Saw the Japanese traditional music concert at Miller Theater last Thursday night. It featured 3 Hogaku instruments: the koto, which is a multiple stringed board zither; the shakuhachi, bamboo flute; and the biwa, a lute like stringed instrument which is played standing upright on the lap with a pick that looks like a giant tortilla chip. This concert was FREEE which was pretty damn sweet, but I was a little nervous when it began with a 20 minute long introduction. OK OK I just want to hear what the instruments sound like already!!! Stop apologizing to our western ears before we even hear the MUSIC!!!
The solo shakuhachi player (Kifu Mitsuhashi) was nice with it. He had incredible control over the flute and he was manipulating these overtones like nobody's business. The way he phrased each line with his breath kept a certain energy throughout his whole performance, and finally towards the end his breaths were longer and resolute.
Yukio Tanaka performed on Biwa and voice with his giant tortilla chip. This was totally metal. It reminded me of Sabbath because the biwa tends to sound like a distorted guitar and the performance is just epic. I found a video of Yukio Tanaka performing this same piece, which is a detailing of the final battle between the Genji and Heiki clans. Enjoy!
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