Take Two

Just about to leave to play shakuhachi at the New York Botanic Garden for the Kiku Festival. My second and final performance of this festival which runs thru Nov 18 - anyone in the NYC metro area, if you have the chance to check it out, I would highly recommend it!. The shot above is from Friday last (19th) and I am remiss for not following up and writing about it.

It is VERY cool. The Kiku fest not only showcases the Chrysanthemum (more like a choir of chrysanthemums in a HUGE pot - but all one plant), but also many AMAZING bonsai trees (a major fave of mine, the Bonsai: old:wise:small:counter-intuitive... rather yoda-like).

It is a great space to add shakuhachi and the people were very in to it, asking lots of questions and listening intently before moving on (there are four of us set up variously around the grounds playing). So it really gave me hope that there is an audience out there for this instrument, this sound, this music - esoteric as some of it is...