Search - Tadashi Tajima :: Shingetsu: Shakuhachi

The Japanese call the spiritual practice of playing shakuhachi (bamboo flute) suizen, or "blowing Zen," and this eight-song cycle by Tadashi Tajima carries all that discipline's earmarks: mindfulness, concentration, stillness. Handed down from a musical tradition developed in the 17th and 18th centuries by Zen monks, and refined into a breathy technique by the 20th-century player Watazumi, the style Tajima plays on tracks like "Sagari Ha (Falling Leaf)," "Shingetsu (Heart Moon)," and "Tamuke (Offering)" embraces free rhythms not unlike the Hindustani alap--long modal melody lines, and careful articulation between sound and breath. If, as its proponents insist, shakuhachi is a "Tool of the Way," Tajima's exposition is as good a set of footprints on that path as you're likely to hear. --James Rotondi