The upcoming 37th international festival "Vilnius Jazz" promises rare experiences for lovers of contemporary jazz and improvisational music. One of its brightest stars is the global legend of the avant-garde and noise scene, Japanese multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, composer, record producer Otomo Yoshihide, who returns to the festival stage after a 31-year hiatus. October 18 He will present the most important project of his life - "Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band" in the Old Theater of Vilnius.
The music of this collective reflects the fantasy and versatility of the leader, the ingenuity of the musicians and their unique character. The colorful timbres of the instruments shine in it, the stylistic flexibility of the brass is surprising, the fiery drumming is fascinating and the surprises that always pop up create a strange, adventurous atmosphere.
Is it possible to be a passionate avant-garde and a popular culture phenomenon at the same time? O. Yoshihide, a curious explorer of the unknown worlds of music, succeeds. He radically changed the field of improvisational music, spanning many genres and formats with his work. Otomo leads traditional and avant-garde jazz ensembles, creates mainstream soundtracks for cinema and television, produces minimalistic electroacoustic music, deconstructs jazz and pop music classics, uses turntables and ethnic instruments in his work.
His compositions are surprising in their stylistic diversity. Multi-instrumentalist as fish in the water is felt in free improvisation, "noise" and pop music. Otomo has been exploring electronic technologies for many years and has become one of the pioneers of electroacoustic improvisation.
Not only that, he has created more than a hundred compositions for film, television and other visual projects. Here's Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band's Japanese hit, Japan Record Award-winning, and highly commercial soundtrack for hit TV drama Amachan.
O. Yoshihide started creating sound collages with a tape recorder as a teenager, and soon became interested in free jazz. Fascinated by ethnic music at university, he began to study instruments from the Chinese Cultural Revolution era, and had traveled to Hainan province in China to study local musical culture.
The artist became famous in the world in the 10s as the leader of the experimental rock group "Ground Zero", which combined "trash" energy, sound collages, 7's pop music, Peking opera and many other styles in its work, used turntables, electronics, traditional Japanese instruments.
After Ground Zero disbanded, Otomo became involved in minimalist projects that established him as a master of electroacoustic improvisation. A new phase of the creator's search began in 2001, with the formation of the "New Jazz Quintet", where O. Yoshihide focused on the guitar. This group consisted of Japanese jazz luminaries. in 2005 it evolved into the New Jazz Orchestra.
Yoshihide has collaborated with many improvisational greats, including John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Christian Marclay, Jim O'Rourke, Evan Parker, avant-rock master Hoppy Kamiyama, Scandinavian trio The Thing and his drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, French electroacoustic music pioneer Luca Ferrari, released solo and trio albums with Hiroaki Mizutani and Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, as well as with Roger Turner, noise pioneers Hijokaidan.
The Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band has been immortalized in two albums. The second "Stone Stone Stone" appeared a few years ago. It was released by a new label called Little Stone Records. Interestingly, the album and label names were inspired by a post on Twitter: "We threw little stones and the mountain moved." They emerged during the coronavirus pandemic.
"At that time, I began to think that my usual work, sincere creativity, is like those small stones that move mountains," recalled O. Yoshihide. "No matter what, we have to record albums, create labels with old and new comrades."
Recently, the artist likes to assemble collectives where music lovers improvise with professionals. He combines his diverse creative activities with the leadership of the Sapporo International Art Festival and the ongoing project "Asian Ensembles".
The project is financed by the Lithuanian Council of Culture and Vilnius city municipality. Tickets for Vilnius Jazz 2024 events are distributed by Bilietai.lt. It is also possible to purchase subscriptions that will allow you to enter all festival events at a great discount.
