Basser Live

This is one concert I truly regret missing, a solo bass concert attended by an unprecedented crowd of nearly three hundred people. Hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art – Chicago on Saturday evening, May 30, 1998, from Tradition to the Future featured Tatsu Aoki, with guest percussionist John Sagami on Japanese taiko drum and Paul Kim on the Korean Buk, and with visual artist Amy Lee Segami. For Tatsu Aoki, a solo bass concert is a familiar presentation, he already has six solo recordings distributed internationally. However for this record-breaking event, Aoki, who happens to also be a critically-acclaimed filmmaker and lecturer at the Art Institute of Chicago, chose to blend the “painting on water” improvisations of Segami into his performance, and to add Asian drums to the opening section Wed Lock and Fisherman’s Song. This recording of that remarkable performance is a cogent capsule of a mature artist with an original perspective, an uncommonly creative talent getting his groove on.