By Nayla Huq

Cool and collected, Agatsuma plays his shamisen. Courtesy of Grandperformances.org

Twilight on Saturday, August 9th, I'm searching for the best seat to watch Agatsuma, Japanese Tsugaru-shamisen player, and I almost fall into the artificial pond fronting the audience seats. On this warm summer night, Agatsuma is opening for Malian singer, Ramatou Diakité, at the Grand Performances Concert Series.

The Grand Performances Concert Series takes place during the summer in Downtown, Los Angeles at the lovely California Plaza Watercourt. Their mission is to: "present(s) free performing arts that reflect the best of global culture and inspire community among the diverse peoples of Los Angeles."

The platform stage, displaying an array of contemporary and tribal-looking instruments, sits sandwiched between a waterfall-like fountain with smaller, narrow, statuesque fountains that spout water vertically, and another fountain formed as steps, over which water gently spills over into a pool, edged with bricks. Floating on the pool are large cement, lily pad-like pods, with flowers and foliage growing on its crown. The closest seat was no more than six inches from the edge of the pool.

The announcer introduces Hiromitsu Agatsuma, generally known as Agatsuma, and his instrument of choice, the shamisen. This lute-like instrument originated in China and was used by traveling musicians because of its portability. The shamisen is three-feet long, has three strings, a detachable neck, and can be carried in a backpack. It found a comfortable niche in Japan and evolved into becoming a staple in classical Japanese music since the 18th century. It is played using a large pick called bachi bah-chee, but Agatsuma also bangs this pick against the base of the lute, producing a rattling echo that reverberates through the audience seating area.

The announcer reveals that he was a child prodigy, playing the shamisen since the age of six, and winning major competitions at age fourteen, including the All-Japan Tsugaru-Shamisen.

The announcer says his piece, exits the stage and Agatsuma non-chalantly but quickly walks onto the stage, so naturally as if a crowd of eyes wasn't watching his every move. He tunes his shamisen and begins plucking a way.

Agatsuma has drifted into another world. Courtesy of Domo.com

But wait! Why is he alone on stage? Where's the jazz fusion? The Latin-based grooves I read about in my research? Agatsuma decided to start his set off with traditional Japanese music, which he called songs.

Sorry to say, but the first two songs were mediocre. I got lost during those first two songs. Not lost in the way that one's body becomes like air and travels to the other world the mind's eye is inspired to create, but out of boredom the mind wandered. He played well and the sounds flowing from his plucking were certainly beautiful, but couldn't hold the listener's attention. This only gave him a lot to build on and build he certainly did.

All songs following the first two swept the low into a high. His third song, plucked fiercely, took the auditory sense and imaginative ability into a whirling spiral, invoking the image of a female figure, draped in robust red, spinning in a Spanish dance with a Middle Eastern flavor. This song immediately became my favorite, until he wowed the whole audience with the fourth song.

The fourth began with a loud pluck of the chord and a dramatic pause, invoking another traditional dance performed by females. This song had a roller-coaster tempo with intense lows sonically clothed in geisha garb, but with the very dignified, definitive, strong yet genteel movement of classical Thai dance.

Upon the completion of the fourth song, our shamisen prodigy announced that he had just played traditional Japanese music, and will now play his own songs accompanied by Jazz pianist Yoichi Nozaki.

Their first song together was mellow, resembling a duet, each instrument singing its own part, its own verses in its own voice with interspersed intertwining of voices. Some of the time the two voices simultaneously sang their own individual lyrics in harmony, but there was a hint of over-bearingness by the piano. However, that probably can't be helped when considering the sheer size of the instrument's sound and body.

This duet was followed by a charming, playful toe-tapping tune portraying the fusion of the jazzy piano with the shamisen at its best for the night. Nozaki's tickling of the ivories is an art form of its own. He wasn't just playing the piano but having fun, embodying the music and entertaining the audience. Nozaki should have a show of his own, if he doesn't already. This song serves as an example of good fusion between the jazzy piano and the shamisen, where the sounds complement each other while maintaining their identities.

Song three was mellow, heavy and loaded with sorrow. It expressed the mourning sense of loss felt by a lover who has lost his partner to death. The melody was very familiar, like a remake of a famous American adult-contemporary hit from either the 70s or 80s, but it would take several more focused listens and a Time-Life CD series from those periods to figure out. Not worth the effort.

AGATSUMA BEAMS. Courtesy of Agatsuma

Agatsuma, Nozaki and the stage effects people topped the opening act with a lively tune, invoking those new images. This time, my mind's eye saw an Indian folk dance with lots of spinning and kicking, the dancer donning bright, multi-colored, flowing fabric. Though Indian dances don't usually include any kicking in them, this is where the theme of fusion kicks in. Indian folk dance here is combined with some Western culture's kick-filled dance. To embellish the liveliness of the performance, the technical team changed the fountain lighting, and set the smaller fountains in front of it to dancing, spouting water into the air, splashing and splattering down like waterfalls. Though this was quite a visual spectacle, it distracted from the music, as the splashing interrupted the music's flow. If only there was a way to silence the water splatter, "awesome", "flawless" would have described the grand finale, but it was wonderful nevertheless.

Throughout the second half of Agatsuma's show, I had this irrepressible feeling that though the shamisen and jazz piano fused together well, it was only to an extent. I couldn't put my finger on what it was exactly, but there was a distinct impenetrable void between the two genres. Something was missing. Maybe another instrument was needed to bring the work of the two musicians into a true fusion. What that instrument would be I cannot say. Another musical device, the right one may have added the texture needed to weave it all seamlessly together. But maybe it's not even a matter of including another dimension of sound, but more about the two musical mediums heading in the right direction.

Overall, Agatsuma was great. Neither his performance nor his third album, "Beams," should be dismissed based on my last comment. Traditional Japanese shamisen players are not at all perturbed by Agatsuma's modernization of the instrument. Instead many appreciate his popularization of the instrument, encouraging young people to play this instrument that was once thought to be too old-fashioned to be cool.

Check out our clips section for some more upcoming Asian artist events on the Grand Performances stage!

August 15, 2003