Jazz Shakuhachi with Bruce Huebner and Jonathon Katz. A dual language edition with optional Japanese subtitles.
DVD (53 minutes) plus 20-Page Booklet
- $37.50


Jazz Shakuhachi is based on over six years of recording and performing that has yielded a body of composition and improvisation tailored to these two wildly disparate instruments, piano and shakuhachi.

The Jazz Shakuhachi DVD comes with a 20-page booklet that includes an Introduction, Glossary and Sheet Music of all the pieces performed. V-20 Dual Language - English with Optional Japanese Subtitles.


This DVD features:

• Live stage clips filmed at STB 139, a club located in the Rippongi district of Tokyo, Japan.

• Engaging discussion of strategies for blowing, writing and interpreting across the cultural divide.

• Easy to understand examples from original tunes and folk songs.

• Clear on-screen notation of scales and chord names.

• Short improvisation exercises for play along or keyboard study.


Jazz Shakuhachi includes:

• Pedagogically-arranged chapter headings and menus.

• Screen notation, chord names.

• Overhead keyboard shots.

• Optional Japanese subtitles.

• A printed glossary and sheet music.

• Screen glossary.

• Live concert clips.


Jazz Shakuhachi could be for you
if you are:

• A traditional shakuhachi veteran looking for ideas for a new musical outlet.

• A western-trained musician, but shakuhachi beginner, hoping to exploit your chops in a new and creative way.

• A composer or back-up player looking for hints on bringing out the best of this traditional instrument.

• An educator introducing new trends in non-western music, aesthetic issues in modern fusion music or Japanese studies.


Jazz Shakuhachi presents key issues in a fast and interesting pace while attempting to answer the following questions:

• How can I begin enjoying improvising with only a rudimentary knowledge of the shakuhachi or with little or no jazz background?

• How can I harmonize chords played on the piano with the open tones of the shakuhachi?

• How is the shakuhachi uniquely built for the blues?

• How are Japanese folk melodies ideal for Latin jazz?

• How can I build a jazz solo or play over fast chord progressions on a 5-hole bamboo flute?

• How can traditional scales apply to modern jazz chords?

Jazz Shakuhachi includes performances of the following original tunes and arrangements:

• Zen In

• Ro, Tsu, Re, Chi, Ri Blues

• Mogamigawa (Mogami River Boat Song)

• Amado River

• The Number You Have Reached

• Bright One

• Like the Wind

Jazz Shakuhachi DVD

Introduction	0:53
1. Fitting Piano Chords with Shakuhachi Open Tones	1:34
1a. Diatonic Triads with Open Tones	2:16
1b. Seventh Chords with Open Tones	3:28
1c. Various Chords with Open Tones	4:52
1d. Performance:“Zen In”	6:17
1e. Practice: Open Tones with Piano Chords	8:12
2. Playing  Shakuhachi Blues	9:00
2a. Performance:“Ro, Tsu, Re, Chi, Ri Blues”	9:17
2b. Traditional Shakuhachi Techniques and the Blues	10:53
3. Fusing Folk Shakuhachi with Latin Jazz	11:57
3a. Performance:“Mogamigawa”(Mogami River Boat Song)	12:04
3b. Playing a Montuno on the Shakuhachi	15:07
3c. Building a Jazz Solo on the Shakuhachi	16:01
4. Using Traditional Modes with Modern Jazz Chords	19:21
4a. Performance:“Amado River”	19:21
4b. Applying Tetrachords to Jazz Harmony	20:41
4c. A Closer Look at Tetrachords	23:08
4d. Building the Minyo Scale	23:58
4e. Transposing the Minyo Scale in Fourth Movement	24:29
4f. Minyo Scale in Fourth Movement in Time	26:22
4g. The Minyo Scale in Stepwise Movement in Time	27:38
5. Performance:“The Number You Have Reached”	28:58
5a. Using the Ryukyu, Minyo and Miyako Bushi Scales	29:50
5b. Building the Ryukyu Scale	30:19
5c. Building the Minyo Scale	30:40
5d. Building the Miyako Bushi Scale	30:59
5e. Ryukyu Scale in Fourth Movement	31:28
5f. Ryukyu Scale and Piano Chords	31:37
5g. A Closer Look at the Three Scales	32:57
5h. Practice“The Number ”Progression 4 Bars Each Chord	33:37
5i. Practice“The Number ”Progression 2 Bars Each Chord	34:37
5j. Improvising on the Three Scales	35:22
6. Simplifying Improvisation Over a Fast Chord Progression	37:37
6a. Performance:“Bright One”	37:37
6b.“Bright One”Chord Progression	38:56
6c. Performance“Bright One”Continued	40:43
7. Composing for the Shakuhachi	43:20
7a. Performance:“Like the Wind”	44:39
Credits	48:24
Total Run Time	53.37

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