Composer/bassist Tatsu Aoki and reedist Mwata Bowden continue to explore the intersection of traditional Japanese music and experimental jazz they mapped out in 2001’s Rooted: Origins of Now. Bowden and fellow wind players Francis Wong and Jeff Chan blow loosely over Japanese taiko drums, alternately feeding the rhythms and breaking them apart. The ensemble creates music as optimistic as a village festival or as ritualized and mysterious as Kabuki, simultaneously ancient and postmodern.
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