Glenn Horiuchi: "Kenzo's Vision" (Asian Improv)

1) Kenzo's Vision 14:22 2) Optics 6:45 3) Terminal Island Sweep 10:52 4) Salty Greens 19:53 5) 2nd Street Strut 1:27

This is quite a strange mixture of instruments bringing noise and quietness together. Take number 2 for instance you'll hear noisy sax and then quiet tuba and violin along with the shamisen. I think these guys had fun putting this out. #1 is very vocal with Glen and Francis talking throughout with the music just being there and both constantly chanting "It's a little bit difficult to figure it out" #3 has a lot of asian musical elements, sort of bouncy. #4, Salty greens is a pretty dense, long suite that starts of with a tuba solo, followed by a long tenor sax solo with cutting, knocking, sawing noise in the background. Glen joins in with his Shamisen and roaring voice. It ends as it began. This one grows on you. -cat 7.95

Kenzo's Vision - Interview with Glenn Horiuchi
 
(All contents copyright (C) 1996, Cathy P. Austin. All rights reserved)

"Kenzo's Vision" is the latest CD from Glenn Horiuchi. It's an adventurous,
entertaining celebration of Kenzo, his brand new baby who was born February 24,
1995.  Around the same time Glenn got a grant from the California Arts Council
and he wanted a recording celebrating his son's birth.  Asian Improved
released  the recording in May 1995 (not years later like one label he worked
with).

Since Glenn was composing *and* doing his fatherly duty, 
he had to reorient the way he wrote. Bypassing conventional music notation, 
he developed a new notation, a sort of shorthand, something that would 
allow him to change diapers and write at the same time.  He wrote on 
scratch paper and captured the essence of the music -- an entire piece 
fit compactly on an 8x11 piece of paper. 

Glenn said this about the cut Salty Greens.  "That came from a live
performance where Francis Wong (his long time friend and model dad) had a
skillet and cooked collard greens and garlic on stage."  Actually, he got
the name from the Evergreen Cemetery
in  East L.A. where Glenn's grandfather is buried.  Glenn thought it was a 
Japanese cemetery but found out that it was a segregated cemetery, "You 
know, where they shove the people of color off in sections.  Both Roper and I
have family resting there."  The salt comes from a Japanese tradition.  After 
a funeral everyone gathers at a house to eat.  A line of salt is laid 
down against the door so that no ghosts from the cemetery can come pay a visit.

On the title track "Kenzo's Vision", you can hear Glenn and Francis Wong 
chanting "It's a little bit difficult to figure it out."  I asked him what 
that was all about. "As a father you have to decide whether to choose cloth
or disposable diapers."  Thanks to Francis Glenn chose cloth.  But. with cloth
comes those dangerous gigantic "safety" pins.  "Francis brought these
diaper clips down from the Bay Area.  I can't find them in L.A.. They are 
three prong clips that look like a cow's skull."  Glenn was trying to
figure out how to use them... "It's a little bit difficult to figure it out."

The chanting leads into a "good ole country Ho Down."  Glenn starts making
square dance calls, but -- square dance calls in diaper language: "brown
diapers... green diapers."  Then he starts singing "I wish I was in
Alabama with a banjo on my knee" with Roper in the background intoning in
his tuba  "don't go to Alabama, don't go to Alabama..."

Between gigs, and hoping and praying for grants, Glenn plays in a Catholic 
church on Sundays, "they actually like my music" and teaches young kids in 
East L.A. He performs outside of L.A. and frequently visists the Bay Area 
often.  You won't find many adventurous gigs in L.A., the scene is 
pretty conservative. He was a this year's Asian American Jazz Festival.  
After the set with Anthony Brown, some young cats came up to him and said 
"We didn't know that you could play changes."  Glenn tries to steer away 
from playing changes "because once you start playing them you get pigeon-holed."

Glenn has made choices.  He plays what is most important to him.  His heroes
are musicians like Thelonious Monk. "You can never mix him up
with anyone else," he says.  He composes using notes, shapes, and
directions.  Musicians are allowed to express themselves yet maintain cohesion.