A Japanese classical duo played music like wind and thunder in Kingston last Wednesday.

The thunderous taiko drumming of Kenny Endo fused with the wind phrases of Kaoru Watanabe. They played mainly originals written in the Japanese tradition with splashes of jazz at the Courtleigh Auditorium.

The thunderous taiko drumming of Kenny Endo and Kaoru Watanabe resounded in the Courtleigh Auditorium in Kingston. (Photo: Jermaine Barnaby)

In More Perfect Union, a Barack Obama-inspired piece by Kaoru, the dom/dom/dom of the taiko drums mimicked a heartbeat, while Kaoru sounded a majestic theme on his silver flute. Next he transitioned to an eastern scale playing fast runs and arpeggios in triplets and quadruplets. Kaoru then pouted his lips for a breathy embouchure and played passing jazz notes. At that moment, Endo's drumming intensified with heavy alternating left and right arm strokes.

In Symmetrical Soundscapes written by Endo, both men played the drums. They started on small taikos engaging in a three minute call and response. Next, they converged on a big taiko and manipulated musical space and time with ever-changing dynamics and drum patterns.

The duo wore a combination of webbed shoes, kimonos and head ties which added drama to the music. They were invited by the Embassy of Japan in collaboration with the Jamaica Japan Society and the Japan Foundation.

In Yume no Pafu and Jugoya by Endo, Kaoru gently blew air through his fue (bamboo flute), offering a series of eastern phrasing mimicking birds and other sacred creatures. It provided space for Endo's intermittent rhythms on his large and small taiko.

Both men were born in the US but embarked on pilgrimages to Japan to learn the ancient traditions. Endo was originally trained as a jazz musician. In Japan, he studied and performed with the masters of ancient classical drumming, traditional Tokyo festival music, and ensemble drumming. Endo was the first non-Japanese national to have received a natori (stage name and masters degree) in hogaku hayashi (stage drumming). In 1994, Kenny and Chizuko Endo founded the Taiko Centre of the Pacific in Honolulu, a school of taiko with over 100 students and a wildly successful ensemble drumming group.

Kaoru, who has performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall, studied Jazz Performance at the Manhattan School of Music and has recorded with Stefon Harris and Jason Moran on Blue Note Records. In Tokyo, he studied Noh Kan (flute used in Noh and Kabuki theatre) with Hiroyuki Matsuda, and the fue music of Edo Matsuri Bayashi with Kiyosuke Kobayashi. He moved to Sado Island in 1998 to become an apprentice with the drumming ensemble Kodo. As an apprentice, he spent the next two years learning taiko, various traditional folk dances, singing, tea ceremony, Noh, and Kyogen, growing rice and other vegetables, and waking up before sunrise to run 6 miles every morning. In 2005, he became artistic director of Earth Celebration, Kodo's annual world music festival held every summer.

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