ASSIF TSAHAR & TATSUYA NAKATANI started their duo 16 years ago getting together once a week every Sunday to play in Cooper Square, downtown Manhattan. After a year they put out their first of three CD's, “Come Sunday” which was followed through the years by “Solitude” with the audition of a
string quartet, their last duo “I got it Bad” and one sound track for the Israeli film “Thailand”. Even after stopping their weekly meeting they continue their collaboration, playing and touring, their musical interactions becoming telepathic and mystical.
“Tsahar is one of the great champion's of tonal dynamics. His aesthetic is dictated by what is
actually called for in discovering the way a tonal center displays not only color and openness,
but also rhythmic possibility. The way Nakatani plays through this adds not only dimension, but
also depth. It's a question of language and punctuation in a sonic setting. This is an awesome
dialogue that moves vanguard jazz in new and astonishing directions. “
- All Music Guide – Thom Jurek
“the two opt for minimal means to create music. Just a few meditative blows, colorful touches,
poetic spirit, telepathic communication and a playful sense of adventure. Fascinating music, rich
with imagination, colors and trust. “
- All about Jazz
"The third release for the collaboration of Assif and Tatsuya, each one is titled after a different
Ellington's composition and on this one it is "I got it bad" which gets it's invocation betweens
Tatsuya's bells and Assif's deep and dark tenor. What sets the tone for a mystical journey of 20
tracks full of moods fitting of a Tarkovsky film sound track. The two match tone colors and
overtones with breaths of angular intervals to create a beautifully strange soundscape.”
- Squidco
TATSUYA NAKATANI - Acoustic Sound Artist, Master Percussionist
Tatsuya Nakatani is a Japanese avant garde percussionist and acoustic sound artist. Based in the United States, he has released over 80 recordings in the last two decades and tours extensively. Nakatani has developed his own unique instrumentation, creating new sounds and extended techniques. Utilizing gongs, drums, cymbals, singing bowls, his breath, wooden sticks, metal objects, and the idiosyncratic bows and mallets he handcrafts in his workshop; he sculpts an intense, intuitively primitive, expressive sound form that defies genre. His work engages improvised-experimental music and movement, while still retaining the traditional sense of space, depth and deep time found in Japanese art. The Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO) is a mobile community engagement project he has developed and grown over the last decade. Nakatani organizes and conducts local ensembles in performances of his complex harmonic compositions on 15 bowed gongs. These works are site specific by nature, taking place in abandoned grain silos, viaducts and other unique architectural spaces as well as in traditional concert halls and galleries. Nakatani teaches master classes and workshops at universities, giving students an opportunity to share his unique approach and philosophy for creating visceral, non-linear, experiential sounds.
ASSIF TSAHAR - Saxophone
Assif Tsahar is an Israeli tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist. He has lived in New York City since 1990. He has performed with Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, William Parker,[1] Mat Maneri, Hamid Drake, Peter Kowald, Susie Ibarra, Rashied Ali, Warren Smith, Wilbur Morris, Le Quan Ninh, John Tchicai, Fred Anderson, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Gerald Cleaver, Agusti Fernandez, Ken Vandermark, Kent Kessler, Joe Daley, Herb Robertson, Cuong Vu, Chris Jonas, Ori Kaplan, Oscar Noriega, Roman Stolyar, Alex Harding, Steve Swell, Cooper-Moore, and Tom Abbs (wikipedia
He founded the label Hopscotch Records in 1999. In 2006 he opens the music club Levontin7 with Daniel Sarid in Tel Aviv.
Amazing live solo performance 2-16-13 at Squidco Records. Video production / audio mastering by Obscura Films