DESCRIPTION:
Zen shakuhachi bamboo flute - (jinashi 2.74 Taimu)
Live at Trinity Chapel in Berkeley, CA February 14, 2015.
Performed and arranged by Cornelius 深禅 (Shinzen) Boots.

This was the premiere of an arrangement that I started in 2007...!
An obvious choice, but difficult as a pioneering attempt at the alternating shak/vox combination, which I am not aware of anyone else trying to do. I have 5 of these type of arrangements now, and that may be all there will be. You can find the other ones floating around on this channel.

Other Pink Floyd arranged for shakuhachi:
https://youtu.be/z90htRi6w10
https://youtu.be/H3C_hv2YDl8
https://youtu.be/u7ei-692pR4

The raw bamboo flute is the ultimate contemplative instrument. Played by Zen monks in Japan for perhaps a thousand years, the sound is somewhere between a Western silver flute and wind playing through trees.

Traditionally there were no shakuhachi audiences. The bamboo flute was a solo breath cultivation instrument of meditation; one voice from the two strands of the Natural and the Mystical. Zen modalities of exploring consciousness include nature contemplation and chant: these also form the foundations of shakuhachi playing.

In addition to the Buddhist chant and nature hymns (honkyoku) created over hundreds of years in monasteries, Cornelius explores blues, gospel, rock, metal, theme music, and original compositions. The resulting performance encompasses a full spectrum of energy and melody. Some sounds are uplifting, soaring and ethereal, and some are turbulent, gritty and inexplicable.

Taimu are wide-bore, jinashi, root-end bamboo flutes. The Taimu excels at achieving a tone that is very earthy and glowing at the same time as projecting more than older style large Zen bamboo flutes (hocchiku, kyotaku for instance.) Taimu are made by Mujitsu Shakuhachi in San Francisco and more information about Taimu and mukyoku can be found on this website:
http://www.mujitsu.com/mukyoku/

Underground Bamboo Flute Music. Bamboo Gospel & Avant-Blues. Zen Taoist Forest Hymns & Anthems. Zen shakuhachi, hochiku, Taimu. Actively merging the threads of Watazumido, Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. 深禅

"I am committed to woodwind performance as a living art form in collaboration with the natural material, with plant consciousness. Because of this, I only play on jinashi or 100% bamboo, unlacquered shakuhachi, hotchiku and Taimu flutes." 竹の尺八

Shakuhachi and Taimu albums at CD Baby:
https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/CorneliusBoots
Digital albums at bandcamp: https://corneliusboots.bandcamp.com/

Cornelius Boots creates and performs advanced nature and alternative world music on big bamboo flutes. A professional woodwind wizard since 1989, Boots is known as the leader and composer of the world's only original bass clarinet quartet, Edmund Welles. Cornelius is the first student of Grandmaster Michael Chikuzen Gould to have earned a Shihan (master teaching license) and was given the shakuhachi name 深禅 "Shinzen" (depth Zen or deep Zen). In addition to teaching, Cornelius has recorded and written, in shakuhachi calligraphic notation, a series of 27 etudes (mukyoku) for Taimu shakuhachi. He plays all types of flutes, but specializes in jinashi and large-bore shakuhachi.

With his latest releases, Bamboo Rising and Holy Flute , Cornelius continues to develop a soul-based, virtuosic, genre-denying composition and shakuhachi performance style incorporating rock, blues, metal and classical Zen elements. He calls the result “bamboo gospel.” A robust, expressive solo style that merges his own diverse 33-year woodwind experience with the Zen Buddhist shakuhachi tradition, rooted in aliveness, awareness and the natural world.

Longer bio at https://www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=1849

Visit www.corneliusboots.com and sign up on the mailing list or contact Cornelius for online or in person lessons. You don't need a flute or "basic sounds" before you start learning: with shakuhachi, these are very important aspects of your first lessons.

"Free Bird" new nature, live music video:
http://youtu.be/DTmf4MChsMY