I looked for jazz and folk melodies that sound “natural” on the shakuhachi. Shakuhachi is not a fully chromatic instrument in the same sense as piano or saxophone. Not all notes in the 12 note western scale have equal volume or tone. But the shakuhachi offers a wealth of microtonal expression and the ability to speak in anything from a whisper to a roar.
Then I sought out friends to bring the music to life. Luckily my friends are some of the best musicians in the world! Billy Ficca has been the drummer in my favorite rock band, Television, for over 30 years. He is a true poet of percussion, constantly inventive. He simply plays whatever he wants all the time and does not worry about convention or what other people think. Tony Trischka is widely regarded as one of the greatest banjo players of all time. He is musically intrepid. John Kruth is one of the most genre bending mandolin players out there. Tuba player Dan Nosheny uses the instrument as a bass, a wailing horn or a noise machine at will.
The music was recorded live in one room with no separation. Tuba and banjo were common instruments in early jazz before being replaced by upright string bass and guitar. In an abstract sense we maintained some of the spirit of early jazz through the use of collective improvisation. Because of the Zen origin of the shakuhachi we also strove for some of the related spiritual energy of 60’s jazz, thus the Coltrane and Ayler songs. In fact, John Coltrane was experimenting with Shakuhachi at the time of his death, which indicates to me that this is a valid musical direction.
The name “Shakuhachi Club” is a double entendre. First I wanted it to be a club, not a band, so that people join for fun, not professionalism. Second the shakuhachi expanded in length and girth when the monks using shakuhachi were forbidden by the Japanese government to carry swords. They started making the flutes out of heavy root end bamboo so that it could be used to club opponents on the head.
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