Blog
< 1 2 3 4 > Last »Shaved Root Shakhachi
Now that the performances and Jury duty are over, I can get back to the shop. This interesting repair came in a couple of weeks ago. Someone has customized this old Kinko flute by building up the back chin rest. The present owner needed it brought back down to it’s original angle.
It was also a bit heavy for him so he requested the root be shaved in the style of the old Komuso or Edo period flutes.
Lunch Break Shakuhachi
Life in NYC is never boring. It’s very much like a great Honkyoku - quite and subdued on the surface, but bursting at the seams internally.
I just went from a few intense weeks of creating and performing theater to sitting in a jury waiting room for selection. The first group was selected but the remaining good citizens were sent to lunch.
On my break I played a PVC shakuhachi.
Review of Love Cripple
The four theater interns from Korea were a bit shy earlier this week, but last night they approached me wanting to try their hands at the shakuhachi.
Update:
The first critical review of Love Cripple from nytheater.com:
Martin Denton, May 27, 2010
Great Jones Variations is a 75-minute program of original short theatre works of various types that together comprise a thrillingly appropriate homage to Ellen Stewart, the remarkable woman who founded La MaMa E.T.C. and co-founded the Great Jones Repertory Company (with Elizabeth Swados and Andrei Serban). In these five pieces, artists of every stripe who consider themselves “MaMa’s babies” give back in the way they and she understand best, by creating adventurous new works that defy categorization but all speak resoundingly from the heart.
“Love Cripple…filled with startling images, perhaps none so thrilling as Yung’s creation of a musical instrument right before our eyes.”
Read the entire review here: http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/showpage.php?t=grea10326
Action Shakuhachi
What a crazy week I’m having! It feels just like this Jackson Pollack painting we saw last weekend at the Met. Sasa said,” Daddy, I can do that”. I said. “Great, and please keep this kind of spontaneity and freedom in your life!”. It’s always hectic here in the workshop, but this week on top of the repairs, commission work, shipping and lessons, I also took a Sankyoku workshop lead by Ralph Samuelson with the fabulous Yoko Hiraoka on koto and shamisen. What an amazing elucidating experience! (More in this later). On top of all this, I’m also opening a show at La Mama E.T.C. Please come if you are in NYC.
Some interesting validation and discoveries this week in the repairs department.
Love Cripple - Shakuhachi Performance Art
GREAT JONES VARIATIONS
The Ellen Stewart Theatre
Hi All, I’m directing and performing in a dynamic new Shakuhachi Performance Art work, Love Cripple. The piece uses voice, movement and PVC shakuhachi making to explore the notion of desire.
May 27-30
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm & Sunday at 2:30pm
Tickets $20
purchase tickets online -http://www.lamama.org”> http://www.lamama.org
Or, Box Office
74A East 4th Street, between 2nd Avenue & The Bowery
(212) 475-7710
Business Hours: Monday - Sunday Noon - 5:00pm
Five original pieces inspired by Ellen Stewart’s
work with the Great Jones Repertory Company
Tower of Babel Directed by George Drance, An Appointment in Time Directed by Ozzie Rodriguez, Narcissus Directed by Elizabeth Swados The House of Atreus: 2:00 AM Directed by Zishan Ugurl, Love Cripple Directed by Perry Yung
It’s a sunny, beautiful 80 degrees today.
Refinishing Bamboo Skin
This fine flute came a while back for minor repair and refinishing of the bamboo skin. The flute had been over humidified and mold formed on the skin. The owner attempted to remove the spots by light sanding but that damaged the bamboo skin. The rattan wraps on the skin were also a little loose. As I was cleaning, they got progressively looser to the point where they just came off!
Shakuhachi Brothers Part Three
Update:
Here are some kind words from the owner of the two flutes:
I have used Perry’s services several times over the years, most recently this month. He does a really excellent job repairing and binding flutes. He is responsive and easy to communicate with. He is skillful as a technician. And, most importantly to me, he is sensitive to the sonic quality of the flute. It helps that he is a player.
Stephen Nyoyoh Scholle, shakuhachi player since 1987 and licensed teacher since 1996
Just finished the repairs on the shakuhachi making brothers - Gyokusui and Gyokuzan. Here is the original Shakuhachi Brothers Part II.
The 1.8 Gyokusui was pretty staright forward - rattan inlays over a superficial crack. But the 2.4 Gyokuzan needed some investigation to find the leak.
Tamuke for Yokoyama Katsuya 1934- 2010
Hear Tamuke.
FLASH4/25/10 The Buddhist funeral for Yokyama Katsuya is will take place in Tokyo on April 26th. San’ya will be played at 11am Tokyo time, which is 10pm April 25th in New York City. Please play Sanya if you can. I will.
4/22/10
I heard the news today when I arrived at Jim Schlefers for a visit. Together with Brian Ritchie, the three of us played Tamuke. I have been playing Tamuke a lot recently to help myself ease the pain of the loss that surrounds us daily. But today I was numbed by the fact that I was playing for the teacher of my teacher, the great Yokoyama Katsuya,