Sunday, April 20, 2008

WaFoo outside of WaFoo: Richmond County Orchestra concert

 我々WaFooのように様々なスタイルを盛り込むバンドは、他のジャンルの音楽のプロジェクトに参加して、そのスタイルを学ぶことが必要不可欠です。それをし続けることにより、我々独自のスタイルをさらに深いものにし、また、独特のものにすると信じています。

For the band like WaFoo, which involves lots of different styles of music, it is imperative to keep playing and learning diverse genre of music. Each member of WaFoo is participating in different projects outside of WaFoo and I believe that this discipline is going to make WaFoo's music deeper and more original.

 スタッテン島を拠点にするクラシック音楽のリッチモンド・カウンティー・オーケストラ(RCO)はそのプロジェクトの一つで、一雄さん(コントラバス)とゆうきちゃん(フルートとピッコロ)と私、一平(チェロとコントラバス)の3人が参加させていただいてます。今日はそのRCOのコンサートがセント・ジョン大学でありました。今回は残念ながら一雄さんはスケジュールの都合で参加できなかったのですが、ゆーきちゃんと私が参加させて頂き、モーツァルトとワーグナーとチャイコフスキーを演奏しました。私も長い間参加できなかったのですが、今日は半年ぶりの出演となりました。今回のコンサートは高校生バンドのAFTER EFFECTとの共演でした。

Staten-Island-based classical orchestra, Richmond County Orchestra, is the project which three of WaFoo members are participating in: Kazuo (Contrabass), Yuuki (Flute & Piccolo), and me Ippei (Cello & Contrabass). Today, the concert of RCO was held at St. John's University. Although Kazuo could not participate this time because of his tight schedule, Yuuki and I performed some Mozart, Wagner and Tchaikovsky with RCO. I myself had not been able to perform with RCO for six months. This concert was a joint concert with the high school jazz band After Effect.

 コンサートの後は3人でニュージャージーのチーズケーキ・ファクトリーに食事に行きました。チーズケーキ以外の物を初めて食べましたが、美味しかったです。

Three of us went to the Cheesecake Factory in New Jersey. I had something other than cheese cake in there for the first time, but it was delicious.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Concert @ St. Peter's Church

 今日はWaFooの春季コンサートがありました。尺八のマルコ・レイナード氏をゲストに迎えてのコンサートです。子供のための講演会でゲストと一緒に演奏したことはありましたが、コンサートにゲストを招いて演奏するのは初めてです。マルコ先生は素晴らしい尺八の演奏で一気にオーディエンスを魅了しました。

WaFoo had a concert at St. Peter's Church in Staten Island, NY. The shaku-hachi master Monsieur Marco Lienhard played with us and that was a blast. He totally stole the show.

春期コンサートはおかげさまで成功に終わりました。コンサートを観に来て下さった方々、サポートして下さった方々、そしてスポンサーであるCOASHIには我々メンバー全員、感謝しています。ありがとうございました。

The Spring concert was a success. We want to thank the people who came to and who supported our concert, and also the sponsor of the concert Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI). Thank you all!

ギグの後片付けの写真。すみません、これしか撮る暇がありませんでした。
Aftermath of the gig. Sorry I didn't have a time to take more photos.


 この後、マルコ先生とブルックリンに寿司の食い放題に行き、みんなで死ぬほど食べました。大食いチャンピオンはマルコ先生でした。

Later that night, we all went to all-you-can-eat sushi in Brooklyn and stuffed ourselves. The eating champion of the night was Marco sensei.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Rehearsal with Mr. Marco Lienhard

We are thrilled to perform with the great Shaku-hachi (Japanese bamboo flute) player, Mr. Marco Lienhard, on our concert on April 19th. Marco sensei has been leading the New-York based Japanese drum group, TAIKOZA , for years. While he was living in Japan for thirteen years, he studied and performed Japanese traditional folk music intensively and also has been all over the world countless times.

This is very first time to have a guest player on WaFoo, and for most of us, it is the first time in our musician lives to play with the Japanese traditional musician in his caliber. We just did a rehearsal with Marco sensei and played four of our tunes. Marco sensei blew entirely different life into our music. I don’t want to give away the surprise so I won’t go details but the tunes were so different with his virtuoso shaku-hachi playing. Well, I hope I’ll be brave enough to play shamisen, which is another Japanese traditional instrument, right next to him.

Please come and check out our Spring concert on April 19th at St. Peter’s Church in Staten Island. I assure you the concert will be a lot of fun and surprises.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Helloooo

Just wanted to say hi to our dearest fans out there...

April has come (spring hasn't, it seems, though), and our Spring Concert is near as announced on our website. I'm sure it'll as well be announced on this blog very soon!

We'll welcome Mr. Marco Lienhard, founder of Taikoza, as a special guest and will collaborate with him on several tunes. We are working on the arrangements right now. Also some new materials are in store, so be sure to visit St. Peter's on April 19th!

That's it for now. Ciao.