Japanese Percussion with Kaoru Watanabe

Kaoru Watanabe is a Brooklyn-based composer and musician, specializing in Japanese percussion and shinobue flutes.

He has spent decades artfully blending the sounds of Japanese instruments with others from around the world. He’s collaborated with such artists as National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, Jason Moran, So Percussion, Adam Rudolph, Kenny Endo, Stefon Harris, Kiyohiko Semba, Alicia Hall Moran, Tamango, calligrapher Kakinuma Koji, visual artist Simone Leigh, and director Martin Scorsese. He was a featured guest on Yo-Yo Ma’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home.

For this Originals session, Watanabe brought taiko drums and a wide selection of other Japanese percussion instruments to create a diverse range of sounds. We recorded his performances in both the traditional Japanese style and his newer style of playing taiko, which is more like a percussion cage. The resulting sounds are rhythms primed for any R&B, chill, hip hop, downtempo, jazz, trip hop, or any type of production you’re inspired to make.