Basser Live: From Tradition to the Future
This is one concert I truly regret missing, a solo bass concert attended by an unprecedented crowd of nearly three hundred people. Hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art - Chicago on Saturday evening, May 30, 1998, from Tradition to the Future featured Tatsu Aoki, with guest percussionists John Sagami on Japanese taiko drum and Paul Kim on the Korean Buk, and with visual artist Amy Lee Segami. For Tatsu Aoki, a solo bass concert is a familiar presentation, he already has six solo bass recordings distributed internationally. However for this record-breaking event, Aoki, who happens to also be a critically-acclaimed filmmaker and lecturer at the Art Institute of Chicago, chose to blend the "painting on water" improvisations of Segami into his performance, and to add Asian drums to the opening selection Wed Lock and Fisherman's Song. This recording of that remarkable performance is a cogent capsule of a mature artist with an original perspective, an uncommonly creative talent getting his groove on. 
Of course as a drummer myself, I harbor a special interest in the pieces featuring drums. What is most enjoyable about them, and telling about Aoki's rhythmic sensibilities, is the way his bass fluidly assumes its changing roles as a member of the percussion ensemble and as the lead voice of the group. Afro-Cuban drummers talk about music being in afinque, generating kinesthetic momentum through rhythmic synchroneity, or in the vernacular, groovin'. Following Sagami's taiko oroshi or introduction to Wed Lock, Kim joins in to set the dongo rhythm, a traditional taiko drum ostinato. The way Aoki locks in with the drummers playing glissandi triple-stop riffs and hands-on-bass percussion on Wed Lock reminds me of the gutbucket duet he performed later that year with Kahil El'Zabar on djembe and vocals, rocking the Chicago Cultural Center. On Fly Dee, Aoki cycles through various riffs, solo passages and lots of "big dog" walking. In fact, on Rain Dance and Eigen, Aoki is so funky he plays an ostinato and counterlines and grooves with himself – now that's a drummer's delight. 
Aoki's facile mastery of his instrument is most evident in the variety of performance techniques and approaches he employs. The mysterious explorations of A Night highlight Aoki's arco acumen in both his lyrical phrasing and extended range techniques, and showcase his deft employment of digital effects. Rain Dance is particularly intriguing due to an inherent challenge in its formal structure, i.e., sustaining a pizzicato (plucked) drone interestingly for over ten minutes. A comparison between this solo performance and the later duet version with Malachi Favors on their Southport CD, 2 x 4 reveals the strength of the piece in serving as a vehicle for imaginative individual and collective improvisation. The often eerie, then manic Roaches sports Aoki's liberal improprieties with a chopstick and kaleidoscope of other unorthodox methodologies.