Ned Rothenberg: Crossing the Pacific with bamboo flute in hand
Composer and performer Ned Rothenberg has spent his career traversing different musical worlds. He has worked extensively as both a composer and performer in the jazz and improvisation scenes, playing alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute. Rothenberg, 62, has ...
The incoherent, divisive dogma of cultural appropriation outrage
Clueless online crusaders risk doing real harm to the very cultures they claim to represent
Review: DJ Krush at the Tokyo National Museum
It's all in the location. For his sold-out Red Bull Music Academy show on Monday night, DJ Krush traded his regular clubland haunts for something a little fancier: the courtyard of the Yoshio Taniguchi-designed Gallery of Horyuji Treasures at Tokyo National Museum in Ueno. ...
Wasabi crafts sounds of old Japan into something new
Wasabi "Wasabi 2" (Japan Traditional Cultures Foundation) Wasabi refines its take on traditional Japanese music for sophomore album "Wasabi 2." Ryoichiro Yoshida, the elder of well-known shamisen duo the Yoshida Brothers, started Wasabi in 2008 with shakuhachi player Hiromu Motonaga and taiko drummer Naosaburou Bihou. ...
What's blowing in the wind around Ushigome-yanagicho
Wind gusts airborne detritus down toward Ichigaya-yanagicho, an intersection in central Tokyo infamous for having the highest density of carbon monoxide in Tokyo during the 1970s. Researchers at the time linked this poisonous gas to the area's high incidence of lung cancer, and the ...
Shakuhachi player finds the Zen in deer sounds
The shakuhachi reportedly came to Japan from ancient Egypt, and the instrument's pure tones have been used by Zen monks in meditation. Akikazu Nakamura, who trained in the art of Blowing Zen under many shakuhachi masters, has played across the globe and will hold his ...
