Rhythm is the pattern where life dances acquiring countless shapes. How your heart beats, the groove that your steps create while walking, its all rhythm.
In this workshop we will explore rhythm through the voice and the hands in a manner based on the ancient Indian syllabic system called Konnakol. We will then apply these techniques to percussion instruments. Bring any drum you like!
The grooves and vibrations we explore come mainly from Flamenco music, using Indian, Mediterranean, African and Latin-American flavors.
Cajon solo by Miguel Hiroshi at The Blue Note Amsterdam, June 2012.
Teacher Bio:
Miguel Hiroshi (www.miguelhiroshi.com) is a multi-instrumentalist, educator and composer, he uses sound with sensitivity, as if it were a wide palette of colours. His ear is kneaded and enriched by influences of different musical currents ranging from folklore and root music of the Mediterranean countries, Africa, Latin America and India to styles such as jazz, rock, avant-garde and electronic music.
He was born in Japan and was brought up in Granada (Andalusia, Spain), wrapped under the cloak of the Mediterranean mountains air. Since he was a very young child, traditional music was always present at home. His grandfather is a lute and mandolin player, a great source of inspiration. At the age of eight, in a very special way, he began to discover the infinite ways of music thanks to Dagmar Trichtinger a German musicologist. From that time on, there is no turning back.
He embarks on an intercontinental journey without end where he studies with great masters of percussion as Zohar Fresco, Niti Ranjan, Yogesh Samsi, Ghatam V. Suresh, Ernest Martínez, Rubem Dantas, or Ernesto Gatell and Los Rumberos de Cuba. At the same time he graduated at the Conservatoire of Music of the World of Rotterdam (Holland), subsequently obtaining a Master degree at the Jazz Conservatoire in Amsterdam (Netherlands).
For more than one decade, he constantly made tours internationally participating in multicoloured projects of flamenco, jazz, music of the world and other disciplines like dance and contemporary circus. Miguel is currently working in the compositions of what will be his first production as a leader.
His work as a teacher runs since ten years ago having international workshops and lessons as well as teaching at the conservatory of Rotterdam.
Artistic intention and focus are intended to attract essences and ancestral musical elements to create in the present context. To integrate them he uses with freedom any sound tool, thus trying to develop universal music with a timeless character. Music is one.
Miguel Hiroshi has collaborated with artists from very different kind such as Mirabai Ceiba, Kudsi Erguner, Jorge Pardo, José Manuel León, Rycardo Moreno, Josemi Carmona, Isabel Bayón, Karen Lugo, Luis de Luis, Angel Muñoz, Alicia Carrasco, David Lagos, Habichuela Nieto, Luis Perdomo, Ramón Valle, Miguel Rodríguez, P Ricardo Miño, Lara Bello, Indre Jurgeleviciute, Alvaro Corcuera, Davide Salvado, Tomas Merlo, Celso Duarte, Bogdan Djukic, Michalis Kouloumis, Richard Ekre-Suzzi, Michalis Cholevas, Ghatam V.Suresh, Ahmad Al-Khatib, Laila Tafur, Antonio Vargas, Rob Tannion (DV8), CIA. Albadulake, BVR flamenco big band, Rotterdam Big band, Mohamed Hamaki, Lou Bega... among many others.