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"TAKE THE NEXT STEP" - Requiem for Glenn Horiuchi
Minoru Kanda
Japanese Correspondent
Asian Improv Records
8/9/01
This is an edited tribute to the influential Japanese-American jazz musician, Glenn Horiuchi, written by friend Minoru Kanda.
A YOUNG MUSICIAN ON ASIAN IMPROV RECORDS
In 1996 Asian Improv Records, with its office located in Ken Yamada's house
in Berkeley, was mainly engaged in a mail-order business of LPs and CDs by
Asian American musicians active in the San Francisco Bay Area, with one exception:
a jazz pianist living in Los Angeles.
His name was Glenn Horiuchi.
SENSEI JAZZ
Mr. Horiuchi's LPs and CDs, air-mailed to me from Ken Yamada, utterly shocked
me. At that time, I knew no music composed by third-generation Japanese Americans
other than "HIROSHIMA" by a fusion band. I was overwhelmed by Glenn's
music and his piano performance, which was simultaneously powerful and sensitive.
I recognized that underlying Glenn Horiuchi's music was his self-identification
as a young Japanese American, and his awareness of social problems.
I found that these aspects characterized his early trilogy comprising "NEXT
STEP," "ISSEI SPIRIT," and "MANZANAR VOICES," as well
as several other albums contained in the CDs released by Soul Note in Italy
and Music & Arts. For instance, "Blues for John Okada," which
Glenn composed to honor the second-generation Japanese American novelist I
mentioned earlier, is unique in that Glenn played the piano as if he were beating
percussion. Jon Jang, Chinese American jazz pianist and a founding member of
Asian Improv Records, once commented that in Glenn Horiuchi's piano performance
he recognized the music of Japanese drums that had been tuned to 88 intervals.
Glenn developed his creative activities dynamically. He composed "Poston
Sonata," inspired by a concentration camp that confined Japanese Americans
during World War II. Later, he even formed the Horiuchi Shamisen Trio with
his best friend Francis Wong, a Chinese American saxophone and flute player,
and Glenn's aunt, Lillian Nakano, a master of shamisen. In 1993, the Trio took
part in a jazz festival held in Berlin, Germany.
Next Step 2 FUSION AND EXPERIMENTATION
