Japan: Geza Music from the Kabuki

Submitted by nonesuch on
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Recorded in Japan, this album features the scene-setting geza (off-stage) music of Japanese Kabuki theatre. Musicians employ the shamisen, flutes, bells, and drums to produce spare, percussive sounds that suggest Balinese gamelan music performed in slow motion.

Description

Kabuki exists beside the courtly Noh theatre and the puppet, or doll, theatre, and is a combination of vocal and instrumental music, dancing, pantomime, drama, and costumes on a stage. This newly remastered title, recorded in Japan, features the scene-setting geza (off-stage) music, chiefly of Kabuki, but in some cases adapted from Noh drama. Musicians employ the shamisen, flutes, bells, and drums to produce spare, percussive sounds that suggest Balinese gamelan music performed in slow motion.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Originally released in 1966 (H-72012)
Recorded and edited by Katsumasa Takasago
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig
Production Supervisor: Jac Holzman

Re-mastered by Robert C. Ludwig
Design: Doyle Partners
Cover Photograph: © Magnum Photos

Nonesuch Selection Number

511730

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
Album Status
Artist Name
Explorer Series: East Asia
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Katsusuji Kineya, Kunitaro Kineya, shamisen
Matasaji Sumida, Sanji Umeya, Shinnojo Rokugo, percussion
and other leading soloists of Japan
Risei Nakamoto, Kofu Kikusui, supervisors

reissues?
reissues
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597990133BUN
Label
MP3
Price
8.00
UPC
075597990119
  • 511730

Track Listing

News & Reviews

  • The reissue of the groundbreaking Nonesuch Explorer Series titles from Japan is now complete, with the recent addition of two more titles. The Independent exclaims, "It's wonderful that Nonesuch is reissuing the 92-LP Explorer Series, which put ethnomusicology on the map in the Seventies," and says of the recently reissued Koto Classics: "[I]t's wonderful to hear once more koto master Shinichi Yuize in his prime ... and these classic pieces display [the koto's] suggestive power to the full."

  • "Never again will a record company essay what the producers of the Nonesuch Explorers did in 1967, bringing out a series of superb field recordings to make, eventually, a 92-record set," says The Scotsman in its five-star review of the two titles that marked the reissue of a number of Japanese Explorer Series albums on CD this fall: Koto Classics and Geza Music from the Kabuki. "The vinyl LPs ... brought to light a wealth of hitherto hidden traditions," says the review, and their return as remastered CDs "is simply wonderful, because much of this music—four decades on—is now either extinct or grievously debased."

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  • About This Album

    Kabuki exists beside the courtly Noh theatre and the puppet, or doll, theatre, and is a combination of vocal and instrumental music, dancing, pantomime, drama, and costumes on a stage. This newly remastered title, recorded in Japan, features the scene-setting geza (off-stage) music, chiefly of Kabuki, but in some cases adapted from Noh drama. Musicians employ the shamisen, flutes, bells, and drums to produce spare, percussive sounds that suggest Balinese gamelan music performed in slow motion.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Katsusuji Kineya, Kunitaro Kineya, shamisen
    Matasaji Sumida, Sanji Umeya, Shinnojo Rokugo, percussion
    and other leading soloists of Japan
    Risei Nakamoto, Kofu Kikusui, supervisors

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Originally released in 1966 (H-72012)
    Recorded and edited by Katsumasa Takasago
    Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig
    Production Supervisor: Jac Holzman

    Re-mastered by Robert C. Ludwig
    Design: Doyle Partners
    Cover Photograph: © Magnum Photos