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Tatsuya Nakatani

Tatsuya Nakatani (1970, Osaka) is a Japanese avant-garde sound artist and master percussionist. Based in the Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; he has released over 80 recordings and tours internationally. Performing solo, in collaboration, and with his Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO) project he plays over 100 concerts a year.

With his adapted Gong and handcrafted Kobo bow, Nakatani has developed his own unique instrumentation. A master of new sounds and extended technique; he sculpts a transformative, intense, expressive sound that engages improvised and experimental music while resisting genre. Central to his philosophy of sound is the concept of MA 間, which can be understood as the space or interval between perceptual events.

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3
Album Review

Tatsuya Nakatani: Confirmation

Read "Confirmation" reviewed by Nicola Negri


Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani moved from Japan to the U.S.A. in the mid 1990s, and since then he has worked with many important jazz and free improvisers, both historical figures like Peter Kowald or Fred Van Hove, and younger musicians like Ingrid Laubrock and Mary Halvorson. A specialist of the solo set, he builds his own instruments and employs original techniques to suit his particular style, blending an avant-jazz sensibility with the sense of space and laconic beauty of traditional Japanese ...

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Album Review

Tatsuya Nakatani, Shane Perlowin: Anatomy of a Moment

Read "Anatomy of a Moment" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Un'improvvisazione fortemente strutturata, di carattere non necessariamente jazzistico (semmai, per riferimenti linguistici, fra il country-blues e, più marginalmente, il contemporaneo) contrassegna quest'ottimo album del duo composto dal chitarrista di Asheville (North Carolina) Shane Perlowin e dal percussionista- rumorista giapponese (di Osaka, ma ormai di stanza in Pennsylvania) Tatsuya Nakatani, già attivo, fra gli altri, accanto a Eugene Chadbourne, Billy Bang, Peter Kowald e Frank Lowe. L'additato senso della struttura (della quadratura, se vogliamo) si esprime in verità ...

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Multiple Reviews

Tatsuya Nakatani / Harold Rubin / Barre Phillips / Assif Tsahar

Read "Tatsuya Nakatani / Harold Rubin / Barre Phillips / Assif Tsahar" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani's last visit to Israel produced two albums. Both are totally different in their spirit. Both feature Nakatani's unique manner of shaping and extracting sounds from the cymbals and the skins of the drums that blossom as a memorable music. Harold Rubin / Barre Phillips / Tatsuya Nakatani3 On A Thin LineHopscotch Records2013 This live recording from April 2009 documents the first ...

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Multiple Reviews

Tatsuya Nakatani: Essences and Abiogenesis

Read "Tatsuya Nakatani: Essences and Abiogenesis" reviewed by Clifford Allen


What is improvised music without visuality? While the music of improvising composers can be felt and picked apart aurally, the physical act of making music in an un- preconceived setting is something rather extraordinary and easily lost through the audible distance of a recording. It's not just the dynamic, theatrical high jinks of a player like percussionist Han Bennink or ferociously deft fiddling of bassist Barry Guy (with his table of accoutrements at the ready). That visualness can be in ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Take 6, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bonerama, Xmas jazz around town, and more

Jazz this week: Take 6, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bonerama, Xmas jazz around town, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's going to be a busy few days for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and though a couple of high-profile shows are sold out (or nearly so), there's still going to be plenty of music- holiday and other- available on local stages. Let's go to the highlights. Wednesday, December 13 Acappella vocal group Take 6 returns for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro. The run of shows was described by Jazz St. Louis on ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Yellowjackets, Peter Martin, Dave Bennett, Tatsuya Nakatani, and more

Jazz this week: Yellowjackets, Peter Martin, Dave Bennett, Tatsuya Nakatani, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers an album release event from one of the city's favorite homegrown piano players, plus funk and fusion, free improv, cabaret, swing, and more. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, October 7 The popular fusion band Yellowjackets (pictured, top left) return to St. Louis to begin a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, with a new member, bassist Dane Alderson, as part of the swarm. Alderson, who's ...

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Festival

Jazz This Week: A Gaslight Square Tribute, Mel Bay Jazz Festival, Storm Large, Tatsuya Nakatani, and More

Jazz This Week: A Gaslight Square Tribute, Mel Bay Jazz Festival, Storm Large, Tatsuya Nakatani, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in around St. Louis once again offers plenty of variety, from big bands to cabaret to free improv to a nostalgic look at an historic time for local music. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a tribute to Gaslight Square, beginning with a panel discussion featuring trumpeter Bob Ceccarini, saxophonist Freddie Washington and pianist Dave Venn, who all played various clubs in ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Bucky Pizzarelli and John Pizzarelli, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bhob Rainey, Dave Dickey Big Band, and More

Jazz This Week: Bucky Pizzarelli and John Pizzarelli, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bhob Rainey, Dave Dickey Big Band, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This weekend's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a few final chances to hear some holiday jazz, as well as music from a famed father-and-son team of guitarists and two evenings featuring touring free improvisors. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli and John Pizzarelli open a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro, continuing through Saturday.  While John Pizzarelli is a St. Louis favorite who has appeared here many times at the Bistro ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Billy Childs Quartet, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mephista, Arturo Sandoval, and More

Jazz This Week: Billy Childs Quartet, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mephista, Arturo Sandoval, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a couple of notable concerts of adventurous improvised music, plus an all-star quartet of modern mainstream players, a top Latin-jazz trumpeter, and more. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, pianist Billy Childs' quartet begins a four-night engagement, continuing through Saturday, at Jazz at the Bistro. Though Childs may be the nominal leader, it's something of an all-star band, with drummer Brian Blade, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson and ...

Performance / Tour

Tatsuya Nakatani, Darin Gray, Vanessa Skantze to Perform Thursday, October 4 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Tatsuya Nakatani, Darin Gray, Vanessa Skantze to Perform Thursday, October 4 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Improvising percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani is returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m., Thursday, October 4 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Nakatani (pictured), who's originally from Osaka, Japan but now lives in Pennsylvania, has played at LNAC several times in recent years, usually bringing a different concept or premise to each show. He typically employs a variety of sound sources, including drums, bowed gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects and bells, as well as various sticks, kitchen tools and ...

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Performance / Tour

Tatsuya Nakatani to Convene Gong Orchestra on Wednesday, April 13 at LNAC

Tatsuya Nakatani to Convene Gong Orchestra on Wednesday, April 13 at LNAC

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (pictured) is coming back to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. next Wednesday, April 13 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Nakatani was here most recently in November 2010 at LNAC, playing solo and in small groups with local improvisers. This time, he'll team up with some St. Louis musicians (still being confirmed, according to LNAC's Tom Hill) to form what's being called a “Gong Orchestra." Exactly how many gongs this will entail is unclear as ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Pat Martino, Romero Lubambo and Peter Martin, Tatsuya Nakatani, Barb Jungr, New Music Circle Showcase, and More

Jazz This Week: Pat Martino, Romero Lubambo and Peter Martin, Tatsuya Nakatani, Barb Jungr, New Music Circle Showcase, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's a busy time for jazz and creative music over the next few days in St. Louis, with events in styles ranging from soulful mainstream swing to adventurous free improv, plus holiday music, a tribute to a fallen Beatle, and lots more besides. Let's go to the highlights: Perhaps the best known musician visiting our town this week is guitarist Pat Martino, who plays tonight through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Martino is an acknowledged master of the classic ...

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Performance / Tour

Tatsuya Nakatani Returning to Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center on Friday, December 3

Tatsuya Nakatani Returning to Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center on Friday, December 3

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This just in: Improvising percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (pictured) will be back in St. Louis to perform at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center next Friday, December 3. Nakatani will perform solo, and also will improvise with some St. Louis musicians yet to be announced. Nakatani played the LNAC most recently back in January 2009, and has been on the road steadily this fall, touring Europe in September and October and continuing throughout the U.S. until the end of the year. St. ...

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Performance / Tour

Tatsuya Nakatani Quartet on 7/23 at Outpost 186

Tatsuya Nakatani Quartet on 7/23 at Outpost 186

Source: Kevin Frenette

World renowned master percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, bassist Carl Testa (from Anthony Braxton's 12+1tet) and Boston's own avant-jazz co-conspirators Kevin Frenette (guitar) and James Rohr (fender rhodes) present an evening of improvised music centering on exceptionally intricate interplay, texture and timbre. Friday July 23, 2010 OUTPOST 186 186 1/2 Hampshire Street Cambridge, MA 02139 8:00 PM Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion) is originally from Osaka, Japan. In 2006 he performed in 80 cities in 7 countries and collaborated with ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Anatomy of a Moment

New Atlantis Records
2014

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Present Presence

H&H Production
2013

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Ritual Inscription

H&H Production
2012

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Michiyuki

H&H Production
2011

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White Stone Black Lamp

H&H Production
2011

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Videos

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