Miya Masaoka

Miya Masaoka's orchestra, recorded live in San Francisco in 1995 and 1997 with George Lewis, Vijay Iyer, Trevor Dunn and others: strings, Asian winds, shamisen, electronics and turntables under her whole-body conduction.

These stunning recordings combine the great strengths of Pauline Oliveros on her Roland V-Accordion, Issui Minegishi; Ichigenkin master and great-great granddaughter of the founder of the Seikyodo Ichigenkin tradition and Miya Masaoka on her 21 string Japanese Koto. Together, these masterful improvisors create a beautiful and fascinating world of instrumental communication. This trio of legendary artists establish a sonic zone so compelling that you'll never want to leave. This double CD preserv…

What becomes quickly apparent when the music ends is that the parts of the brain wired for multi-tasking and instant contextualization have been swamped by Masaoka and Braxton’s palette, their bold strokes and the vaulting arcs they form.

William Parker’s Universal Tonality documents an epic performance which brings his titular concept to full, vibrant life. An exquisite example of this system in practice, it features a truly once-in-a-lifetime assembly of creative music luminaries and legends. Clocking in at nearly two hours and featuring six extended pieces flowing across two discs, this Universal Tonality happening took place in December 2002. Parker invited 16 musicians of various ages, cultures and musical backgrounds – to j…

Solar Wind was recorded by Robert Dick (glissando flute, bass flute, contrabass flute, piccolo, voice), Joëlle Léandre (contrabass, voice) and Miya Masaoka (koto, percussion). Three independent jazz masters base their music on different characters, styles and expressions. All three of them have original and expressive style, rich musical language, wide musical knownledge and ​unique sound. Musicians are the central figures of international free improvisational music and avant-garde jazz scene. T…

Since 1978 saxophonist Larry Ochs' activities have been primarily centered on the Rova Saxophone Quartet, but increasingly, survival in the jazz world demands the pursuit of parallel projects. Consequently Ochs participates in groups as diverse as the all-improv Maybe Monday and his uncategorizable Sax and Drumming Core, as well as the trio found on Spiller Alley. Ochs has stated that all his written music has been concerned with the integration of composition and improvisation using non-traditi…

Recorded on April 26, 2000.