About this Event
Kulintaiko features kulintang artists Conrad Benedicto and Jinji Jeramie of the band Kulintang Dialect along with taiko drummer and shamisen player Melody Takata and Francis Wong on saxophones and Chris Trinidad on bass guitar. This project aims to answer the question: What happens when the Kulintang gong-chime music of the Southern Philippines meets the thundering taiko drums from Japan?
Living the Work #5 is part of the ongoing programming at SF Japantown’s Studio Gen cultural space. Studio Gen, Genryu Arts’ program space, is an inclusive community where all people can experientially explore and meaningfully learn about Japanese diaspora arts and culture. Visit us to view a rotating art gallery, learn taiko, odori, or shamisen, or enjoy a special event.
About the artists
Conrad J. Benedicto is a teacher, author, and kulintang musician who studied and apprenticed with Master Danongan Kalanduyan from 1997 to 2016. He teaches social studies, environmental education, and kulintang music at Balboa High School in San Francisco. He leads his group Kulintang Dialect and collaborates with Chris Trinidad, Bo Razon, and John Calloway in Kaisahan Afrocubalintang, a project that organically unites the gong music of the Southern Philippines with the folkloric rhythms of Afro-Cuba in a way that honors and respects both traditions.
Jinji Jaramie is a Filipina-Cebuana residing in the U.S. on unceded Muwekma Ohlone/Tamien land. She prioritizes curiosity and exploration over perfection - not just in music, but in all aspects of life. She enjoys organizing with local South Bay groups like PAWIS(Pilipino Association of Workers and ImmigrantS) and performing with Kulintang Dialect in her spare time. She loves getting to know people and building community.
Melody Takata is a longtime culture bearer coming out of the Nikkei (Japanese diaspora) community based in San Francisco Japantown. She started her training early in life in the Japanese cultural arts on shamisen (3 string lute), Nihon Buyo (classical dance), and taiko (drum). Her artistic trajectory has featured an engagement of these traditions with contemporary forms of musical expression such as jazz improvisation and composition, as well as storytelling and dance. Her focus is on untold stories from the diasporic experiences of Nikkei. She is the artistic director and founder of Genryu Arts in San Francisco. She has been awarded commissions for projects from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Creative Work Fund. She is also the creative force behind the innovative cultural space Studio Gen in the Japan Center East Mall in San Francisco Japantown.
Filipino-Canadian and San Francisco Bay Area-based musician, teacher, and scholar Chris Trinidad has fallen into the place where everything is music. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, his relationship with music grew through exploring various instruments beginning with the voice, then the piano, followed by the bass guitar, and finally the drum set with little detours in the world of percussion and forays with the guitar. Chris's formal education includes undergraduate training in Jazz Studies and Secondary Education, graduate study in the fields of Philosophy and Sociology of Music Education and Theological and Liturgical Studies, and doctoral work in Educational and Interdisciplinary Leadership. All of these seemingly disparate disciplines and interests help to inform the music that he makes.
Francis Wong has been blessed with a nearly five decade career of community activism and artistic pursuit as saxophonist, composer, organizer, and educator. He has deep roots in the Asian American consciousness movement of the 1970s to today. He has worked with noted musicians Jon Jang, Bobby Bradford, William Roper, Tatsu Aoki, Fred Anderson, John Tchicai, and Cecil Taylor, and released over 20 CD recordings as a leader.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Japan Center Malls, Post Street, San Francisco, CA, USA, United States
USD 0.00