Daniel Mantey - 'Five Mountains' ('Gozan') - (Shakuhachi improvisation)

'Five Mountains' (Gozan) - Daniel Mantey, 1994. Performed by Daniel Mantey, Music All Sorts; shakuhachi. This is largely an improvised piece, but does follow a set structure. I had first conceived and played it back in 1994, at the close of a Japanese Tea-ceremony I was serving in the tea room of my Wabi Shop, back in Cleveland, Ohio. The idea is to musically portray the mountains surrounding the east, north, and west sides of Kyoto, Japan. In these mountains are the five main temples of five of the sects of Buddhism, which were called the 'Five Mountains' in imitation of the similarly called five main temples in China. One can view the mountains (the Kyoto ones!) easily from the roof of our building (except that a 4-story Kimono factor next door blocks some of the Western peaks), and everyday the view is different, depending of course on the weather, clouds, time of day, etc. So, my piece shares that 'every day sounds different' element, while still being a musical view of the same 'Five Mountains.' I had done this recording in 1996, on my VERY last day in Cleveland, before coming here to Japan. My room was empty, had borrowed a huge cassette recording machine, and after all the sound checks played 30 minutes of music. I must have bumped the mic or something, but when I checked afterwards, there was a horrible buzz covering all the music. Darn, had to do it all over. I can so clearly hear myself expressing that frustration, in the opening of this second take, but I do settle down and the sun does shine a little bit trough all the hazey clouds once it gets going. And, just so you know, I sort of just did a check-list of all my favorite cool riffs that I like to use, and put them all together into this view of the mountains. That is one of my old press-photos in the background (thank you Geoffery Pankhurst!) and a unique Shaku. playing Tanuki in the foreground! He is unique! Only ONE of him in the world. At one of my Kyoto Shakuhachi recitals around 1998, one of the owners of one of the big Kimono factories (NOT the one next door) was in attendance, and he later evidently went to one of the big Ceramic Factories (certainly a friend of his) and had him make a pair of Shakuhachi playing Tanuki! A month or so after the concert, he brought them both to my home, and let me pick the one I wanted. He kept the other. The other was holding, but not playing the shakuhachi, so I took this one. Only one of each of these!!! (You otherwise do see Tanuki statues ALL over Japan...and I will not go into one of the embarrassing details of these stautes.) Might record a new version of 'Gozan' one of these days?

Видео Daniel Mantey - 'Five Mountains' ('Gozan') - (Shakuhachi improvisation) канала Daniel Mantey