“Underworld Blues“- Cornelius Boots - Bass Shakuhachi (Taimu) 地無し尺八 October 22, 2023 - San Francisco

New solo composition improvised solo world premiere performance Composed & performed on Taimu shakuhachi (made by Ken Mujitsu LaCosse) The Wood Prophets album release concert for their 2nd album Bigfoot Revelation The return of the rustic woodwinder, listen to this close-up nature music: transmitting the inner feeling of the forest. The Underworld is the hidden world; the world of Hidden Mysteries. This is where music comes from. People can get confused between sound and vibration, or Hell and the Underworld: don’t be fooled! Hell is your time-bound state of mind only, it has not & never will be a “place.“ The underworld, in the other hand, is omnipresent, always under every rock, just around the round part of the tree: you cannot see it in the way you see these words, but you can became attuned to the nuances, the power. This is an archtypical Deep Nature Blues in the solo woodwind, bamboo gospel style that I have been cultivating since about 2008. Songs like this (and there are a couple dozen now) became the seed for establishing my East-West, syncretic-majestic training and practice lineage: Black Earth Shakuhachi School, where we merge traditional Zen shakuhachi flute practice, nature meditation and elemental, deep musicianship. Woodwind Nature -- Elemental Musicianship Black Earth Shakuhachi School Traditional Zen Shakuhachi Flute Practice and nature meditation merges with deeper musicianship. Lessons and info: 深竹道 - 地無し尺八 #shakuhachi #underworld #blues Follow, Listen and Connect: Website: Spotify : iTunes: Bandcamp: Facebook (personal): YouTube: Twitter: Instagram: Facebook (shakuhachi): Bio: LONG BIO: Founder/composer of Black Earth Shakuhachi School, Cornelius Boots has forged his own eclectic style as a professional woodwind performer since 1989. A licensed shakuhachi grandmaster (dai shihan), prize-winning composer and former bass clarinet performance innovator, he is actively merging the threads of Watazumido, Eric Dolphy and Son House on jinashi (all-natural) and Taimu (bass) shakuhachi. Boots has generated and released an entire body of new songs and compositions for these large, raw and rare bamboo flutes of Japanese Zen Buddhist origin: mukyoku (27 pieces for Taimu) and Shakuhachi Unleashed (48 virtuosic songs of rock, Zen, blues, metal and more). In 2018, he was a finalist in the World Shakuhachi Competition, a featured performer for Sony PlayStation’s E3 press conference (LA) and a featured performer/lecturer at both the World Bamboo Congress (Xalapa, Mexico) and the World Shakuhachi Festival (London). A three-time graduate of the renowned Jacobs School of Music (BM Classical Clarinet ’97, BS Audio Recording ’97, MM Jazz Studies ’99), Boots’ training and work experience is deep and diverse: jazz saxophonist, swing clarinetist, symphony bass clarinetist, funk and progressive rock bandleader and founder/composer of the world’s only composing bass clarinet quartet, Edmund Welles. With his latest three albums, the Shakuhachi Unleashed series—Holy Flute (2017), Bamboo Rising (2018), and Sacred Root (2019)—Cornelius continues to develop “bamboo gospel,” a robust, cross-cultural solo style utilizing rare breath-defying techniques and maximum polystylistic prowess. A Performer’s Certificate Awardee from David N. Baker’s seminal Jazz Studies program at Indiana University, Cornelius is the first student of Grandmaster Michael Chikuzen Gould to have earned a Shihan (master teaching license) in 2013 and was given the shakuhachi name 深禅 “Shinzen“ (depth Zen or deep Zen). In 2022, he was awarded a Dai Shihan (grandmaster) certificate in recognition of his dedication and contribution to the art and practice of shakuhachi. In addition to teaching, Cornelius has recorded and written, in shakuhachi calligraphic notation, a series of 27 etudes (mukyoku) for Taimu shakuhachi. First-prize winner of the 2013 International Clarinet Composition Competition, Boots has also received commissions and awards from Chamber Music America, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Areon Flutes, International Songwriting Competition and Meet the Composer. ~~~~ Visit - sign up and contact Cornelius for online lessons. You don’t need a flute or “basic sounds“ before you start learning: with shakuhachi, these are important aspects of your first lessons. Woodwind Nature Music Video: 尺八 深禅 (Shinzen)
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