A few Fridays ago I went to a music performance in old town Oakland billed as "An Evening of Japanese Fusion featuring Reigen Fujii." Fujii-san is a distinguished young shamisen player from Japan, and the ensemble was fronted by Kyle Abbott, an American shamisen player and multi-instrumentalist, and founder of Bachido, a website that provides instruction and materials for learning to play the shamisen. The shamisen is a traditional stringed instrument that puts me in mind of a three-stringed Japanese banjo.The strings are played with a plectrum (pick) called a bachi, thus, the website Bachido ("way of the bachi").
I really didn't have any expectations for the performance- my main priority for the evening was to meet and get to know the program coordinator for my upcoming employment opportunity, who had invited me to the performance. I had heard shamisen music before (Yoshida Brothers, anyone?) but had not seen it performed live. We were a little late and the performance had already started when we sat down- the first piece we heard was a solo on the koto, another traditional stringed instrument that seems to me like a harp on its side. The soloist, Brian Wong, introduced the piece by saying the composer was influenced by rock music, and I thought I could almost hear an echo of electric guitar riffs in there somewhere.
After that piece, Kyle and Fujii-san sat down and played two American Old-time standards on the shamisen, and I realized that of course I was far from the first person to think the shamisen was like a banjo. Then the rest of the ensemble came together- shamisen, mandolin, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), drums, and a stand-up bass, and they launched into a toe-tapping Mongolian song featuring a fair amount of tuvan throat-singing. Japanese Fusion indeed! My eyebrows went up about two inches. This was followed by a few outstanding shamisen solos by Fujii-san, and the ensemble regrouped for some jazz standards - Autumn Leaves, Summertime, and Spain. Somewhere in there five of the performers sat down in a shakuhachi circle and played a very atonal piece - I don't think shakuhachi is going to be my thing, but I won't rule it out yet. I did notice the guy sitting in front of me literally nodding off several times during the shakuhachi jamboree.
When Fujii-san played his solo pieces, which featured a fair amount of high-speed fretwork and fast bachi action, I noticed that the shamisen makes (at least) two different sounds that are in addition to the actual playing of the strings. First, the bachi makes a sharp percussive clapping sound either against the strings or the taut surface of the shamisen body, I'm not sure which. The faster the playing, the faster the clapping of the bachi- clack-clack-clack. Second, high-speed playing seems to set up a constant drone note, that I'm only guessing might be the other strings' sympathetic vibration. Nestled between those sounds there is, of course, the actual sound of the strings being plucked to make the melody of the song.
I didn't take any pictures or video during the show, but here are some links where you can watch and hear examples of some of the music I described above.
Reigen Fujii's official website
Fujii-san playing shamisen with a jazz ensemble
Brian Wong's biography and Koto performance
Shakuhachi performance
Kyle Abbott demonstrating Tuvan throat singing
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