Performance Notes: Nakatani

Tatsuya Nakatani
Satori Coffee House
December 9, 2006

First Set: Nakatani Solo (Percussion)

Gorgeous and mysterious. He began and ended with bowed gong and was able to create an amazing tonal presence: warm and cold, smooth and angular, dark and bright. All of this was felt before he "struck" any piece of percussion, but by the time he began to accompany the gong with bass drum, one could appreciate the sense of tonal space Nakatani was creating and the importance that every movement, every note, every gesture, now gained.

Second Set: Trio = Bazar (tabletop guitar)/McLeod (guitar)/Nakatani

From the first note, a very different, but still gratifying, experience in comparison to the first set. Bazar had the overall same approach as Nakatani here, translating the smallest scratches, rubs, taps, and scrapes into sound. But because Bazar was amplified, there was a much more sustained sinister quality to his proceedings (think of the dark hum and factory noises that haunt the characters in Eraserhead). McLeod arpeggiates possibilities and has a way of almost creating a harmonic cushion for everyone to rest on. The cushion never gets fully inflated and the listener never gets the chance to get too comfortable, which, for me, is the sweetest tension.

Third Set: Trio + DSSAC

An eight-piece group improv and one of the quietest that I have ever been a part of. Bazar described it as some sort of "organism." Even with four of the group using some type of electronics, the whole piece felt and moved organically. No real beginnings or endings, just bubbles floating to the surface: bird calls, bowed bass, singing bowls.

A big THANK YOU:

to everyone who came out to listen.
to Tatsuya Nakatani, Scott Bazar, and Jeff McLeod.
to everyone else who performed.
to Satori Coffee House.
to Sarah for the pics (including the one above) and treats (glad you found a place to get rid of those "fucking cookies.")