• Performance Schedule:
  Thursday 24 April @ PICO
  17 (Sat) and 18 (Sun) May:　Western Japan Stick Seminar
  Sunday 18 May:　Hiroshima Stick Night @ Rakuza

I was able to finish my performance at Jimo Cafe without too many mishaps. Thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy the music!
In a sense, sometimes I feel that the type of music I perform doesn’t really fit Jimo Cafe very well. However, I really like both the atmosphere and the owner, and hope to play there again soon.

By the way, here is my set list from Saturday night:

１．Floater
２．Air Dancer
３．My Funny Valentine
４．Jive
BREAK
５．Resonance of Lonely Places/Peak Not Through
６．Love Theme from “Pink Shaved Lips”
７．Soon
８．Pleasant Fiction
９．Lift Off

I will be solo at PICO on the 24th (Thursday), promoting the upcoming “Hiroshima Stick Night” on Sunday 18 May. See the Schedule section for details.

Special Discount Ticket Price for “Hiroshima Stick Night”
Anyone who comes to my 24 April show at PICO can purchase a Hiroshima Stick Night ticket at the discount price of 1500 yen. One night only, one ticket per person.

To apply for the seminar or request tickets to Hiroshima Stick Night, contact ramuji at 080-5612-8243 or by email.

• Performance Schedule:
  Saturday 19 April @ Jimo Cafe
  Thursday 24 April @ PICO
  17 (Sat) and 18 (Sun) May:　Western Japan Stick Seminar
  Sunday 18 May:　Hiroshima Stick Night @ Rakuza

I will be performing two times in April.

Saturday 19 April @ Jimo Cafe
Thursday 24 April at PICO

See the Schedule section for details. I will be performing both of these shows solo, promoting the upcoming “Hiroshima Stick Night” on Sunday 18 May.

Special Discount Ticket Price for “Hiroshima Stick Night”
Anyone who comes to my 24 April show at PICO can purchase a Hiroshima Stick Night ticket at the discount price of 1500 yen. One night only, one ticket per person.

To apply for the seminar or request tickets to Hiroshima Stick Night, contact ramuji at 080-5612-8243 or by email.

• Performance Schedule:
  Thursday 27 March @ Organ-za
  17 (Sat) and 18 (Sun) May:　Western Japan Stick Seminar
  Sunday 18 May:　Hiroshima Stick Night @ Rakuza

This month, I’ll be peforming live for the first time in about 6 months. I’ll be appearing on stage Thursday the 27th at Organ-za, a cafe opened in February by my friend Goto Izumi. It will be an easy-going evening with no charge (but contributions accepted), at 8pm and again at 10pm. Organ-za is a wonderful cafe with a unique atmosphere that is both welcoming and relaxing. And, the food is marvelous! Please come by on the 27th, and be sure to say hello.

So, I’m finally recovering from 6 months of musical inactivity. There actually were reasons for my break, but 6 months is too long. However, a great plan was devised and hatched during that time. I am combining forces with Derek Dallenger, a Stick player living in Kyushu, to organize a seminar for teaching the Stick method to beginning and intermediate students.
Derek and I have discussed this for quite some time, and now we are finally seeing it through right here in Hiroshima. With the wonderful assitance of Musician’s Institute Japan, we will be holding the 2008 Western Japan Stick Seminar on 17 and 18 May 2008. For more information, see the Western Japan Stick Seminar page.

On the second day of the seminar (Sunday the 18th), we will be joined by special-guest instructor and leading Japanese Stick player Kanamaru Toshiaki. On the night of the 18th, we will bring the weekend to a close with the Hiroshima Stick Night at Rakuza, featuring performances by Kanamaru, Dallenger, and ramuji.

To apply for the seminar or request tickets to Hiroshima Stick Night, contact ramuji at 080-5612-8243 or by email.

• Performance Schedule:
  No more performances scheduled for 2006

The weekend in Tokyo with Stick player Greg Howard was wonderful. Greg was in Japan for the first time in six years, during the weekend of 18, 19, and 20 November. He had a busy weekend, including a joint concert with Stick player Kanamaru Toshiaki on the 18th, a Chapman Stick clinic on the 19th, and finally returning home to the US on the 20th.

I learned a lot about Greg’s Stick technique, but there was so much to absorb in such a short time that my head felt close to bursting. I have no performances scheduled for December, so I’ll use that time to study and practice the basic techniques I learned from Greg.

We also had time to discuss a few other things, such as the state of Stick activity in Japan and an exciting project Greg

has coming up soon that I may be able to lend him a hand on. We plan to keep in touch and work together to elevate the Stick scene in Japan, a little at a time.

Photo 1: With Greg Howard, at the Ishibashi Music Store in Shibuya

Photo 2: Greg Howard plays ramuji’s graphite Stick

• Performance Schedule:
  Saturday 9 September @ Jimo Cafe
  Saturday 16 September: Stick Seminar @ MI JAPAN
  Tuesday 19 September @ Rakuza

Below is a picture I took with Emmett Chapman while visiting him and his wife, Yuta, at their home in Los Angeles a few years ago. It was a pleasure to finally meet and get to know the two of them a little better, even for the brief time during my two-day stay in LA. I received the grand tour of their beautiful home, which includes the electronics workshop for adjusting/repairing Stick pickups (garage), the wood workshop for sanding and finishing Stick bodies (garage), final setup workbench for stringing and making minor adjustments to finished Sticks (large room on the second floor), and packaging area for boxing, labeling, and sending out finished Sticks to anxious customers (front room on the first floor).

• Performance Schedule:
  Saturday 9 September @ Jimo Cafe
  Saturday 16 September: Stick Seminar @ MI JAPAN
  Tuesday 19 September @ Rakuza
  

Below are the posters I’ve designed for my performances in September. I had a bit more trouble than usual this time, because the photos available to me just didn’t work well together. The background photo for the Jimo Cafe gig is a snapshot my wife took several years ago that I’ve always liked (and used before, actually). For the Rakuza gig, Izumi provided a very nice portrait of herself that I ended up using as the background, and then superimposed our individual photos on top of it, adding a bit of blur to her photo so that it more closely matches the natural blur in mine.

Addendum: I just remembered that the photo of me in the poster with Izumi was snapped by Stick player Bob Culbertson while he was visiting Hiroshima in November 2005.

• Performance Schedule:
  ramuji @ Rakuza on Friday 14 July

This photo was taken by Ishizawa-san, owner of Rakuza, at the end of the night on Saturday. Both Kanamaru-san and I were quite tired at this point, and still recovering from our colds.

The great time I had at Rakuza has really lit a fire under my ass. I’ve been putting in a lot more practice time than before, and I’m working on new material for the first time in a very long time. Right now I have a performance scheduled for July, but I would like to be able to schedule something for the end of June as well. Maybe I can work something out this weekend …

• Performance Schedule:
  ramuji @ Rakuza on Friday 14 July

I really enjoyed sharing the stage with Kanamaru-san at Rakuza on Saturday. I had hoped for and expected more people to show up, but those who did come were enthusiastic and attentive. Kanamaru-san impressed the audience with his powerful melodies and extremely clean technique. He also talked from the stage about how much he likes coming to Hiroshima and looks forward to playing a show here again in the near future, which drew enthusiastic applause from the audience.

I had a lot of fun playing my music during my set, and it occurred to me later that I hadn’t experienced that feeling in such a long time. After about the first two songs, I was able to simply focus on my music and really get into what I was doing. I played two new songs, one of which I think has a lot of promise while the other one bordered on disaster. After the very bad ending to that song, I made a bit of a joke about it and the audience responded with friendly laughter, and then I immediately went into “Lift Off”, which was probably my most solid tune of the show.

This photograph was taken by a friend during my set. I hope to get a few more photos in a few days from a couple of other people that were snapping shots throughout the night.

• Performance Schedule:
  Kanamaru & ramuji @ Rakuza on Saturday 27 May

I’m really excited about my joint performance on Saturday with Kanamaru-san. In addition to getting out and playing more myself, I want to invite more Stick players to Hiroshima for performances, and possibly more diverse events in the future if we can create enough interest in the instrument here.

One of Kanmaru-san’s regular gigs in Tokyo is a series of “TOMOYAARTS & Kanamaru Toshiaki Live Events”. The painter and the Stick player perform together completely unrehearsed and improvisational, feeding off of and contributing to each other’s performance. Kanamaru-san is also in the process of recording his second album, so I’ll be looking forward to hearing his new material on the 27th.

I have two performances coming up in May. On Saturday 6 May I’ll be doing a short opening set for local rock band Rocket 88, at Kapone. Then, on Saturday 27 May, I’ll be performing a double bill with Stickist Toshiaki Kanamaru at Rakuza. Kanamaru-san is coming down from Tokyo for his first performance in Hiroshima.

See the Schedule section for details about locations and times.