Kodo

We took the Bart (local train) into Berkeley last night to see Kodo. Now when ever I take the Bart I feel like I’m on the way to Japan or I have a sense of being in Japan going somewhere. Because that is how we travel there, so now I get flash backs. Without the acid

The Bart( Bay Area Rapid Transit ) was convenient, we were already sent notice the parking would be bad. The Bart station is about 5 blocks away a 10 min walk and this BART station has a significance with it.

We missed our connection Bart at the change over , but still made it in time for the show.

The Kodo group was amazing!! Started with some small carry-able drums and proceeded to larger and larger ones. It was not only an audio treat but a visual one as well, due to the body timing and dramatic movements. They even had comedy without speaking any words. The drummers were in amazing shape! I kept thinking of martial art abilities, with their low stances and handling of the drummer sticks, which in the case of the large drums were not thin little one , but more like clubs and baseball bats. I would hate to have to deal with these guys with swords!

Below is someone else’s write up of their Kodo experience a couple of years ago. I think they say it well:

Kodo is the pre-eminent taiko (Japanese drumming) group in the world, they play all over the world to rave reviews and standing ovations. (Their “Best of Kodo” CD was named one of the top 100 classical CDs by Sony.) I think they are one of the best performance troupes I have ever seen. See http://www.kodo.or.jp.

“Indeed, if there is such a thing as perfection in music, Kodo comes as near to it as any group in the world.”

–The Boston Globe

“Superlatives don’t really exist to convey the primal power and bravura beauty of Kodo.”
– Chicago Tribune
Taiko drumming is primal, precision, and incredibly athletic–top taiko drummers are as muscular and “cut” as any top athlete, but can play with great delicacy as well. One of Kodo’s signature acts, “Monochrome”, involves nine drummers playing in unison, from barely audible to filling the entire concert hall with sound–and sounding like a single drummer until they choose to explode into complex musical rhythms.

On the other end, they have one of the largest drums in the world, almost 6 feet across–the o-daiko. The o-daiko is so large that it is traditionally played by two people–one beats out a basic rhythm on one side, the other improvises and plays the main tune. Playing the o-daiko is not for the faint of heart–it’s an incredibly athletic performance and a test of physical endurance. They’re literally whacking away on this thing with giant clubs, 3″ in diameter. The deep bass notes of the drum vibrate in your body–it’s felt as much as heard. But again, it’s not uncontrolled passion; they know exactly what they’re doing and how to get precise sounds out of the o-daiko.

(To give you an idea of how athletic they are, one year Kodo ran the Boston Marathon–just for the fun of it–and then gave a concert afterwards. Wowza.)

Taiko drumming is a mix of primal music, martial arts, and (a little bit) dance, as in rhythmic and dramatic movements of the whole body. But you really have to experience it. If Kodo is coming anywhere near your town buy tickets. You won’t regret it. I have been going to their performances since 1987 and have yet to see them get anything less than a standing ovation (one year they got three!). They are truly legendary.

( They got three last night from us also…Zen)