Hi All,
I know this is old news but since nobody else wrote a review of Okuda
Atsuya's visit to the Bay Area I thought I would briefly recount the
activities.
I was curious to meet Okuda because I enjoy his CD. Besides that, his
personal story is interesting. He was a pro jazz trumpeter who gave up
jazz to become a shakuhachi teacher.
Kiku Day hosted Okuda sensei in Oakland. She has been studying with him
for many years. First there was a workshop/lesson evening at Kiku's
house. I showed up with Ken LaCosse and John Singer. When we walked in
we thought nothing was going on yet, so we greeted her rather
ebulliently. Then we noticed that there was a small Japanese fellow
blowing on a long 3.4 jinashi shakuhachi. That's Okuda. We didn't know
music was already happening because he was playing at an UNBELIEVABLY
low volume. It was amazing how quietly he was playing. The piece was
"Shingetsu" I believe.
There were several other students there, some of whom seemed to already
know Okuda san. They had already taken their lessons. We exchanged
formalities and started checking out each others flutes. Okuda plays
exclusively jinashi shakuhachi with little or no lacquer in the bore
and no utaguchi inlay. They are of his own making, or those of his
students and associates. Some people call this style of shakuhachi
hocchiku. Ken LaCosse is a fine maker based in San Francisco. We have
been working together on a new range of huge bored long jinashi flutes.
Okuda was very impressed with Ken's work, going so far as to say, "I'm
jealous". He played "Tamuke" on Ken's 2.7 and "Tsuru no Sugomori" on
Ken's 2.3.
For my lesson he asked me to play something. So we went through some of
the pieces I have memorized. Basically I played the piece as I know it
and then he would play his own version of the same piece. He played
semi improvised versions of the same pieces. Kiku explained that this
may be an outgrowth of his jazz training. I have learned versions of
all songs on his CD except one, "Shin Kyorei", so I asked him to show
it to me. The melody is fairly simple and characteristic of Myoan
honkyoku. Okuda's emphasis in this piece is to find the most subtle and
delicate fingerings to produce the standard pitches. So there were a
lot of alternate fingerings, which was an interesting challenge. His
playing ranges mainly between pianissimo to piano, and his tone is
usually distorted, splintered, mixing octaves and generally exploring
the nuances of muraiki and other breathing techniques within a quiet
framework. For me it wasn't difficult to play that quietly, but it took
self control to keep it there. I like to play loud! He showed us how he
constructs his flutes with a very small hole at the bottom in order to
keep a lot of the sound within the bore. He said that allows him to
work the sound more than conventional flutes which are designed to
project.
Okuda Sensei was very giving during the lessons. He played full
renditions of every piece under discussion, so we basically got our own
mini concert. After the lessons we had a good time trying each others
flutes and eating some delicious snacks prepared by Kiku and her
friend. Thanks to them for their generous hospitality. It was a
pleasure to be around people who appreciate the sound and feeling of
jinashi flutes. It's an approach which doesn't have a lot of momentum
in America yet, but hopefully will pick up.
The next day was the concert at Mills College in the chapel. It was an
appropriate venue for the spiritually oriented music being performed.
Okuda started out with an improvisation in Honkyoku style. That was
followed by three honkyoku. They were all characterized by Okuda's
unusual style and his semi-improvisational stance. It's refreshing to
hear someone improvise within the general style of honkyoku. The
concert was well attended by the general public as well as most of the
usual suspects of Bay Area shakuhachi.
To summarize, my opinion is that Okuda Sensei and his students are
working in a natural style of shakuhachi playing. The emphasis on long
jinashi flutes is something that will continue to grow, because playing
them is so satisfying and the tone they produce is earthy. His
repertoire is drawn from various sources, and is not confined to one
school. He seems to learn the basic songs and then interpret them to
his own taste. Most modern shakuhachi playing is geared towards
blasting and making as clear a sound as possible. Okuda explores the
opposite side of the sound spectrum. It shows that there is more than
one way to play shakuhachi, which is a healthy influence. Thanks to
Kiku Day and Alcvin Ramos for bringing Okuda Sensei to North America.
Hopefully there will be more visits from Japanese players with
perspectives on shakuhachi which will broaden the musical palette of
players on this side of the pond.
Regards,
BR
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