Stardust(er)

Stardust(er) was commissioned by Chie Morimoto and Yoshio Nomura. The first performance was held on October 25, 2008 at the INAX Live Museum in Tokoname. The performers were Chie Morimoto(vln1) Sachie Umemura(vln2) Yoshiko Numura(vla) Aki Uchida(vcl) and Yoshio Nomura(gtr).

The piece was originally inspired by Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust”

Listen here
thanks to Sam Ishiguro for his audio recording expertise

Sor and The Cambodian chasing the Water Buffalo

Here are some pics- the first is my solo performance from last weekend and the other is of a duet Yoshio Nomura and I performing Woratep Rattana-umpawan's piece for two guitars "Three Thai Traditional Songs" the second movement appropriately named the "Cambodian chasing the Water Buffalo"

Starduster and Magic Flute Variations

Starduster for guitar and string quartet will have its premiere on October 25th at the INAX Live Museum. They're also performing some Puccini songs which I arranged for guitar string quartet and soprano, Debussy's string quartet, and Boccherrini's string sextet.
This Sunday I'll be performing Fernando Sor's Magic Flute Variations for guitar at Yoshio Nomura's Happyokai at the Cafe de Aria in Ozone.

Starduster and myoga- the ginger of forgetfulness

I've been frantically trying to finish my piece for guitar and string quartet . The piece is inspired by the book "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman, a great book that Glenn over at Oran let me borrow. They have some great new songs that you should check out.



I've also been eating large quantities of myoga or Japanese ginger- a very crunchy and pungent vegetable. They are known for making people forgetful- very dangerous for a forgetful person like me.



Also I have the mastered version of "Getting Here" over at my website. It's the same version that's on this month's copy of GuitarDream a bi-monthly guitar magazine produced here in Japan.

new website

www.jasonrtaylor.com

Getting Here version 1.1

Yoshio Nomura and I made a rough recording over the weekend of my piece for two guitars "Getting Here." The mic I used doesn't seem to be the best for classical guitars so please bear with it. We're planning on recording it a few more times until we get it right so just consider this to be version 1.1.Here are the links

Getting Here


I Early Morning Departure

II Over the Water III A possible, but most likely imagined Tribal Dance

Here are the program notes
Getting Here is based on the idea of soul delay. I read about it in Willian Gibson's book "Pattern Recognition." The idea is then your soul can only travel at about 100m per hour, so if you travel over that speed, your soul can't keep up with your body. So, once you arrive at your destination it might take a few days for your soul to catch up with you. I really liked this idea and I started imagining the adventures my soul might have had on its way to Japan...a lonely early morning departure on silent seas...some turbulence and mythical creature sightings...a tribal dance in the shadows...arrival-cherry blossom snow and the final reunion celebrations.

Oriental Dance in Shinjuku

I went to Tokyo this weekend with Luka and his grandmother. On Sunday we spent the night in Sakura a town near the coast in Chiba. There I finally met Mari's cousin, he was the only member of her family that I hadn't yet met. He's a Latin Ballroom dance teacher- it was fun to hear him talk about Mari when they were kids. He hasn't seen her for about 15 years.
On Monday we trekked over to Disneyland for a few hours- pizza, chocolate popcorn and then onto Shinjuku to see Mari's Tokyo debut. Actually her stage name is Mayardy. It was a great show and her performance was effortless. A lot of people came up to her afterwards with tears in their eyes- they were that moved! It was a great relief for me because she's been stressing about the performance for the past few months.