Beat me daddy, eight to the bar

The Drunkawife has been urging me to post a pic or two of the Taiko drummers we saw last week at the Zen Center of Denver, of which she has long been a very inactive member (zen joke!).

First on was koto virtuoso Junko Shigeta. She and a flute player did a couple of classical duets by the father of the modern koto music, Miyagi Michio, whom Shigeta kept referring to endearingly as "Mr. Miyagi."


Left: Not a great pic, but that's a koto, ok? There was a problem. See the guy upper left? He kept following me around suggesting pictures I should take, and he had the worst breath in human history. I'm just a country blogger, Jim, and out of self-preservation I didn't hang around and wait for the perfect shot. Right: koto side-on. Check out the inlay.


"Stairway to Heaven" transcribed for koto.

Boom boom boom boom

Then came the Denver Taiko drummers, who've been around for almost 30 years and sound like infantry trained in rythmic concussion-grenade throwing.

The woman up front is DT's leader. She's about 4-foot-9, but crack wise and she'll beat you like a bongo, too.

The recently renovated Zen Center of Denver is beautiful, by the way. If I were hankerin' after feet like lotuses, the Zen Center of Denver is the place I'd be.