Hirsch, Shelley & Kazuhisa Uchihashi

DUETS - 10 years after

Label: Innocent Records Country: Japan

10 years after their first CD, Japanese improvising guitarist Uchihashi Kazuhisa met NY free vocalist Shelley Hirsch at Roulette in NYC and at Cafe Oto in London to record these exceptional duets.

"Kazuhisa Uchihashi was a founding member of the groundbreaking group Altered States and was also a member of the equally crucial and internationally renowned Ground Zero with Otomo Yoshihide. He has played with everyone from Fred Frith to Peter Brötzmann and Derek Bailey.

Shelley Hirsch's approach to vocal improvisation is completely unique she has been a major figure in the New York scene playing with John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Aki Onda and many others.

SHELLEY HIRSCH: VOCALS, ELECTRONICS

Shelley Hirsch is "an unorthodox, extraordinary fusion of vocalist, composer, and performance artist " (Anne LeBaron) whose work encompasses story telling pieces, staged performances, compositions, improvisations, collaborations, installations, and radioplays, which have been presented on 5 continents...

Her mostly solo performance pieces including the multimedia "O Little Town of East New York" and "For Jerry" (virtual duets with the late great Jerry Hunt) and "States"; "My Father Piece"; "The Passions of Natasha, Nokiko, Nina, Nicole and Norma" (in collaboration with visual artist Barbara Bloom); staged multimedia solo pieces have been performed at The Hebbel Theater and Podewil (Berlin), WienerFestWochen (Vienna), The Zurcher International Theater Spektakel (Zurich), The Kitchen, The Whitney Museum at 42nd St (NYC), Experimenta Festival (Buenos Aires), Helsinki Biennale (Finland), Angelica Festival (Bologna Italy), City of Women Festival (Llubliana Slovenia), Beyond Innocence Festival (Kobe Japan), The Dom (Moscow), Adelaide State Theatre (Australia), Marstall (Munich), etc.

Hirsch has performed hundreds of concerts of improvised music with great musicians including Anthony Coleman, Christian Marclay, Ikue Mori, Toshio Kajiwara, Hans Reichel, Min Xiao Fen, Tony Buck, David Simons, Johannes, Connie and Matthias Bauer, Paul Lovens, David Watson, Marina Rosenfeld, Jim Staley, DJ Olive, Denman Maroney, Joey Baron, Mark Dresser, Ned Rothenberg, Marc Ribot, Cyro Baptista, Butch Morris, Elliot Sharp, Uchihashi Kasuhisa, Joe Williamson, etc, etc.

She can be heard on dozens of CDs including her just released CDs "The Far In, Far Out Worlds of Shelley Hirsch" (Tzadik) and "Duets" with gutarist Uchihashi Kasuhisa (Innocence Records), and on her solo CD "States" (Tellus); her storytelling CD "O Little Town of East New York" (Tzadik); "Haiku Lingo" (No Mans Land) last two co-composed with longtime collaborator keyboardist David Weinstein- and the LP "Singing" (Apollo).

KAZUHISA UCHIHASHI: GUITAR

A pioneering Japanese guitarist, Uchihashi is involved in a wide variety of musics, but still retains a commitment to free improvisation.

Born in 1959 in Osaka, Uchihashi began to play the guitar at age 12, playing in various rock bands, though he later studied jazz. In 1988 he joined the band the First Edition, and in 1990 formed the ground-breaking group Altered States with Yasuhiro, a band that has toured internationally for more than a decade with an accompanying onslaught of compact-disc and video-tape releases. He was also a member of the equally crucial and internationally renown Ground Zero with Otomo Yoshihide from 1994 through 1997. He has been in demand as a guest on dozens of records, not only in Japan, but in the U.S.A. and Europe, collaborating with musicians of the callibre of Fred Frith, Shelley Hirsch , and Frank Hautzinger.

Other musicians with whom he has worked on the international scene include Hans Reichel, Roger Turner, Heinz Ditsch, Helge Hinteregger, Barre Phillips, Kang Tae Hwan, Leo Smith, Peter Brötzmann, Jon Rose, Lauren Newton, Eugene Chadbourne, Derek Bailey and Elliott Sharp.

Uchihashi's work as an organiser is substantial. In addition to being the musical director for the Osaka theatre group Ishin-ha, he has held improvisation workshops (a project known as New Music Action) throughout Japan, as well as in Europe, and has created his own label, Zenbei, to offer a platform to new music. More widely known is the fact that he has curated and managed his own festivals, including the Osaka-based, but international- in-scope Beyond Innocence festival for the last ten years."-from the Cafe Oto listing

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