Kan Mikami & Alex Neilson - Two Day Residency + Pat Thomas (solo) + lll人 (Paul Abbott / Seymour Wright / Daichi Yoshikawa)
No Longer Available
Kan Mikami has been a singular figure in the Japanese underground since the early seventies performing his unique Japanese Blues. As anyone who saw his concerts here in the early days of Cafe OTO will testify - he is a completely mesmerizing presence on stage. It's great to finally have him back at Cafe OTO for two days reunited with Alex Neilson - a musician who's own adventurous playing stretches across genres, reinvigorating song with the same kind of freedom found at the core of Kan's music, too.
Photo by Crimson Glow
KAN MIKAMI
“A fascinating and quite physical stage presence, he’s a curious mix of sweaty journeyman endeavour and flamboyant showmanship, switching easily from passionate, eyes-closed emoting to gurning leering invocations. His body tenses and uncoils in sympathy with the music, limbs curling and torso jerking laterally at irregular intervals, ducking away from and jolting back to the microphone... the magnetism of Mikami’s presence and the electricity of his performance amply convey the passion and emotion embedded in his songs, for all to see and hear.” - Nick Cain reviewing Kan’s past performance at Café Oto for The Wire.
"Head thrown back and jugular veins pushing through skin, Mikami prowls the stage like a wounded tiger. But then that’s when a beast is at its most dangerous. While his songs are rich with traditional influences – English folk, American blues, Portuguese fado and Japanese enka – his schizophrenic exorcisms – guttural caterwauls, froggy croaks and plaintive whispers – are in a world all of their own. The theatricality of his gestures betray his career as an actor (he appeared alongside David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence); his energy seemingly boundless (this was the final night of a three-day residency), a vigour drawn deep from within and poured out in tempestuous tumult. And as he roars, he swipes at his guitar, summoning a series of staccato stabs and half-played notes that decay back into the silence from whence they came. By turn bone-chilling, irritating and beautifully romantic, Mikami’s music tears down the barriers erected by language. It’s clear what this maestro is saying – you only have to look at his face." - Spencer Grady reviewing Kan’s past performance at Café Oto for the Record Collector magazine.
“Already a legendary free-drummer Alex Neilson has played with most of the musical underground’s heavyweights of this era. This one man folk renaissance movement has left a trail of recordings and thrilling live shows with Jandek, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Heather Leigh, Alasdair Roberts, and Richard Youngs in his youthful wake.
Always moving from project to project, Neilson brings a sense of exploration and independence to his playing. As one of the most energetic and ‘in-tune’ free players around, Neilson has a better grasp than most on trying to get across the nature of improvisation.” - stylusmagazine
PAT THOMAS / solo piano
Pat Thomas studied classical piano from aged 8 and started playing Jazz from the age of 16. He has since gone on to develop an utterly unique style - embracing improvisation, jazz and new music. He has played with Derek Bailey in Company Week (1990/91) and in the trio AND (with Noble) – with Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra and in Duo with Lol Coxhill.
"Sartorially shabby as Thomas may be, and on first impression even rather stolid, he has a somewhat imperious charisma that’s immediately amplified when he starts to play. Unlike other pianists whose virtuosity seems to be racing ahead of their thought processes Thomas always seems supremely in command of his gift, and his playing, no matter how free and ready to tangle with abstraction, always carries a charge of authoritative exactitude." The Jazzmann
“I went to a private session of theirs … which I thought was absolutely outstanding. The musicians are Paul Abbott (drum kit), Seymour Wright (alto), and Daichi Yoshikawa (electronics). [...] They tell me they have been playing together for quite a while...”
- Victor Schonfield
“convulsing but controlled, reigned and railed, concentrated not opposing between the 3.
Sound bending to include others. to be met and slightly connected.
Semi-soothed in trilling galloping galactic space”
- KiO
“There are some globs of clay inside a cage. The cage is badly made from a gridded, rough, metal wire. It is suspended from the ceiling of a living room … inside the cage, above the clay, is a small glass box with a neat funnel protruding from its base.”
- c-Ban
“dancing in a foundry where they're casting ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚
sculptures. Freedom and molten iron.”
- JDM [edit]
