Maps and Memories

Noted by The New York Times as a "virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer" and the LA Times as one of the "better kept secrets of Southern California music," Kojiro Umezaki (梅崎康二郎) has performed regularly with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2001. He appears on the Grammy Award winning album Sing Me Home, A Playlist Without Borders, Off the Map, and the Grammy-nominated 2015 documentary film, The Music of Strangers, directed by Morgan Neville. In a Circle Records released (Cycles), an album of original work, in 2014, and 流芳 Flow, a duo album with Wu Man, in 2021. Other notable recordings as performer, composer, and/or producer include Brooklyn Rider's Dominant Curve, Nicole Mitchell's Mandorla Awakening II, Kei Akagi's Aqua Puzzle, and Huun Huur Tu's Ancestors Call. Born to a Japanese father and Danish mother, Umezaki grew up in Tokyo, and continues to explore global and hybrid practices in music.

Soukaku Reibo (巣鶴鈴慕) is one of the thirty-plus works in the Kinko-ryu classical shakuhachi repertoire, initially compiled by Kurosawa Kinko in the 18th century. Often translated as “Nesting of the Cranes,” this version is a direct reference to the recording made by Goro Yamaguchi, which was included on the Voyager Golden Record.

(Cycles) what falls must rise

In 1818, Yoshizaki Hachiya returned home to the musically rich and distinct Tsugaru region in Northern Japan where he taught other members of the noble class what he learned while studying shakuhachi at the important Fuke sect temple, Ichigetsuji, in modern day Chiba Prefecture. From Yoshizaki's teachings developed a distinct and lasting school of performance known now as Nezasa-ha. "Sagariha" (directly translated as "Falling Leaves") is perhaps the best known of its works today. Legend has it that a Tsugaru noble achieved enlightenment while playing this piece which evoked the sound of wind rushing through a bamboo grove or the endless cycles of oncoming and receding waves along the cold northern coastlines.

If enlightenment characterizes the sacred musics and their derivations in secular forms at one end of the Silk Road, transcendence often does at the other. Having been a member of the Silk Road Ensemble for over twenty years, playing with tradition bearers and innovators of classical music from India, Azerbaijan, and Iran, for example, constantly reminds us of how, despite differences in culture and musical expression, ideas and practices are shared and possibly transformed all the time. One could argue that meditation and transcendence, as captured in music, is no exception. That musical sources and ideas originating from geographically and culturally distinct areas of the world can coexist convincingly in the same piece is a foundational belief and motivation for this work.

As the title "Cycles" suggests, the setup for this piece is one of perpetual constraint, which admittedly is not entirely consistent with basic definitions of enlightenment and transcendence! Nonetheless, in true optimistic pessimist fashion, a descent inspired by the "Sagariha" melody is followed modes and rhythms lying somewhere between the foreign and familiar serving as the ascension only to conclude back again at the top, ready for the inevitable next iteration...or not?

-Program Notes by Kojiro Umezaki