John Neptune Shakuhachi Improv Take 5 について・・・
This is an improvisation by John Neptune at the Mejiro Shakuhachi building workshop in Tokyo April, 2008. Not only is he a top notch player but builds some incredible jinashi shaks and teaches his method at the annual Mejiro workshop. Best of all, he's a very nice guy.
http://www.mejiro-japan.com/system/index_e.php?c_id=11
John has been one of my all time favorite musicians ever since I was blown away by his world fusion albums West of Somewhere and Shogun back in the mid 80's (at that time world fusion didn't even exist as a musical genre.....). After I heard him play I bought a wooden shak on a business trip to Japan, and years later there I was at his workshop in Tokyo.
You'll recognize this primarily as the Dave Brubeck jazz classic Take 5. Luckily enough, I had been talking to him about his jazz stuff a bit earlier so it must have been in the back of his mind when it came time to play. This is performed on his personal 1.8 flute. I was fortunate enough to play it and it is certainly one incredible and UNIQUE flute. I only regret that the audio/video quality of my camera really sucks because it doesn't do his playing justice at all.....
I should mention that his website is here:
http://www.pacificsites.com/~jneptune/
Check out the audio samples of Steps in Time and Bamboo Magic.
Also, some of his CD's are available at www.cdbaby.com
I emailed John to ask him if it was OK to post this vid on YouTube. He didn't say no....... Then again, he did tell me that he never answers his mail......
A shout out to my friend Jose in Spain who was also at the workshop!
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