Jun 18, 2013

Jazz Art Sengawa 2013

Jazz Art Sengawa is small but notable event for jazz, avant-pop, and improvisation in Tokyo. This year's festival will be held on July 19-21.

The line-up is utterly impressive as always, and of course it includes Hikashu.

What makes this event so special is that it is curated and organized by musicians themselves. And it is for music cognoscenti. Just take a look at the line-up and you could see that clearly.

Also, geographically, it is very convenient if you are in Tokyo area. Sengawa is a town located in Chofu, westside of Tokyo. It could be accessed by Keio line, took 20 minutes from Shinjuku. There is an entry on Wikipedia about Sengawa Station, here

There are two venues used for this year's festival - Sengawa Theater, and Jenny's Kitchen. The line-up and ticket information are as follows.


July 19, Friday

@ Sengawa Theater

16:00-
Art Parade

18:30-
Chikotsu

19:00-19:40
"Tandem Sound Poem"
Kanazawa Kazushi (compiler), Kotobuki Hikaru (architect) with Fujiwara Kiyoto (double bass solo)

20:20-21:00
Hihokan with Oki Itaru (trumpet)
Saito Ryo (drums), Sugadairo (piano), Koketsu Masayo (alto saxophone), Sato Erika (bass), Ishii Chizuru (tuzumi), Atami Houko (secrecy)


July 20, Saturday

@ Sengawa Theater

11:00-11:40
"Voice Play for Children"
Tokidoki Jido

12:30-14:00
"Open Session for Improvisation" [admission free]

15:00-16:00
"Double Live Painting"
Kuroda Seitaro (live painting), Arai Ryoji (live painting), Sakamoto Hiromichi (cello)

17:00-17:40
Superterz ＋　Koho Mori-Newton & SIMON BERNS

18:30-19:10
Fujiwara Kiyoto + Haino Keiji
Fujiwara Kiyoto (bass), Haino Keiji (guitar, voice)

20:00-20:40
Hikashu with Lauren Newton (voice)
Makigami Koichi (vocal, theremin, cornet, shakuhachi), Mita Freeman (guitar), Sakaide Masami (bass), Shimizu Kazuto (piano, synthesizer, bass clarinet), Sato Masaharu (drums)


@ Jenny's Kitchen

14:10-14:50
Mita Freeman Sings Standards
Mita Freeman (vocal), Shimizu Kazuto (piano)

16:10-16:50
Bright Moments
Takaoka Daisuke (tuba), Arimoto Rabito (trumpet), Hashimoto Tatsuya (drums)

17:45-18:25
aqua jade
Haco (vocal, electronics), Imanichi Reiko (sho, effects)

19:20-20:00
Third Person Workshop
Umezu Kazutoki (reeds), Samm Bennett (percussion) plus guests
note: guest member are selected via general audition


July 21, Sunday

@ Sengawa Theater

11:00-11:45
"Sunday Matinee Concert" [admission free]
Suzuki Akio (sound art)

12:30-13:10
Soom Kim (saxophone), Hayakawa Takeharu (bass), Fujikake Masataka (drums) with Kitai Akemi and Tsukada Tsugumi (puppeteer)

14:00-14:40
Sakata Akira Unit
Sakata Akira (reeds), Yamamoto Tatsuhisa (drums), Jim O'Rourke (guitar), Takaoka Daisuke (tuba), Sakaguchi Mitsuo (keyboard)

15:30-16:10
Third Person with Sato Motohiko (piano)
Umezu Kazutoki (reeds), Samm Bennett (percussions)

17:00-17:40
Jazz Art Trio
Fujiwara Kiyoto (bass), Sakamoto Hiromichi (bass), Makigami Koichi (voice) with Yamada Setsuko (dance)

19:30-21:00
John Zorn's Cobra Sengawa Operation Jim O'Rourke Unit
Jim O'Rourke, Hatano Atsuko, Sudo Toshiaki, Yamamoto Tatsuhisa, Ishibashi Eiko, Tonchi, U-zhaan, Gokita Tomoo, Chiba Hiroki, Makigami Koichi and others


@ Jenny's Kitchen

13:15-13:55
Sakamoto Osamu No Kage (projection), Sakamoto Hiromichi (cello)

14:45-15:25
Izumi Kunihiro Trio
Izumi Kunihiro (reeds), Iwami Keigo (bass), Nozaki Rihito (guitar)

16:15-16:55
Iwase Junji (reeds) solo

18:00-18:40
KILLER-OMA
Suzuki Isao (bass), Killer-Bong


The Producers of the festival are Makigami Koichi, Fujiwara Kiyoto, and Sakamoto Hiromichi.


Ticket information

Sengawa Theater:
All the tickets are available at Sengawa Theater box office.

1 day ticket:
3,000 yen for July 19
5,000 yen each for July 20 and 21
The 1-day ticket applies for all program (except "Voice Play for Children" on July 20, which required 500 yen for advance or 1,000 yen at door separately - Free admission for children under 5 years old. Session for Improvisation, and Sunday Matinee Concert are admission free).
The prices here are for advance - plus 500 yen each at door.

1 stage ticket - 2,500 yen for each act, sold only on the day of the performance. Start selling at Sengawa Theater box office at 10:00 AM.


Jenny's Kitchen:
1 day ticket
adv 3,500 yen - at door 4,000 yen
1 stage ticket
adv 1,500 yen - at door 2,000 yen for each act
ticket available at the Sengawa Theater box office


1 day ticket for both Sengawa Theatre and Jenny's Kitchen:
7,200 yen (quantities limited)

Jazz Art Sengawa official site (Japanese)

Jazz Art Sengawa Facebook

Jazz Art Sengawa 2013 - Time Out Tokyo

For your reference:

Jazz Art Sengawa - Cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto and Japan's avant-garde build a home of their own Metropolis, August 25, 2011

Live Reports - Jazz Art Sengawa 2010 Metropolis, July 12, 2010

Jazz Art Sengawa on YouTube


Sengawa Theater

View Larger Map


Jenny's Kitchen, Sengawa

View Larger Map


Jazz Art Sengawa 2011 digest

Related Entries:
Jazz Byobu After Dark
Jazz Art Sengawa 2010
Jazz Art Sengawa
投稿者 admin 時刻: 10:45 AM 0 コメント

Jun 16, 2013

Currents: June 2013 - The First Canada Tour, Makigami visits Tuva, Hikashu taking a short break


Hikashu at the Garrison, Toronto, Canada on May 14, 2013.


Ex Post Facto - The First Canada Tour

Apparently, Hikashu had a great time in Canada. After returning to Japan, the members praised the experience in the country very much. The audiences were welcoming and reacted positively. The staff was caring. The acostics were great. Niagara Falls was spectaclar. In short, everything was beautiful. So naturally, all the four gigs turned out nicely.

Then they moved to New York City, and held a recording session at Eastside Sound for next album. The session resulted quite fruitful - things went smooth and in the end they've got materials more than enough for an album. Of course, the experience in Canada contributed much for the result because the members had became quite uplifting after the tour.

Technically, the new album is not finished yet. They said there's something must be done, but not so much - just some tweaks. So it looks like the completion is near and we don't have to wait so long. It's good because we're hardly able to wait for new things from the band.


Makigami visits Tuva

Currently, Makigami Koichi has been in Kyzyl, the capital city of The Republic of Tuva. He's now participating the 6th Internatinal Khoomei Symposium. It is held every four year, and he has attended to the event every time since the 2nd symposium. No, he's not a contestant - but one of the judges.

He will be back late this month. And he will soon depart again for Europe next month for a short tour with the Living Room Trio.


Hikashu taking a short break but will be back soon

Meanwhile, the band is on hiatus simply because Makigami has been not available for a while. But they'll do some sporadically-occuring gigs this summer. We'll let you know about those dates in a little while.
投稿者 admin 時刻: 9:01 AM 0 コメント

Jun 15, 2013

Notable Mentions - The Canada Tour and NYC dates 2013


Hear what people had to say about the band's performance last month.










Tad Michalak brings the party to Toronto's east end
Interview with the curator for the Toronto gig. "We met up with Michalak--who also owns one of the coolest bikes in the city--to talk about Toronto's blossoming underground beneath the underground, and his hopes of bridging the gaps between Toronto's music scenes, and its music lovers."
































Interview with Max Middle - Artsmania
"Max Middle is the pen name of Mark Robertson, an Ottawa-based poet and founder of The A B Series, a poetry reading series that features experimental, sound and performance poetry from Canada and around the world."





Victoriaville : 20 Years of musique actuelle
interview with Michel Levasseur, manager, artistic director and founder of the FIMAV.

« Ce fut de loin le pari du FIMAV le plus réussi. » - PELCHAT, Alex. « BangBang », 21 mai 2013
投稿者 admin 時刻: 5:16 AM 0 コメント
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