Tatsuya Nakatani - percussion/drums with guests
Kyle Bruckmann,
Joëlle Léandre, Damon Smith
Originally from Kobe and Osaka, Japan, internationally renowned percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani has toured
extensively throughout the world, having performed in approximately 80 cities and 10 countries.
Utilizing drumset, gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects, sticks and bows, he creates collages of sound,
which combine the sense of space and beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music with the extended techniques
of New Music, yet with great energy and intensity. Although his music defies category or genre, it can be viewed
as a cross-cultural mixture of improvised music, experimental music, jazz, free jazz, and rock.
In addition to live solo and ensemble performances, he has provided sound design for films and television projects.
The latest of these was the performance of an improvised sound score for silent movie-
“The Water Magician” (1933, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi), which was part of exhibition of Hiroshi Sugimoto
Photograph at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
He is the recent recipient of The Bronx Arts Council Individual Artist grant. In addition to his work as a percussionist, Nakatani heads H&H Production, an independent record label and recording studio based in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Double bassist and vocalist Joëlle Léandre was born on the 12th of September 1951 in Provence and started playing recorder but quickly moved to piano and from the age of 9 to 14 studied both piano and double bass in her home town of Aix-en-Provence. Léandre’s double bass teacher, Pierre Delescluse, encouraged her to apply to the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris where she won first prize for double bass. In 1976 Léandre received a scholarship to the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo, a time that was to prove particularly influential due to encounters with Morton Feldman and the music of Earl Brown, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi. At the same time, Joëlle Léandre was able to experience the downtown New York music scene and continue her involvement in improvised music. Joëlle Léandre has continued to be involved with contemporary 'straight' music, not only as a member of contemporary music ensembles such as 2E2M, Itinéraire and l'Ensemble Intercontemporain but particularly through the works of Cage and Scelsi, several of which have been recorded by her.
In 1994 Joëlle Léandre was the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) artist in residence in the city of Berlin; from November 1997 to June 1998 she took up a residence in Metz, north-east France teaching and giving master classes at academic institutions in the region and playing concerts with a range of improvisors that included Eric Watson, Lauren Newton, Carlos Zingaro and Paul Lovens. From September to December 2002 she has been invited as visiting professor for improvisation and composition at Mills College, Oakland, California.
Cost: $10, $8, $5