CD
Improvised Music from Japan, IMJ-505
Released in May 2003
Purchase price in Japan: 2,000 yen (tax not included)
(For purchase outside of Japan, prices vary.)
Shoji Hano: drums
Drummer Shoji Hano began his performing career in the '80s, playing with artists like Toshinori Kondo (trumpet) and Kaoru Abe (alto sax, etc.). Since his first European tour in 1990, he has played in many countries and collaborated with a wide range of musicians. Some of Hano's performances with sax players Peter Brötzmann of Germany and the late Werner Lüdi of Switzerland, American bassist William Parker, English guitarist Derek Bailey, etc., have been recorded on CD. As evidenced by his great collaboration with power sax player Brötzmann, Hano's drumming, with its amazing strength and speed, is situated firmly in the realm of free improvisation and free jazz; but it also has roots in the rhythmic style of the Kokura taiko drumming he grew up hearing at local festivals in his native Kokura, Kyushu. Hano has established an incomparable and absolutely inimitable style, and the clearest expression of his unique approach is undoubtedly in the drum solo. This performance was recorded live in March 2003 at Bin Spark, Tokyo. It is Hano's first all-drum-solo album, and a superior document of the full range of his talent.
