979. Frank, a thousand thank you's for giving me those early lessons & starting me off on this wonderful path, bridging rhythm and harmony in the coolest instrument ever designed for musicians.
Showing posts with label Odaiko New England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Odaiko New England. Show all posts
Friday, September 3, 2010
Monday, August 10, 2009
A great weekend at the 2009 North American Taiko Conference!
I'll try not to get carried away by my enthusiasm while I write this...
Got back just before midnight yesterday from the taiko conference. 11 of us from Odaiko New England attended - more than half our group! (In the days prior to the conference, 3 of my fellow Community Members attended the 3-day Summer Taiko Institute (STI for short) led by ON Ensemble - after hearing about it, I wish I'd attended that as well...) We had a GREAT time there...the workshops and instructors were truly excellent, the taiko playing was inspiring, energetic, and also challenging (some of the other groups out there kick major ass - there's just no more direct way to phrase it). Some highlights from the 4 days - I'll go into more detail later:
Thursday - some 495 taiko players were in attendance, besides volunteers, observers, photographers and staff. Registration went smoothly, and in the afternoon many of us participated in the Leadership Forum. A very good discussion of some of the challenges and 'larger questions' many groups face. This was followed by the welcome reception/potluck dinner - kudos to the taiko players who prepared all that delicious food! One taiko group performed afterward, then there was a fun jam with players rotating in and out based on their # of years playing (i.e. 0-5 years began, then 6-10 years rotated in and so forth).
Friday - Opening Session, a really fun Taiko Games session presented at lunchtime, led by Kris of ON Ensemble, Workshop Session 1 (I attended Western Notation for Taiko Players, taught by Meg Suzuki of San Jose Taiko), a special video tribute to Daihachi Oguchi, the first Japanese taiko master to introduce the concept of kumi daiko (ensemble drumming), and the Taiko Ten concert. More on THAT soon - because I performed in it!
Saturday - Workshop Session 2 (I attended All-Around Musicianship, taught by Eien Hunter-Ishikawa), then I parted ways with some hard-earned income for various and assorted taiko goodies at the Taiko Marketplace - so many vendors with cool merchandise to beguile and tempt us taiko'ers! After lunch there were discussion groups; I sat in on 'Studying & Performing Taiko in Japan'. That discussion group was incredible - it deserves a special blog post all of its own. This was followed by Workshop Session # 3 (I attended the terrific WRISTS!, taught by Adam Weiner of San Jose Taiko). Odaiko New England members gathered to take Tanya out for her birthday (this effort was coordinated & planned by her daughter Jadelyn), then we headed back for the incredible Taiko Jam concert (more on that later - some phenomenal performances!!).
Sunday - Closing Ceremony and the group photo. I saved my purple member's Odaiko New England tee for Sunday, and it turned out to be a wise decision - as Mark observed, because of my height, size and wearing a purple tee, I served as a beacon for any of the other members lost in the crowd.
More to come, but I just had to get an overview posted now. NATC '09 was such a great experience & I met so many cool people. What an affirmation of taiko!
Got back just before midnight yesterday from the taiko conference. 11 of us from Odaiko New England attended - more than half our group! (In the days prior to the conference, 3 of my fellow Community Members attended the 3-day Summer Taiko Institute (STI for short) led by ON Ensemble - after hearing about it, I wish I'd attended that as well...) We had a GREAT time there...the workshops and instructors were truly excellent, the taiko playing was inspiring, energetic, and also challenging (some of the other groups out there kick major ass - there's just no more direct way to phrase it). Some highlights from the 4 days - I'll go into more detail later:
Thursday - some 495 taiko players were in attendance, besides volunteers, observers, photographers and staff. Registration went smoothly, and in the afternoon many of us participated in the Leadership Forum. A very good discussion of some of the challenges and 'larger questions' many groups face. This was followed by the welcome reception/potluck dinner - kudos to the taiko players who prepared all that delicious food! One taiko group performed afterward, then there was a fun jam with players rotating in and out based on their # of years playing (i.e. 0-5 years began, then 6-10 years rotated in and so forth).
Friday - Opening Session, a really fun Taiko Games session presented at lunchtime, led by Kris of ON Ensemble, Workshop Session 1 (I attended Western Notation for Taiko Players, taught by Meg Suzuki of San Jose Taiko), a special video tribute to Daihachi Oguchi, the first Japanese taiko master to introduce the concept of kumi daiko (ensemble drumming), and the Taiko Ten concert. More on THAT soon - because I performed in it!
Saturday - Workshop Session 2 (I attended All-Around Musicianship, taught by Eien Hunter-Ishikawa), then I parted ways with some hard-earned income for various and assorted taiko goodies at the Taiko Marketplace - so many vendors with cool merchandise to beguile and tempt us taiko'ers! After lunch there were discussion groups; I sat in on 'Studying & Performing Taiko in Japan'. That discussion group was incredible - it deserves a special blog post all of its own. This was followed by Workshop Session # 3 (I attended the terrific WRISTS!, taught by Adam Weiner of San Jose Taiko). Odaiko New England members gathered to take Tanya out for her birthday (this effort was coordinated & planned by her daughter Jadelyn), then we headed back for the incredible Taiko Jam concert (more on that later - some phenomenal performances!!).
Sunday - Closing Ceremony and the group photo. I saved my purple member's Odaiko New England tee for Sunday, and it turned out to be a wise decision - as Mark observed, because of my height, size and wearing a purple tee, I served as a beacon for any of the other members lost in the crowd.
More to come, but I just had to get an overview posted now. NATC '09 was such a great experience & I met so many cool people. What an affirmation of taiko!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Ready to Groove?
Konnichi wa,
Welcome to my blog!
In case you didn't already know, the Bass in "Bass'n'Taiko" refers to bass guitar - not a fish; the Taiko refers to the Japanese word for drum, as well as the style of drumming made popular by Kodo and many other groups.
I've been playing bass guitar for nearly 30 years, and have been studying taiko drumming with Odaiko New England for about 7 years (I had a 2-year taiko'ing hiatus to finish off my degree). More to come about both of these activities - in fact, much more.
I maintained a blog in a Yahoo!"360" account from August, 2008 through early Spring, 2009. Unfortunately, the 360 account suffered some strange occurrences (and my blog even disappeared for a couple weeks at one point) and I encountered difficulty in maintaining it and adding new entries. When I finally managed to access everything again, I salvaged all of my blog entries before the 360 pages and blogs were sent to the online equivalent of the Great Gig in the Sky (which happened in early July), so I have installed them here - with their original post dates.
I'll do my best to get caught up on events between March '09 and now.....as they say, "stay tuned".
Welcome to my blog!
In case you didn't already know, the Bass in "Bass'n'Taiko" refers to bass guitar - not a fish; the Taiko refers to the Japanese word for drum, as well as the style of drumming made popular by Kodo and many other groups.
I've been playing bass guitar for nearly 30 years, and have been studying taiko drumming with Odaiko New England for about 7 years (I had a 2-year taiko'ing hiatus to finish off my degree). More to come about both of these activities - in fact, much more.
I maintained a blog in a Yahoo!"360" account from August, 2008 through early Spring, 2009. Unfortunately, the 360 account suffered some strange occurrences (and my blog even disappeared for a couple weeks at one point) and I encountered difficulty in maintaining it and adding new entries. When I finally managed to access everything again, I salvaged all of my blog entries before the 360 pages and blogs were sent to the online equivalent of the Great Gig in the Sky (which happened in early July), so I have installed them here - with their original post dates.
I'll do my best to get caught up on events between March '09 and now.....as they say, "stay tuned".
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