Asian American Music Festival '10

Yesterday, Liz and I performed at the Asian American Music Festival as part of the Pan Asian Arkestra, which was put together for this show by Gary Fukushima. The festival is a 3 day event featuring Asian American music of various genres. The event took place at JANM's Democracy Forum.

The festival has 5 "movements" and we were a part of the second movement. It started off with Gary's GF3 Trio, featuring Gary on piano, JP Maramba on bass, and Miles Senzaki on drums. Liz and I sat in the audience and watched their performance. So awesome!!

They were followed by Jon Jang's solo piano performance. It was amazing to watch him perform!

Then, we were up. The Pan Asian Arkestra performed Jon Jang's Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko (which was composed in 1988 to bring attention to the Japanese American reparations movement), and Hitomi Oba's new piece, The Generation Tree. We shared the stage with the Trio, Hitomi, Ian Vo, Michael Birnbryer, Josh Aguiar, and Nick DePinna.

What an awesome experience! It was an honor to perform with a group of such amazing musicians!

As I stated here, it was the first time that I collaborated with a Jazz ensemble, so I was a little bit nervous at first. Not only that, Liz and I had to read music with Western notation (we mainly learn taiko music through kuchi-shoga). It's a good thing both of us played piano and flute! It's been like over 10 years for me....and it was like riding a bike....ha! We practiced and practiced (thanks Gary and Hitomi for meeting up with us to go over the music!) and we became familiar with the music.

I had a lot of fun at this performance and was kind of sad when it was all over!! We made new friends and I'm totally inspired! As we loaded our drums and left the venue, Liz and I talked about how awesome it would be if we could do something like this again some time.

Thanks Gary for bringing us on board! And thanks Paul (Festival Director) for putting together a great event!

Fun fact: one of the people working on sound at the theater was Joel Mankey, a former TP member! :)

Another fun fact: Liz and I shook hands with Jake Shimabukuro!

A few photos!

Gary's GF3 Trio performing.

Jon Jang on piano

Me and Liz with Gary

Happy 60th Birthday, Mrs. Deguchi!

Last Saturday a few of us helped Mrs. Deguchi (a.k.a. Courtney's mommy) celebrate her 60th birthday at the Friendly Hills Country Club in Whittier, CA. The guests were so elegant (especially the birthday girl), the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was amazing! It really was a lot of fun and a great way to spend the evening. Plus, now we all know Courtney and her family a little bit better! :)

PS - if any of you want beauty tips on how to look 40 when you're 60, ask Courtney's mom. Seriously. :)

This Saturday: Asian American Music Festival!

Taikoproject was invited by Gary Fukushima to perform this weekend at the Asian American Music Festival with the Pan Asian Arkestra!

Liz and I have been studying the music and we rehearsed on Tuesday with everyone! It's going to be awesome. For me, personally, it's the first time that I'm collaborating with a Jazz ensemble, so I'm super excited.

We'll be performing 2 songs: Jon Jang's Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko, and Hitomi Oba's new piece, The Generation Tree. Hitomi actually played a little taiko at UCLA with KYNK and Yukai Daiko and knows some of us in TP!

Asian American Music Festival will take place this weekend (10/15 to 10/17).Our 'movement' will perform on Saturday, October 16.Click here for ticket information!! We hope you can come!

Here are 2 photos from the rehearsal!

(re)generation show in Torrance recap!!

Hello TAIKOPROJECT friends, family, and followers! Here is a recap post about our (re)generation show on October 2nd, 2010 at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, not from a performers perspective, but from the stagehand trainee perspective.

The day started very early with many of the guys heading over to our studio in Long Beach to pick up any remaining drums and equipment we needed for the show. But most importantly we needed a lot of strong hands to get our Ohiradaiko (weighing over 330 pounds!) loaded up and ready for the show.

Once the entire cast was present at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, we all helped setting up equipment, unpacking the drums, and prepping for the show. One of tasks some of the trainees were assigned was to setup the risers for the show, with the help of some older members we managed to set them up just fine. The risers added some great level changes to the show and it looked really good. I also got the chance to retie some of the okedo (roped taiko drums, normally played with a sling) which I have never done before. It was a surprisingly difficult task causing me to break a sweat, but I guess it didn't help either that is was progressively getting warmer outside too. Once all the equipment was set it was time to start spiking the performance and we moved all of the drums to the stage.

Photo Courtesy of Tomomi Hongo

Once on stage the cast practiced the songs for concert while lighting and crew were setting up backstage. This was one of my first experiences of a big show with taiko on stage and I've never realized how much goes on during the setup. For example when the stagehands want to alert the performers that something will be lowered to the stage, they say "(whatever they are adjusting) coming in" at which point all performers have to repeat the call so the stagehands know the performers know its coming in. After spiking and making final adjustments to the show, it was only a matter of time before show time.

Photo Courtesy of Tomomi Hongo

Once all the equipment was prepped on stage and backstage, costumes were set, and everyone was warmed up, the show was ready to kick off. It was so exciting even though I spent most of the time backstage prepping equipment for the upcoming songs along with my fellow trainees. When we had the chance we would get to watch a glimpse of the show from the sides of the stage and it was so cool to see the energy not only from the performers but also from the audience's applause. What I also enjoyed was the unspoken dialogues between the performers off stage, since we had to be so quiet when adjusting equipment a simple smile or sign of acknowledgment seemed to say "keep up the good work" or "let's keep doing our best!". I think the highlight of my night backstage was when we had a little bit of stage time when we took off some of the drums for the finale song "Here We Go Now!", sure it might have been only a couple of seconds, it was better than nothing. :)

Great job with an amazing show TAIKOPROJECT and this was definitely an educational show for my many performances in the future. Thanks to all the friends and family who came to watch the show and I hope you enjoyed the performance as much as I did. Being a local performance it was great to have so much support from the home crowd as well as other taiko groups in the area, thank you so much!! If you missed this performance of (re)generation, TAIKOPROJECT will be hitting the road for our next (re)generation show which will be in Longview, Washington on March 19, 2011!! Thanks for reading and see you next time TAIKOPROJECT followers!!

Photo Courtesy of Tomomi Hongo

Performance with 30 Seconds to Mars at the Epicenter

Last weekend TAIKOPROJECT had another opportunity to perform with rock band, 30 Seconds to Mars. The cast members drove down to the Epicenter in Fontana. It was EXTREMELY hot. Right when we got out the car we were sweating bullets. Luckily, Shannon Leto, the drummer from 30 STM let us borrow their dressing room where they had air conditioning and fresh fruits! We spent the time preparing for the show although we weren't really sure what we were suppose to play until moments before the show. But...it was so much fun! We played for their opening song, "Escape" and the last song "Kings and Queens." The last song was especially fun. Jared Leto, the main singer for the show allowed a number of audiences to gather on the stage to sing and dance along. People gathered and rocked out! TP played along with the music and shared some awesome moments with the fans. It was awesome. Pictures from the performance will be up soon!

Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival

Last weekend was a busy weekend for us!

We started off by performing at the Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival. It was super hot, but the crowd was amazing and we had a lot of fun!

It was a longer set and we were able to play one of our newer songs, Island Groove, where I got to be a Groovette! If you don't know what a Groovette is, you have to come to our (re)generation show this weekend in Torrance, since we'll play Island Groove for sure. :)

Here we are after performing.

Like I said, it was super hot... but it didn't compare to what we were about to face the next day for our performance with 30 Seconds to Mars! Be on the lookout for an entry and photos from that gig!

Target Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular!

In early August, I got a call from the folks at Squeak E Clean Productions, music producer Sam Spiegel's production company. I first met Sam in early 2008 when he called us in to do a taiko recording which seemed at first to not really seem like a big deal.

It was in his home studio and I didn't know what would come of it--later, we found out it was for Nike's "Fast Forward" commercial, featuring Kobe Bryant, Maria Sharapova, and a number of other top athletes, training and being victorious all to the tune of our taiko-laced tracks.

Later that year, he contacted me again and we were in a bigger studio recording taiko tracks for Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark Tour." Anyways, that's the history of TP and Squeak E Clean. This most recent call was about "an event for Target," so I thought "cool, I go to Target, why not?"

Kris, Emily, Jen and I headed to the legendary Capitol Studios (where everyone from Frank Sinatra to Green Day has recorded), and started working with Sam on his concepts for the "Green" section of the show.

After a short few hours in the studio, we were done! We didn't hear anything about how it turned out, so we decided to just look on YouTube to see if we could find out what the event was, and found the following video--our section starts at about 3:40 and goes to about 7:00. What a production it was!

Target apparently rented out all the rooms on one side of the Standard Hotel in New York City for the production, equipped them all with colored led lights, and put on an amazing show!

We're proud to have been a part of such an innovative project. Thanks Sam and Chris at Squeak E Clean, and enjoy the video below! You can watch it on Facebook too, from different angles and such--

Indiana State Fair

We just got back from a quick quick trip to Indianapolis, where we performed at the Indiana State Fair! Three days, three shows per day. We were part of the "Bridges to Japan" exhibit this year, organized by the Japan America Society of Indiana. In addition to live performances, the exhibition included Japanese pop culture displays and delicious Japanese food.

We arrived in Indianapolis on the evening of Thursday, August 12th. At the airport, we met Theresa Kulchzak, Executive Director of the Japan American Society of Indiana. She is absolutely wonderful, and worked so hard all weekend. (Thank you Theresa!) After arriving at the hotel, we went to grab a quick bite at Rock Bottom Brewery. Yummmmy! Then, bed time!

Friday was by far the most interesting day. Jen, Jenny, Yumi and I started the morning off with a quick television promotion performance, where the hostess was mesmerized by our "ninja turtle shoes." The best part??? - Complementary oatmeal cookies! According to the kind gentleman behind the counter, they stayed up all night baking them. Our first group show was in the air conditioned International Pavilion. Then, as the clouds began to roll in, we moved all of our drums to an outdoor free stage. Unfortunately for us, those clouds became thunder, lightening and rain during our third set! Thank you to the 8 troopers who sat through the crazy weather to watch the show! I actually thought it was pretty awesome to play along with thunder. :) Some Perks of the Day included green tea ice cream, yakisoba and our very own RV trailer green room! (We're all not-so-secretly hoping that TP's next big purchase is an RV!) Dinner on Friday was delicious pasta from the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Indianapolis!

We were back at the fair on Saturday morning. In addition to performing and touring the fairgrounds, we met the members of the New York City based dance group, 10tecomai, who practice the tradition of Yosakoi Dance. I really enjoyed their energy and style of dance, and I know the audience did as well. Perks of the Day included Okonomiyaki, listening to Keith Urban from outside the grandstand and again, green tea ice cream! Dinner on Saturday was the unique cuisine of Adobo Grill, with the best margaritas and guacamole ever. :)

Sunday was our last day at the fair. We were able to do all three shows inside the International Pavilion this day. We were very thankful to be able to stay out of the Indiana heat! We deviated from the set list a bit on Sunday and tried some new/old pieces. Fun times! Perks of the Day included Henna tattoos, green tea ice cream (of course), and a free Selena Gomez performance (from our trailer window).

Special thanks to Thersa Kulczak, John Lajiness, Tamayo Fukumoto and driver John, as well as the rest of the team at the Japan America Society of Indiana! We had a blast!

ShastaYama 2010

A few weeks ago we took a roadtrip up north to Mt. Shasta,CA where we had the honor of sharing the stage with Russel Baba, Jeanne Mercer, Michelle Fujii, Toru Watanabe, Shasta Taiko, and Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble at ShastaYama 2010.

Thursday 7/29/10

Bryan, Jen, Darren, Courtney, Tomomi, Emily, Andrew, and I arrived in Shasta. Maz and Kris had left earlier in the week and were already there.

The log CASTLE!...where we stayed while we were in Shasta.

Friday 7/30/10

Since we had some down time in the morning, we decided to go hiking to Mossbrae Falls. Although it was quite a walk to get there, it was totally worth it! It was soo gorgeous!

After our hike, we headed over to tech rehearsal. The stage was set up on a large open field facing Mt. Shasta. It was really refreshing playing taiko while surrounded by such beautiful scenery. Shasta Taiko also taught us a fun dance that we were going to perform with them at the concert.

Tech rehearsal went ok overall but we did have two injuries. One of them resulted in Jen being sent to the ER! We were all really worried but after about an hour and a few stitches on her leg, Jen was back on her feet. She even played during run-throughs! Go Jen! The second injury was another leg injury. Kris accidently cut his leg on stage. Thankfully, he did not have to go to the ER! I think everyone was being REALLY careful after that so that we would not have any more injuries.

Saturday 7/31/10

Today was the day of the concert. After a deliciousbrunch at a local cafe and some souvenir shopping earlier in the day, we headed back out to the concert venue. There were about 1,300 people in the audience! Over 1 thousand people, Mt. Shasta in the background, Taiko drumming, and Shasta Taiko banners waving in the wind…the concert was very epic! :)

Sunday 8/1/10

After an eventful few days in Shasta, we headed back home to LA. It took us 12 hours and Bryan drove the ENTIRE time!!! Thank you Bryan! Otsukaresama!

Here are some more pictures from Shastayama 2010 :

http://picasaweb.google.com/TAIKOPROJECT/ShastaYamaFestival#

Thank you very much Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer for inviting us! We had a fantastic time!

Higashi Obon 2010!

Hi everyone!

A couple weeks ago on July 24th, we performed a 45-minute set at the Higashi Honganji Obon Festival. We played a few TP favorites such as Expanding, Many Sides, and Omiyage, and also three of our newer pieces, Island Groove, Tsuki E and Seiza. Higashi Obon has got to be one of my personal favorite places to perform because of all the friends and family that come to watch. It's always nice to spot some familiar faces in the crowd!

Check out this great picture of Yumi during her solo for Many Sides!

Dancing in Tsuki E

All smiles in Island Groove

Here's a video of Seiza from the performance:

Thank you to Mickey from Higashi Honganji for recording the video and posting it on YouTube for us!

Afterwards, we all treated ourselves to some tasty eats. Higashi seems to have the most diverse menu out of all the southern California obon festivals. They had everything from chicken teriyaki and udon to tamales and chili rice. The cold somen and shaved ice were refreshingly delicious after performing in the hot sun. Yumi and I especially liked the popular "Dango Dogs", which were like little corn dogs, but instead of the traditional corn batter, the hot dogs were covered in a sweet Japanese donut batter. I wish I had a picture to share with you all, but I guess you'll just have to go to obon next year and try them for yourselves!