A little Riley Lee music for his friends and family while he's recuperating

Riley with Jeff Peterson, Hawaiian Slack Key guitar performing Maika`i ka Makani O Kohala in the Atherton Studio at Hawaii Public Radio.This was during the taping of Kanikapila Sunday with Derrick Malama.

Riley Lee injured in traffic accident; hospitalized in Brisbane

Beloved shakuhachi player/teacher Riley Lee was hit and injured by a car Thursday Oct. 28 while walking near a major road in Brisbane Australia. He is currently hospitalized in Royal Brisbane Hospital with multiple broken bones and contusions according to his wife, Patricia.

Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin of New York posted the news on Shakuhachi Forum (BBQ, whatever) on Friday Oct. 29: http://shakuhachiforum.com/viewtopic.php?pid=35267#p35267

For the record, I'll post Patricia Lee's emails:

> Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:23:11 +1100
   > To: patricia@rileylee.net
   > From: patricia@rileylee.net
  >Subject: Riley in Royal Brisbane Hospital
   

>
  > Just a quick note to update you:
 Yesterday (THU 28 OCT) afternoon, around 4pm Riley was walking along
 the footpath on a busy one way street in the middle of Brisbane. He
 was hit by a car which had mounted the curb.
 

I was informed of this by the police woman who rang me from the
 hospital on Riley's phone.
 

Riley had asked her to phone me and tell me what had happened. At
  that stage they thought he had a broken leg and maybe a broken nose.
 He was badly bruised, cut about and in pain but conscious waiting to
 be checked out by the doctors.
 

Subsequent phone calls with the hospital and the police woman gave me
 more info.
 

It appears it was quite a pile up with at least one car ploughing
  into the back of the car that hit Riley and causing its steering to
  lock and mount the pavement. The police woman said it was amazing
 that Riley was not killed.
 I spoke briefly with Riley later to reassure him that I had been in
 contact with everyone and that the rest of the taiko group had
 reorganised the show to go on without him.
 

At around midnight I got a report from the hospital that his left
 shoulder is broken but not too badly. They will probably put it in
 plaster. The worse pain is in his left knee where it seems the
 ligaments are torn on both sides of the knee cap. The orthopaedic
  surgeon felt he needed (no pun intended!) to operate. R is badly
 bruised and scrapped and in a lot of pain.


I will call the hospital soon but it seems he will have to stay there
 for a couple of days. Once I know he can be released from hospital I
 will fly up to Brisbane to bring him home.
  I will keep you posted when I know more.
   

Love,
    P

Later, Patricia provided this update:


 I have just had a phone call from Graham, the TaikOz artistic
  director on this tour, who has been back and forth to the hospital checking on Riley. He says Riley's shakuhachi seem to have survived
 the impact unscathed but he didn't know if Riley had checked his
 computer...these were all in his back pack when the accident happened.
     
   

At this stage I only have the following info from Riley via text msg.
 I assume this is info he has received as a result of X-rays.
    His left arm is broken below the shoulder. Probably it will need a
 plate. His left knee is really messed up and will probably need reconstruction. There is another break near the ankle which will heal
 itself. It seems the operations will not happen until Monday. He is
 still waiting for an MRI. And finally his latest text msg says he has
 a burn on his left calf that will need a skin graft.

Shakuhachi Beat and it's extensive research, production and marketing staff send our concern and love to Riley and Patricia with best wishes for a good recuperation.

Shakuhachi web radio station SHKO goes live

Colorado musician/composer and now D.J. Michael Doherty has launched a shakuhachi radio channel on www.live365.com called SHaKuhachi Ogawa — or by it's call letters SHKO.

from the radio station's new website:

SHKO.org is the online shakuhachi radio station and sound archive of the shakuhachi community. It's mission is to serve the educational, archival, and listening needs of a growing population of shakuhachi enthusiasts, players, and educators.

Shakuhachi Ogawa is currently in the planning and organizational stage, building momentum and resources toward its launch. If you wish to get involved by volunteering either time materials, or money please contact Michael by email here: doherty [at] takiochi .com
* * *On the Shakuhachi Beat Rating Scale this project gets:
5 utaguchi (highest rating)
To donate on a yearly subscription basis go to http://shko.org/Get%20Involved.html. You can subscribe anywhere from a $10 per year Shoden Level all the way up the ladder to $100 per year for a Dai Shihan Level making it the quickest and cheapest route to becoming a Grand Master I'll ever have!

For the home page go to: http://shko.org

Why is this art and that isn't?

Part II of this question:
Quick! You have only 5 minutes left to see anything in the world. If you only had these two images to look at: which of these would you like to spend the last of your moments looking at?

Shakuhermaphrodite

Ji-nashi or ji-nuri?

International Shakuhachi Society (komuso.com) gets a kick in the hakama

From madoherty on Shakuhachi Forum (The BBQ): Word on the street is that the International Shakuhachi Society (ISS) purchased a new scanner and pdf-maker with membership dues from last year and is in the process of placing all kinds of valuables online through the website that you know well:
www.komuso.com

If you want to support this work further, maybe consider joining (I am not certain if the material will only be available by members or not). The site has been a valuable resource for me over the years. I consider my membership to be a given due to the sites' value in my education and as a reference source. There is a sneak peak on the ISS's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/issfb?ref=ts

Ron Nelson (I assume) says: "Just spent last year's ISS membership revenue to buy a PDF scanner / document feeder to digitize the hundreds of pages of xeroxed scores, books, letters, and pamphlets I've been keeping in a giant filing cabinet. I intend to eventually share out anything I'm comfortable is not copyrighted. The ISS library should not be a hoarde but a resource"

Thanks Michael!

Couldn't happen at a better time! Thanks Ron!

For the birds Part 2: A shakuhachi lesson with Eric Dolphy

image © 2007 chris moran

"... I used to play, and the birds always used to whistle with me. I would stop what I was working on and play with the birds... Birds have notes in between our notes - you try to imitate something they do ..."

— Eric Dolphy

For the birds: a shakuhachi lesson with Don Van Vleit

LISTEN TO THE BIRDS.



That's where all the music comes from. 



Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from.



And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going

anywhere.



— Captain Beefheart

Maybe an audio clip of Swanee River WON'T help you sell a shakuhachi

This Ryozan 1.8 flute, which sounds quite capable with "so-so" looks has been on Mejiro's used website for a year or more; price reduced from about 130,000-Yen to below 90,000-Yen, etc. etc. They just can't seem to move it.

The sound clip is Stephen Foster's black-face minstrel song Old Folks at Home (better known as 'Swanee River').

http://www.mejiro-japan.com/system/detail_e.php?a_id=1758

Maybe this song, advertised as an "Ethiopian Melody" when it was published in 1851, is just not the image best associated with a mystical zen Kinko shakuhachi?

~1st verse~
Way down upon de Swanee ribber (river)
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.

All up and down de whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation
And for de old folks at home.

~Chorus~
All de world am sad and dreary,
Ebry where I roam,
Oh! darkies how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home.

(Although this song may sometimes be performed with "modern" lyrics that some claim to be more sensitive racially, the song's original lyrics, included here, had been adopted officially as the lyrics of Florida's state song. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Folks_at_Home)

Phil Nyokai James Benefit/Celebration Aug. 28

Portland, ME Benefit/Celebration concert :: Aug 28th :: 8pm

Our Portland, Maine friends are pulling together an upcoming concert.
Hope to see you there!

Save the date! August 28th 8PM

Benefit Concert/Celebration
for the Phil James Family Emergency Fund

Saturday, August 28, 8pm
Trinity Episcopal Church
580 Forest Ave, Portland

Admission by donation

With:
Phil Nyokai James – shakuhachi and piano
Carl Dimow – flute
Nathan Kolosko – classical guitar
Danielle Langord – celtic harp
Nicole Rabata – celtic flute
Mark Tipton – jazz trumpet
and
Marita Kennedy-Castro – dance

For more information: Carl Dimow – 207-615-1550 - cdimow@earthlink.net

Phil Nyokai James is a recognized master of the Japanese flute, the shakuhachi, and also a wonderful pianist and composer. While driving from the Grand Canyon in Arizona this past January, Phil had a major stroke. Paralyzed, he lost control of the car. Sitting in the passenger seat next to him was his wife, Lara, seven months pregnant. In an incredible rush of adrenaline, Lara gained control of the car and prevented the family from heading off the icy road into the mountains. Far from any town and without phone reception, Lara pulled Phil from the driver’s seat and she drove until she saw headlights - and connected Phil with medical care.

Phil was initially very far gone and in acute rehab for weeks. He had minimal speech and no ability to read or write. His recovery has been slow, but steady. He and Lara were able to return to their home in Portland at the end of February, and Lara gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Julian, in early April.

At this point in time, Phil has regained a lot of physical control but still has aphasia and is working to regain his full speech capacity. Amazingly, and thanks to daily encouragement from Lara, he began playing shakuhachi within a week of the stroke. His musician friends have been stunned with how little the stroke affected his musical skills. Nevertheless, he is still recovering and has not been ready to return to a work life of teaching and performing. The family is struggling financially.

This concert is to raise money for Phil, Lara and Julian, but it’s also a celebration. This will be Phil’s first public performance since the stroke. He’ll be joined by a number of luminaries from various ends of the Portland music scene: Nicole Rabata and Danielle Langord playing celtic music; Carl Dimow and Nathan Kolosko playing Brazilian music; the wonderful jazz trumpet playing of Mark Tipton; and the exciting dancing of Marita Kennedy-Castro. The musicians will be working in a variety of combinations and Phil will appear as a soloist and with a variety of ensembles. This promises to be a unique, special and entertaining evening.

Can't attend in Person? Purchase an empty Zen Seat™ for the concert, ONLY $10 each! Order as many as you like!

"They're Zen! They're Empty! They're Zen Seats™ !!!"

TO ORDER YOUR Zen Seats™ for the Aug. 28 Phil Nyokai James Benefit/Celebration GO TO:

http://homegrown-hope.blogspot.com/ — Phil James Family Emergency Fund

The Doubting of the Komuso

A little known work of Caravaggio.

Shakuhachi Seance

Are the shakuhachi of the past better than the shakuhachi of the present?

How to succeed ...

Shiro playing "Poorman's Shiro"

I made this composite in honor of a 1.9 shakuhachi made by Ken LaCosse of Mujitsu Shakuhachi in San Francisco. James Nyman had it at the time. I dubbed it the poorman's Shiro, after the master Kinko shakuhachi maker Yamaguchi Shiro (pictured). If it ever shows up for sale again, I'll be first in line.

Green shakuhachi, red dragonfly, pink shirt

Does anyone have information on this photo? Who, what, when, where?

"Buddy can you spare a shakuhachi?"

Part II in a continuing series of articles about shakuhachi and the enduring economic crisis

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about forward looking shakuhachi makers and dealers who were offering time payments on shakuhachi: Shakuhachi Prices: "Do you take unemployment checks?"

In the article I made special mention of the late Tom Deaver and his efforts to make Bei Shu shakuhachi available to customers the world over through time payments. Sadly with Tom now gone it is safe to say that no individual maker has a written policy in English on this practice if they do offer it.

In the past couple of days I noticed that Mejiro is offering time payments on shakuhachi for overseas customers. They have had an in-store policy for lay-away sales, but have never extended it to online overseas customers. Their no returns policy for their time payment plan might be reason for caution, but it does show some adaptation to the times in which we live.

As much of a pain in the ass it is to do bookkeeping on time-payments, and further complicating a maker's or dealer's life, having written and advertised payment plan policies only seems like good business sense for people who want to increase shakuhachi sales and cash flow.

It seems to be a preferable alternative to sitting on a lot of expensive inventory and hoping things wiil just "turn around."

Another thing I've noticed on Mejiro's site is that their recent additions of used shakuhachi seem to me starting at a prices about 10-percent lower than previously instruments of about the same grade. Just an observation, there, but something to ponder.

I don't think Darwin's theory ever actually said "only the strongest survive" but it most certainly explained that the most adaptable survive — and, in fact, thrive.

Shakuhachi Workshop with Peter Hill, July 25

Shakuhachi Workshop with Peter Hill
2:00 pm, Sunday, July 25
Media Center/Communication Bldg., UCSD

Peter Hill will be in San Diego the week of July 25 to 31 giving shakuhachi lessons and holding a workshop on the 25th.

Lessons will also be available during the week following the workshop.

Here's Peter's description of the workshop:

Most workshops and lessons on shakuhachi focus on learning traditional or modern pieces. This workshop will spend time on how to make every note one plays sound as good as possible, thus making the pieces sound as good as possible.

We will focus on three elements that are key to playing shakuhachi well:

1. How to make a good sound: embouchure and breath control.

2. How to make the traditional pieces sound authentic:what are the various aspects of the Japanese musical aesthetic; how does one produce them with the shakuhachi.

3. How to make the flute sing, that is how to play the shakuhachi musically.

--

This is a workshop that will be of value to all students, from beginner to advanced.

Lessons are $50. The workshop is $25.

For details and to schedule a lesson, contact:
Bruce Jones
bjones@ucsd.edu
619-823-8281

Rest In Peace, Tom Deaver

"A major figure in the transmission of shakuhachi ... One of my favorite shakuhachi Tomism's, 'Do what you think is right.' He's done his work well. Thanks Tom." — Ken LaCosse, Mujitsu Shakuhachi, San Francisco

Dressed layer
upon layer,
I wear a new bamboo hat
and go home.
— Jowa, 1785

Messages on the passing of Tom Deaver on Shakuhachi Forum

Yamaguchi Goro & Aoki Reibo II - Shika no Tone -one reel- shorter version

Waiting for Kiku, July 9

It seems like only Yesterday ...