Philip Gelb is no stranger to the Day of Noise, or to fans of the Bay Area improvised music scene. His unique approach to the shakuhachi (a japanese bamboo flute, reknown for it's extreme difficulty) has taken it from the traditional realm into the experimental, without sacrificing it's unique mood.
This makes him a natural pairing with Hugh Livingston, who has taken on the converse task, of learning to play a traditional western instrument -- the cello -- in the style of japanese stringed instruments.
It also then makes sense that this duo will be paired with a second duo of expert koto players: Shoko Hikage and Noriko Tsuboi, to form a quartet prepared to improvise and experiment, but rooted in japanese traditional music.
Incidentally, the koto is often compared to a zither, since it's a horizontal stringed instrument, but I think it might make more sense to think of it as a large, many-stringed, horizontal contrabass, because the strings rest on bridges that are so high, the player has many of the same fingering and bowing techniques that a contrabass player has. On the other hand, with a koto, the strings are supported on individual bridges that can be moved around during performance, allowing the player to quickly change tunings on the fly: the koto is it's own instrument, and there are no simple comparisions that can be made.
Shoko Hikage and Noriko Tsuboi in their own words:
Shoko Hikage graduated from Takasaki College with a major in Koto music. In 1992, she moved to Honolulu to teach at the Sawai Koto School Hawaii. There she held her first American solo recital as part of the New Music Across America series. currently she is an artist in residence at the Japan cultural community center of northern California where she teaches Koto and furthers her interest in improvisational dance and music.
Noriko Tsuboi completed NHK( Japan Broadcast Association) Traditional Academy, and a one- year intensive seminar at the Sawai Koto School. From 1992 to 1997, she was a koto instructor for the Music Department at the University of California at San Diego. Tuboi most recently performed for the Michel Doneda ( sax) Japan tour with Tetsu Saitoh( bass), this live recording will be release soon.
We are Sawai Koto School Masters.
We performed "Bang on a Can Festival" in New York with Kazue sawai.
We collaborated artists from a variety of genre.
Coming events:
- June 1 @ the Luggage Store 8:00pm 1007 Market
- June 10 @ Meridian Gallery 8:00pm 545 Sutter
More info: