Saxophonist Kongo Toku: Tracing the scenery of Yamate with music
In response to a request for a column on the theme of "Kanagawa and Art," I would like to write about the Yamate district of Yokohama City, which is my favorite walking course and where I often have opportunities to perform.
Before that, let me briefly introduce our music unit.
It's a somewhat unique trio consisting of piano, cello, and saxophone, which I play. The unit name is Shanty Dragon Trio, and each member lives in Yokohama and Kamakura. Each member is involved in various musical activities other than this trio.
Shanti Dragon Trio SHANTI DRAGON 3
Piano composition and arrangement Akemi Hayashi
Cello Christopher Satoshi Gibson
Sax King Kongo
The music we perform is diverse, including songs from around the world and Japan, nursery rhymes, folk songs, pop songs, film music, classical music, originals, and more.
Now, getting back to the topic, there are many historic Western-style buildings remaining along Yamate Hondori, the main street in the Yamate area. Bluff Building 18, Diplomat's House, Berwick Hall, Erisman House, Yamate Building 234, Yokohama City British Building, Yamate Building 111, etc. Each Western-style building has its own unique structure and taste, and many of them also have pianos, so our unit has many opportunities to perform.
Bluff 18 has hosted several summer concerts so far. The piano on display is a 100-year-old piano (Matsumoto Piano, made in Japan), and although it was built with fewer keys to fit the dimensions of Japanese houses at the time, it still has a very lyrical tone that still resonates well. Thank you very much.
At Berwick Hall, we collaborated with music and French cuisine. An instructor at a French cooking class held in Motomachi, Yokohama, prepared small plates for approximately 80 people, including guests, staff, and performers. After the performance, all the customers tasted the food. Of course, we and the staff also ate there, and the food was delicious in the aura of a Western-style building.
Provided by: JapanTravel.comThe Erisman residence, a Western-style building next door, is built within Motomachi Park. There is a hall in the basement, and you can perform while looking out at the greenery of the park outside the windows. Last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we held a concert commemorating the 90th anniversary of the opening of Motomachi Park with the number of seats reduced to one-third.
The Yokohama City British Pavilion is a Western-style building beyond the Erisman House, past the Foreign Cemetery, and next to Port View Hill Park. We have performed here many times so far. The garden that can be seen from the windows of the hall is very beautiful, and the rose concert in the adjacent rose garden "English Rose Garden" has become a fond memory. The sweet scent of roses wafting through the air during the performance was wonderful.
Provided by: JapanTravel.comThere is Yokohama International School in front of the Yokohama City British Pavilion, and Saint Maur International School near the Erisman residence, and all three members are involved in instrumental music lessons at each school. By the way, Christopher, a member of the Shanti Dragon Trio, graduated from Yokohama International School and then went on to university in the United States.
I mainly play the saxophone, but I have one student who plays the trumpet. After taking lessons for 6 years, I studied abroad, and after returning to Japan, I am working as a successful member of society. Although I am not an expert in brass instruments, by the time my students graduated they were able to play up to Haydn's trumpet concerto. This is the result of the students' efforts.
The history of wind instruments such as trumpets and saxophones in Japan actually began in the Yamate area. British and French troops were stationed in this area as the Meiji era changed, and the military had a musical band. It's a so-called military band.
The military band performed at Yamate Park, and at Myoko-ji Temple, located on the way from Yamate to Honmoku, the Satsuma clan's "Western music trainees" received instruction at the temple from the British Army military band commander stationed in Honmoku, Yokohama. It is said to be the beginning of Japanese wind music.
Provided by: JapanTravel.comMy previous occupation was wind instrument manufacturing and research, so the Yamate area has a special meaning for me beyond just performing. Nowadays, Yokohama is changing at a dizzying pace, but the area along Yamate Hondori Street is one of the few places that still retains the atmosphere of old Yokohama. And as expected, the Yokohama Yamate area gives a special tension to our performances.
Shanti Dragon 3 intends to send out even more attractive performances from here in Yokohama.
【profile】
Shanti Dragon Trio
Shanti means "inner peace" in Sanskrit. The dragon is not the dragon as it is perceived in the West, but a dragon that symbolizes auspicious power in Asia and is the god of water.
Shantey Dragon was originally a duo consisting of pianist Akemi Hayashi and saxophonist Toku Kongo, but when cellist Christopher Satoshi Gibson, who was also Hayashi's piano and solfeggio student, joined, the group was written as Shantey Dragon 3.
The trio began with the Yokohama Museum of Art Hall concert at Yokohama Art Live 2003, and the recording of the CD "Yume Futa Ya" composed by Akemi Hayashi in the same year. In addition, they have been actively involved in volunteer performances at facilities for the disabled.
Christopher Gibson left Japan to attend a university in the United States, putting the trio on hold for a while, but after returning to Japan and working in various scenes, he rejoined Shantae Dragon in 2019. They resumed activities as Shantae Dragon 3.
Pianist, composer and arranger. Born and living in Yokohama.
From an early age, she started playing the piano and electronic organ, and studied piano under her relatives, Jo Matsutani and Midori Matsutani. Under their guidance, she was exposed to a wide range of music, from classical to contemporary music, pop, and jazz, and began performing while still a student at a music college.
After graduating from a music college, he worked at the Yokohama Contemporary Music Academy and other institutions, as a music school instructor, and as a solfeggio instructor for the Yokohama Municipal High School Brass Band, before establishing Maple Piano School (Isogo-ku, Yokohama). Utilizing his experience as a piano instructor and player, he strives to teach the next generation of piano players, from children to adults.
They perform at concerts sponsored by Yokohama City, Yamate Western-style Houses (British House, Berrick Hall, Bluff No. 18), Sankeien Garden "Moon Viewing Concert," Yokohama Jazz Promenade, and other venues and live music venues in Yokohama and Tokyo. They often perform original songs, and have released over 100 original songs, including those included on CDs. They have released five CDs to date.
Volunteer performances are also actively participated in.
Born in Michigan, USA. Started playing the cello at age 4. Participated in summer programs at Tanglewood, Indiana University, and Interlochen while in high school. After graduating from Yokohama International School, entered Yale University in 2005, double majoring in philosophy and political science.
While studying at Yale, she passed an audition with cellist Aldo Parisot and studied cello under Ole Akahoshi, who was Pierre Fournier's youngest student and Janos Starker's assistant for many years, at the Yale School of Music. She also studied chamber music under Wendy Sharp at the same school. In 2009, she won a prize at the Yale School of Music FOM competition. In the winter of 2012, when she won a prize at the International Association of Performers' Newcomers Audition, she received praise from violinist Shigemichi Kawabata, one of the judges, for her "performance that allows you to enter the world of the music."
In 2017, under the auspices of the NPO Emotion in Motion, she held the “BACH Solo” unaccompanied cello recital series at the Minato Mirai Small Hall, Tiara Koto, Tokorozawa Muse, and Suntory Hall “Blue Rose”. She has performed with violinist Ikuko Kawai on TV Tokyo’s “100 Years of Music” program recordings and concerts, as well as at BLUE NOTE TOKYO (2020), Cerulean Tower Noh Theater (2019), and Mitsukoshi Theater (2018). She is active mainly in Tokyo, Kamakura, Nagano, and other areas.
He started playing the saxophone at the age of 12, and studied under Hisatoshi Muta (President of the Japan Band Directors Association, former head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Band) and Makoto Suda (Professor at Musashino Academia Musicae). He joined Yanagisawa Wind Instruments Co., Ltd., one of the three largest saxophone manufacturers in the world.
After working in instrument manufacturing, research, instruction and management, he went independent. In 1995, he established Congo Saxophone Studio and began offering saxophone repair, lessons and performance services. In 1997, his CD /OUR TRIBAL MUSIC won him the Jazz Life magazine Best New Artist Award. He was appointed by the Yokohama City Board of Education to teach at Yokohama Minato Commercial High School for four years. In addition to concerts and recordings at the Yokohama Museum of Art Hall, Minato Mirai Hall, Kanagawa Prefectural Music Hall, Sankeien Garden, Yamate Seiyokan and other venues, he also actively volunteers at Yokohama City University Hospital and facilities for the disabled and welfare facilities in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Kyushu and Hokuriku.
He has performed with top Japanese musicians, musicians from the UK, Italy, Switzerland and France, calligrapher Suisen Nakatani, dancer Kazuo Ohno, actor Stiart Burnham Atkin, reciter Akira Kodama, Important Intangible Cultural Property Holder Bokusei Mochizuki, and many others, often across genres. He also teaches a citizen saxophone ensemble that plays mainly Bach chorales.
Several CDs and DVDs have been released so far.
