“Reduction” is a refined response to the popularity of mainstream taiko drumming, a trend which sees taiko stripped of its particular musical and theatrical elements. The 2019 presentation offers sleekness and effervescence of jazz in combination with the dynamism and boldness of the taiko drum in a concert of unreleased materials from 1970’s original taiko theater – the Gintenkai in Tokyo. Classical Grandmasters Hyakkyou Fukuhara (flute/percussion), Chizuru Kineya (shamisen) and Shijuro Tachibana (kabuki dance), will be joined by a critically acclaimed roster of world-class jazz artists including poet and musician Coco Elysses; the fiercely creative jazz/reggae/world music specialist Hamid Drake; JoVia Armstrong, the winner of Black Women in Jazz Awards’ 2014 Best Black Female Percussionist of the Year, award-winning flautist and composer Nicole Mitchell, and, direct from France, drummer and improviser Yuko Oshima.
Photography by Ken Carl.