Action Research 101

Action Research #101:

Tatsuya Nakatani
(solo)
(Easton, PA)
http://www.hhproduction.org/all-otherinfo.html

Nakatani Gong Orchestra
(Tatsuya Nakatani leading an ensemble comprised of Kenzie Cooke, John David Eriksen, Jason Gottfried, Brian Lee, Mitch Myers, Evan Shafran, Gray Spengler, & Tristan Whitehill)
http://www.hhproduction.org/NGO.html

Gatto Pazzo
(Orlando, FL)
http://www.facebook.com/gattopazzomusick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU_OmGpcksk

(Evan Shafran (trapset, trumpet, trombone) - Jim Ivy (reeds) and Kris Gruda (guitar, voice, kazoos, electronics, cassette tape, various other objects).)

______________________
TATSUYA NAKATANI
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Tatsuya Nakatani is a creative percussionist originally from Osaka, Japan.

He has been residing in the USA since 1994 and is currently based in Easton, PA. Since the late 1990s, Mr. Nakatani has released over sixty recordings in the USA and Europe and has performed countless solo percussion concerts through intensive touring. He has also collaborated with hundreds of other artists internationally and presented masterclasses, workshops and lectures across the USA and around the world.

Nakatani's approach to music is visceral, non-linear and intuitively primitive, expressing an unusually strong spirit while avoiding any categorization. He creates sound via both traditional and extended percussion techniques, utilizing drums, bowed gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects and bells, as well as various sticks, kitchen tools and homemade bows, all of which manifest in an intense and organic music that represents a very personal sonic world. His approach is steeped in the sensibilities of free improvisation, experimental music, jazz, rock, and noise, and yet retains the sense of space and quiet beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music. His percussion instruments can imitate the sounds of a trumpet, a stringed instrument or an electronic device to the extent that it becomes difficult to recognize the source of the sound. He has devoted himself to a musical aesthetic where rhythm gives way to pulse, often in a way that is not always audible or visible, in currents that incorporate silence and texture. Nakatani’s primary music activities include solo percussion performance, N.G.O. (Nakatani Gong Orchestra) and collaborations with musicians and dancers both in live performance and recordings.

Tatsuya Nakatani has spent the past several years traveling and performing extensively throughout the United States and beyond. His constant touring fosters the raw and fresh quality in his music, which can only survive through an open willingness to share energy, culture, music and self on a global human scale. He has toured and performed in Japan, China, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, England, Scotland, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Argentina, Chile, Israel and across the USA, coast to coast. While touring, he also conducts master classes and workshops at schools and universities, emphasizing his unique musical approach and philosophy.

Tatsuya collaborates and performs with a wide range of artists, from internationally renowned musicians to students of all ages, occupations and musical skill levels.

Nakatani has performed in all sorts of venues worldwide, from international music festivals to local community centers, artist lofts to university concert halls, including a recent performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He values and appreciates grass-roots organized shows set up and promoted by local musicians and promoters in all types of settings -- independent artist organizations, clubs and bars, private lofts, squat houses, coffee shops and even packed house shows run by enthusiastic college kids.

Nakatani also works as a sound designer for film and television and heads his own H&H Production, an independent record label and recording studio based in Easton, Pennsylvania.
He was selected as a performing artist for the Pennsylvania Performing Artist on Tour (PennPat) roster and was also awarded a Bronx Arts Council Individual Artist grant.

For more info, see http://www.hhproduction.org/TATSUYA_BIO.html

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NAKATANI GONG ORCHESTRA
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The unconventional, uncontrollable, and uncertain qualities of gong sounds are percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani’s passion. Having played bowed gongs for over ten years, he has toured and performed all over the U.S. and internationally with the instruments in his van, many of which he created himself. While on tour, Nakatani enjoys collaborating with local orchestra crews from the cities he visits.

The music of N.G.O. creates a metallic temple of deep harmonies. The gongs are bowed and softly struck by mallets to produce sounds that defy musical categorization. A 40-inch large gong creates extreme low-frequency wave forms that cross-vibrate with the tones of the other gongs of varying sizes. The result is a sound which emanates from the deepest frequency pool and is felt in the very depths of the body.

All stands, bows and mallets are assembled or hand-made by Nakatani as an important phase of the composing process of N.G.O. and its music.

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N.G.O. PLAYERS
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Kenzie Cooke (Hear Hums)
John David Eriksen (Ice Jet)
Jason Gottfried
Brian Lee (Ice Jet, The Hifi Envelope)
Evan Shafran (Gatto Pazzo)
Gray Spengler
Mitchell Myers (Hear Hums, Peace Arrow)
Tristan Whitehill (Euglossine, MSNRA)

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
8:30pm
The Church of Holy Colors
11 SE 5th St.
Gainesville, FL

sliding scale $5-$10

Thank you.

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/142796952545877/