Iain Cameron's Diary
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2010-10-15 - 10:45 p.m.

I went to hear the Taeko Kunishima Trio in Ray's Caf� in Foyles this evening. Taeko Kunishima started playing piano at seven. Particularly taken by Mozart and Beethoven, she later studied classical piano performance at university. Hearing Miles Davis for the first time led her to explore the music of many different jazz artists, and to develop her own improvisatory technique whilst studying jazz harmony. Since moving to England, she has continued to develop her style, combining traditional Japanese music with Classical impressionism and an angular jazz approach, echoing Thelonuis Monk , seeking to fuse the musical and cultural influences of Japan with those of her new-found home in England. I thought she was somewhere between Ravel, Takemitsu and Keith Jarrett.

She had a hand percussionist with her who could only make a limited range of sounds and Clive Bell on Western and Japanese flutes. He was excellent and showed a high degree of virtuosity on both instruments - the Japanese flute has no keys - just holes to be covered with fingers. He was able to achieve long glissandi on both instruments giving a very fluid aspect to his lines. The heads were very tight with the piano parts. Although we played together at university occaisionally not least in Jon Cole's Two Voices I didn�t feel like saying hello.

Earlier today I developed an octotonic piece and ended up sending Gilbert three versions. I have a fourth approach in mind too. Gilbert has two concerts tomorrow.

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