The Living Room Trio Danish Tour with Makigami Koichi

Starting this week, the Living Room Trio, a Nordic jazz unit, will tour in Denmark and they invited Makigami Koichi for the tour.

The dates are:

November 1 - Odense
November 2 - Århus
November 3 - Wundergrund Festival, Copenhagen
November 4 - Makigami's voice workshop at Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium, Copenhagen

Note: some sources says that November 1 is Århus and November 2 is Odense. Be sure to check beforehand.

The Living Room Trio was formed by three Nordic musicians in 2009. The members are:

Torben Snekkestad - saxophone
Thomas Strønen - drums
Søren Kjærgaard - keyboard

Makigami has already played with the trio in Norway so this tour is a sort of reunion for them.

This time it will also be held a voice workshop of Makigami at a music school in Copenhagen, called Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium (Rhythmic Music Conservatory). It is a rare opportunity for European students so check it out. The institute's site is here (Danish, English).

Regarding the tour, refer to the following quote from the Wundergrund site:

The Living Room moves in playful shuttle between superior improvisational abilities and lyrical tonal experimenting. The trio consists of three of the most highly profiled musicians, pianist Søren Kjærgaard, drummer Thomas Strønen and saxophonist Torben Snekkestad, and tonight they are extraordinarily visited by none less than Japanese vocal artist Koichi Makigami. Makigami has worked with John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Otomo Yoshihide and David Moss, and is known for his abnormal, vocal span combining age-old Japanese throat-singing techniques with experimental improvisational patterns. There will also be an album-release of the debut album from The Living Room, published at ILK.

Wundergrund Festival (English)
The Living Room Trio Official Site (English)
The Living Room Trio MySpace

Christian Marclay's "Manga Scroll" Japan Premiere

This weekend, a Christian Marclay's piece, entitled "Manga Scroll," will be performed in Yokohama. It is to be held as a part of the Yokohama Triennale and this is the premiere performance of the piece in Japan.

The work requires a vocalist, and the one whom chosen is no other than Makigami Koichi.

The concept of the work is that the performer is to express oneself with voice while reading various words in the score, which is a long scroll with graphical onomatopoeias.


Christian Marclay's "Manga Scroll"
performed by Makigami Koichi on voice
October 22, 2011
at Bank Art mini
Yokohama
open 18:20, start 18:40
attendance: 50 people only
Note: The numbered ticket for entrance is to be issued on 16:00 at the venue. To obtain the ticket, you have to show a ticket of Yokohama Triennale 2010.

For the venue and access information, see the official site of the Triennale.

Yokohama Triennale 2011 official site (in English)

See the following clips to get what it's actually like.













We all know this kind of thing is Makigami's field of expertise indeed.

One more thing: Wallpaper, a UK's art magazine, will feature a lengthy article about Marclay in current issue and Makigami contributed it, along with the people like David Moss, Phil Minton, and Shierry Hirsch.

Wallpaper Magazine

The Russian Siberia Tour Completed

The Russian Siberia tour successfully finished.

Except for Makigami, all the members visited the country for the first time. They are utterly impressed with the people and the country, and hope to revisit there in the near future.

Alexey Aygi - special guest of the Moscow concert

Alexey Aygi is a violinist and a composer based in Moscow. He's known to be a member of a musical group called Ensemble 4'33 and wrote a lot of film music.
He was scheduled to play in Japan in mid March but it didn't happen for the reasons we all know.

His playing is so fierce and explosive as you could see it from the video clips as follows.









With him, the first Moscow concert of Hikashu will surely a great one.


Related Entries:
DOM in Moscow
The Russia-Siberia Tour

Jazz Byobu After Dark

Club Jazz Byobu, "the smallest jazz venue in the world" operated only at Jazz Art Sengawa, are mainly placed outside during daytime. After the dusk comes, the byobu would be moved inside the Sengawa Theatre and opened for musicians.

The video quoted here is recorded on July 11, 2010 - the last day of the year's festival. The musicians, including Mita Freeman and Shimizu Kazuto from Hikashu, were jamming and amused themselves.

Club Jazz Byobu continues this year. Experience the intimacy with musicians, and nice acoustics of the space.


Related Entry:
Jazz Art Sengawa 2011

Shiraishi Kazuko - the Great Dame of Japanese Literature

It has been known that Jazz Art Sengawa features literary figures in its program. The tradition continues this year: Jazz Art Sengawa 2011 has a reading of Shiraishi Kazuko.

Simply put, she is one of leading poet in Japan. Her work is renowned outside the country and many of her pieces are translated in English and other languages.

She is also known to be deeply connected in jazz. She wrote about the music many times and performed with jazz musicians in public.

Recently turned 80, she is alive and kicking. Her voice is strong, her presence is so huge, and her reading is eloquent and imaginative.

For those who are interested, there are biographies of her in English available online:

Kazuko Shiraishi - Poetry International Web

Kazuko Shiraishi — internationales literaturfestival berlin


There is an interesting article about herself and her connection with jazz in Japan Times:

POETRY'S LONE STAR Kazuko Shiraishi does it her way (Japan Times)




Don't miss the opportunity. Just come to Jazz Art Sengawa this friday and listen to Shiraishi Kazuko, the Great Dame of Japanese Literature.

Related Entry:
Jazz Art Sengawa 2011

Jazz Art Sengawa 2010 video digest

The video clip of Jazz Art Sengawa 2010 is just surfaced.

The following is the listing of the people in the clip, in order of appearance:


Art Parade

Tanikawa Shuntaro (poetry) at Jazz Byobu

Tanikawa Shuntaro (poetry), Tanikawa Shunsaku (piano) plus Sasaki Mikio Voice Space

Haco (vocal, electronics), Sakamoto Hiromichi (cello), Arai Ryoji (live painting)

Nanao Tavito (vocal, guitar), Makigami Koichi (voice)

Fujiwara Kiyoto (bass), Komatsu Reiko (percussion)

Umezu Kazutoki (alto saxophone), Tanaka Min (butoh), Yamashita Yosuke (piano)


Right now there is only the video of day one uploaded. We'll post here if the clips of other days are available online.

Jazz Art Sengawa 2011 is coming this weekend. See here for information.