[Pdxevents] Japanese saxophonist Katsura Yamauchi two nights in Portland!

[Jonathan Sielaff]

Sunday, Dec. 2nd @ Valentines w/ Arrington de Dionyso, JP Jenkins, and
Asa Gervich

Wednesday, Dec. 5th @ The Funky Church w/ Arrington de Dionyso,
Jonathan Sielaff, and Matt Hannafin

(more details on the shows listed below)

One of the most singular Japanese saxophonists, Katsura Yamauchi has
been active in the free jazz scene in Japan for nearly three decades
and has played with many notable global
improvisers such as Otomo Yoshihide, Toshinori Kondo, Misha
Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Barre Phillips, and Michel Doneda, to name
just a few.
www.salmosax.com


++SUNDAY, December 2nd++
Katsura Yamauchi (soprano and baritone saxophones)
with  Arrington de Dionyso (of Old Time Relijun on bass clarinet and
throatsinging), JP Jenkins (guitar), and Asa Gervich (percussion)
at VALENTINES
232 SE Ankeny, Portland
503.248.1600
9pm
$donation

++WEDNESDAY, December 5th++
Katsura Yamauchi (soprano and baritone saxophones)
with  Arrington de Dionyso (of Old Time Relijun on bass clarinet and
throatsinging), Jonathan Sielaff (clarinets), and Matt Hannafin
(percussion)
at THE FUNKY CHURCH
2456 SE Tamarack Ave, Portland
www.funkychurch.com
8pm
$5 suggested donation


------------------
Katsura plays every member of the saxophone family, and he is renown for his
intimate explorations of music in nature- he has made recordings of
his saxophone playing while almost completely submerged in rivers-!

Katsura has been active in the free jazz scene in Japan for nearly
three decades, and has played with many of the notable global
improvisers such as Otomo Yoshihide, Toshinori Kondo, Misha
Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Barre Phillips, and Michel Doneda, to name
only a few. Katsura's biography is especially interesting, as he was a
businessman for a very important Japanese company for many years and
chose to retire early with very little security to instead pursue his
music exclusively without any regard for compromise. A short interview
with "Improvised Music from Japan" is included at the bottom of this
press release.


An Interview with Katsura Yamauchi

(Improvised Music from Japan EXTRA 2003) By Yoshiyuki Suzuki

It was last February that Katsura Yamauchi,a 40-something sax player
residing in Oita,Japan,made his Tokyo debut at Off Site and Super
Deluxe. In May he took off impulsively for Europe, where he ended up
giving several live performances. In July, back in Japan, he released
his debut solo CD, SALMO SAX. And it was just last October that he had
left his job as a company "salaryman"! So who is this Katsura
Yamauchi? I spoke with him at what was probably the most tumultuous
time of his life. YAMAUCHI: I was born in 1954 in Beppu,Oita
prefecture, but lived in a lot of different places. I first heard jazz
in my second year of high school. Then I started listening to modern
jazz, and then to free jazz. I was so into it, it's almost fair to say
that the reason I went to college--in Matsuyama, in Shikoku--was to do
Jazz. When I gladuated from high school, I decided I wanted to play an
instrument, and bought a cheap alto sax. I thought the best kind of
sax was a tenor, though, so I started playing a tenor sax that
belonged to the university jazz club. But I couldn't get a good sound
out of it. It's been that way ever since, and even now I don't own a
tenor. There was a period at university when I was playing only the
soprano sax. After I finished college and moved to Oita, I started
playing the alto more, and also started the sopranino. At the
university I limmediately joined the jazz club, but it seemed to be on
the verge of folding, so from the beginning I felt alone. Then in my
second year ,an older guy who'd been in the [free jazz association]
New Jazz Syndicate came back, and that gave me some hope. He and I
formed a band. There was another band ,called ING, that played my own
original pieces as well as free jazz. I also organized a 13-member
orchestra made up of working people and students from other
universities, and we played original compositions for two days at the
university festival. In realty, though, I was alone. Only my ideas
raced ahead --it wasn't good at all. I had passion, but,,,At the end
of my second year at university, my interest shifted from free jazz to
free improvisation. At that time I got in touch with Akira Aida, and
got involved in managing the concerts given in Matsuyama by overseas
musicians he invited --people like Milford Graves , Derek Bailey,
Tristan Honsinger, and Han Bennink. Not long after I started working
at a company, I stopped doing music. There was four-year period when I
wasn't playing, and during that period I changed jobs and relocated to
Oita City. But of course, I wanted to get back into music, so I found
a bunch of people who played jazz, and formed a band. I wanted to do
the kind of thing JCO [Jazz Composer's Orchestra] does, where members
play freely, with their sounds coming and going around a foundation of
written music --but since none of the other members could read music,
I didn't attain that goal. The band stayed together for a year and a
half. I'd always wanted to form an all-sax band, so I put together the
band Salmo Sax. I was aiming for music that was played by amateur
musicians, but that had world-slass originality; and for a style of
composition that was like systematized improvisation. There were three
or four sax players and one bassist, and the band continued for two or
three years, with membership changes. In the end, though, all we did
was play written music. After that, in desperation, I got 13 musicians
together--three or four rhythm players and the rest sax players--and
formed the band Sax Darakes -u. Half of what we played was existing
music, and half original pieces. That band lasted about a year, too.
That was a year or two ago. In my mind there's always been a pairing
of "improvisation" and "band" --- "band" meaning composed works. For
example, AACM [the Association for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians], JCO, and ICP [Instant Composers Pool] all compose music
and create their own world, right? That's influenced me. What I
learned from jazz and improvisation is "Make musik in your own way." I
don't write great stuff or have strong concepts, by any means, but
whenever I've wanted to do something, I've set it in motion myself.
But the gap [between ideas and] reality is really large. I've formed a
lot of bands, but...unlike in Tokyo, there are always a lot of
problems in regional cities. This is going to sound arrogant, but you
have to "bring up" [musicians in those cities]. None of them have the
concept of making a new kind of musik. That's a huge obstacle. And
when the musicians that you've brought up leave, it's the end of the
band. But the band called Penampe, which I started ten years ago, is
still going. The members are amateurs--they're not brilliant
musicians--but after ten years, they're putting out some good sounds.
Currently, all our tunes but one are originals. The formation is sax,
guiter, bass, piano and drums, and we play free jazz and modal jazz.
And about six months ago I formed Salmo Band with the bassist and the
drummer from Sax Darakesu. I get the feeling these two are gaining an
understanding of improvisations. Sometimes I reflect on my life so
far, and think that I have to live in a better way. The fact that
working at the company was getting tougher...my own body, my age...I
think all these things came together to push me to quit. I felt I
could imagine a time when I wouldn't be able to make music anymore.
It's unbelievable to cancel a performance because of a meeting or a
business trip, isn't it? I thought, I've been working hard for 23
years--that's enough. I'm 48 now. I know very well thatI can't make a
living with music. You could say that's why I've been working for a
company all this time. But as long as I'm doing that , I can't be a
musician. Anyway, the new phase is just beginning. I don't think I can
continue playing only in Oita [a city far from Tokyo, on the island of
Kyushu]. So what I'm vaguely thinking is that I'd like to be able to
divide [my performance activity] equally between Oita, Tokyo, and
overseas. Ideally. All this time as a "salaryman," I've lived a very
limited kind of life. Now I'd like to gather the energy to throw off
those limitations, and feel that what lies beyond them is music.
Yoyogi, Tokyo February 21,2003

musicians played with
Until Oct. 2002. / I played with Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Ernst
Reijseger, Barre Phillips, Mototeru Takagi, Toshinori Kondo, Yoshihide
Otomo, Kim Dae-Hwan, Sabu Toyozumi, Keiki Midorikawa, Kazuhisa
Uchihashi, Yoshimitsu Ichiraku, Yuko Fujiyama, Fuwa Daisuke, etc.
(After the retirement)
Masahiko Okura, Taku Unami, Michel Doneda, Tetsu Saito, Syuichi Chino,
Sharif Sehnaoui, Gunter Muller, Norbert Moeslang, Jason Kahn, sachiko
M