A concert by TaikoProject drummers is a balance between Japanese tradition and contemporary American performance art.
TaikoProject’s “(re)generation” program is a theatrical production blending drumming with storytelling, spoken word, music, hip-hop choreography and multimedia.
The group performs Thursday in Edmonds.
Taiko (Japanese for drum) performances have roots far back in Japan’s history when drums were used to bless crops, summon rain, and perform rituals for religious and military functions.
In the United States, the first formal taiko group was founded by Seiichi Tanaka in 1968 in San Francisco. He’s credited with bringing group taiko from Japan after he noticed the absence of taiko at the first San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival.
For many, taiko channeled anger about discrimination against Asian-Americans into a positive form, creating a sense of pride in the process.
“Taiko in the U.S. was strongly influenced by young Asian-Americans motivated by seeing black and Chicano power movements and finding their own voice as well,” said artistic director Bryan Yamami, who joined the group in 2002, two years after it started.
“Because of the (World War II) internment, many had suppressed their Japanese heritage. They tried to blend in … then the (younger people) questioned how they had been brought up,” Yamami said.
The TaikoProject of Los Angeles uses drums from the Asano Taiko Co., founded in 1609 and one of Japan’s most prestigious taiko drum makers.
Taiko drums require wood from old-growth trees that is cured for at least a few decades; drums may last for hundreds of years.
The shime taiko is similar to a snare drum but constructed with two heads of cowhide with metal rings that are tightened around the wooden body of the drum. The sound is high-pitched.
The okedo taiko is made of wood glued together, two heads on each side. It’s about the length of a tom-tom drum.
“Most of ours are one- to one-and-a-half feet in diameter and two feet tall. However, you can make them as large as you can find a cow,” Yamami said.
The main drum is the nagado taiko, carved from a single tree trunk and hollow inside. The skin heads are tacked on rather than using metal rings, making it untunable.
“It’s big and booming. It can be a couple of feet to eight to 10 feet wide and has a powerful sound,” Yamami said.
The verbal interaction on stage is usually in Japanese.
“Most of the vocals have no literal meaning, they just enhance the performance. It’s encouragement … transmitting energy between members and with the audience, although some of it is choreographed,” Yamami said.
There’s a hip-hop twist to the TaikoProject, whose musicians are 20 to 30 years old.
“Our generation was brought up with hip-hop music (and) our taiko is influenced by whatever they’ve listened to. The generation before listened to Earth, Wind and Fire and Motown, and that was their influence.
“For us, we create a work that has rhythms we grew up with. Some of our choreography and style and attitude are drawn from some of our members who work with hip-hop teams.”
There’s a layer of humor and joy to the production that comes from Yamami’s theater background.
“My work with theater opened my eyes to what a performance can be using different theatrical elements to evoke an emotion. I wanted a roller coaster of different emotions: excited, sad, happy, nostalgic, and with a lot of theater shows, there’s only one or two emotions.
“We wanted to show an edgier humor or more genuine stories, personal stories, as well as playing pieces that are loud and powerful as well as the quiet types,” Yamami said.
TaikoProject has also collaborated with other musicians, including a klezmer clarinetist, a Vietnamese singer and a Chicano rock band, as well as performing in a Mitsubishi TV commercial.
TaikoProject’s “(re)generation”
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N., Edmonds; $14-$28; 425-275-9595.
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