Question for Stu...

Chuck Ellis

Member
Messages
6,997
Location
Tellico Plains, Tennessee
Hey Stu,
This has nothing to do with woodworking.. well maybe just a little... my wife just asked me about this after she saw a drum group advertised to be at Dollywood and thought about these that I had told her about.

back in the mid '80's(before I med the wife) I was working for a customs brokerage firm as their export manager and warehouseman, messenger and truck driver.. (I worked for a woman so go figure)... one of our clients was a band group that came in from Japan for a concert at the International Festival that's held in Houston every year.... the group was called "The Ondikoza Drummers"... a group of about 25 or 30 young people, both female and male, who specialized in the Japanese drumming... they made their own drum sticks (the woodworking part) and I think they said their own drums.... the drums ranged from about 15 to over 60 inches diameter. The big drum sat on a stand about 5 feet high that they erected and then picked up the drum and set it in place... quite an operation. Most of the drummers were in their late teens... maybe a couple in their 20's... they lived and worked at the school, which was on one of the smaller islands of Japan.. don't remember which. Its evidently a pretty famous school in Japan and in the music world... one of the drummers was a young Swiss boy that had made a special petition to work with the group... in a group picture he is almost head and shoulders taller than the rest... the company rented a truck and I drove and hauled their drums from the airport at Houston to downtown, and then out to the Houston Baptist College, then back to the airport... my son was about 12 or 13 and totally infatuated with the group.... he worked on stage with them handling the drums and they even let him play on one during rehearsals...
All this to ask if you have heard of the group and if they are still around... the school, not this particular group of players... they would all likely be grandparents by now.
 
You got the name slightly wrong it is >> Ondekoza << and yes, I've heard of them :thumb:

They are an amazing group of people, that traditional drumming, Taiko is so very cool, when you experiance it, FEEL it in person it is amazing, you don't hear the music, so much as feel it in your entire body :D
 
You got the name slightly wrong it is >> Ondekoza << and yes, I've heard of them :thumb:

They are an amazing group of people, that traditional drumming, Taiko is so very cool, when you experiance it, FEEL it in person it is amazing, you don't hear the music, so much as feel it in your entire body :D

I corrected my spelling after I looked them up... they have several vids on Youtube.. and you are right about "feeling" the music... I saw the perform in them open air in front of the Houston City Library... using the building as a sound back board to project it to the square... anywhere you stood you could feel the throb of the big drums... the little drums were so fast you almost couldn't see the bats being twirled and striking the drums... when we went over to the HBU auditorium, the music really really reverberated around inside the walls... the place was packed and the drummers got a standing ovation from the crowd.
 
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