謝謝 With thanks to
Asian Super Guitar Project Kazumi Watanabe Eugene Pao Jack Lee 9-10.3.2007 Concert Hall Hong Kong City Hall 1 45 Running time: approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with one interval 7 9 Musicians Programme 11 14 To make this performance a pleasant experience for the artists and other members of the audience, PLEASE switch off your alarm watches, MOBILE PHONES and PAGERS. Eating and drinking, unauthorised photography and audio or video recording are forbidden in the auditorium. Thank you for your cooperation.
Kazumi Watanabe Eugene Pao 7 Jack Lee Lewis Pragasam Asian Super Guitar Project Guitars Kazumi Watanabe Eugene Pao Jack Lee Percussion Lewis Pragasam The audio equipment is sponsored in part by
Programme 9 Azimuth Songs and their order of performance are subject to change Eugene Pao Offside Kazumi Watanabe Asian Triangle Biréli Lagrène Made in France Jack Lee Waiting in Rain Kazumi Watanabe Azimuth Ástor Piazzolla Libertango Eugene Pao Spanish Fried Rice Toninho Horta For the Children
Company Profile 11 Asian Super Guitar Project 1986 1990 2006 6 2006 This is the first time elite Asian guitarists Kazumi Watanabe, Eugene Pao and Jack Lee have worked together in this combination. This trio is unique in its genre gathering and mixing differences of cultures, influences, politics and religion from three Asian countries Japan, China and Korea. Eugene Pao and Kazumi Watanabe first met in 1986, when Pao did two concerts in Tokyo and Hong Kong called Live Under the Sky with Watanabe s band. Later when Pao was in New York in the early 1990s he and Jack Lee were introduced, and subsequently performed several concerts together in Lee s hometown, Seoul. And then Jack Lee and Kazumi Watanabe met and the inspiration for the current Asian Super Guitar Project was born in June 2006. Adding that final extra something to the mix to distinguish their music with a little more world and ethnic sound the trio decided to enlist another friend and musician, the internationally renown Malaysian percussionist, Lewis Pragasam. After jamming in Korea during the summer of 2006, the Asian Super Guitar Project found their sound a melange of earthy groove, combined with spontaneous interaction and a deep dedication to musical flow. Following the release of their first album they have already toured and performed in Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta and Bangkok.
14 Kazumi Watanabe 1953 1971 1979 Kylyn Kazumi Watanabe was born in Tokyo in 1953. In his teens he became enamoured with the jazz tradition, and made his solo debut in 1971 with the album Infinite. In 1979, he joined a group of innovative musicians which included Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akiko Yano and Shuichi Murakami to form the influential all-star Japanese band, Kylyn. Later in the autumn of the same year, he participated in the world tour of the Yellow Magic Orchestra with Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Biographies 15 1980 To Chi Ka 1984 1991 1990 1991 19951997 1996 1998 Dandyzm 1999 25 30 2001 1 1996 During the 1980s Watanabe built a reputation as a prominent practitioner of the precursor of jazz-fusion in Japan, especially with his record-breaking hit album, To Chi Ka. Watanabe has performed with leading international musicians in the US and Asian countries, and his talent and skill has been recognised with several awards including the Nanri Fumio Award in 1991 and the Grand Prize of Jazz Disc in 1984. In the 1990s, Watanabe explored new ground in the classical idiom with the acoustic guitar. Performing in Europe he received enthusiastic welcomes at his concerts in Barcelona and Rome in 1991, Sofia and Lisbon in 1995, and Paris in 1997. From his 1996 release Esprit through to the 1998 Dandyzm and up to the 1999 One For All release, recorded live at the Bottom Line in New York, his recordings are representative of his original style which has placed Watanabe in the forefront of the music scene. Watanabe is also a composer, arranger and producer of musical events, and for the last 25 consecutive years he has been the annual poll winner of Japan s premier jazz publication Swing Journal. To celebrate his 30 years as a professional musician, he presented the Suite for Guitar in January 2001, a composition/performance in which he explored the realms of musical possibility with his cherished fretboard instruments acoustic, electric and ethnic guitars. Since 1996, Kazumi Watanabe has taught jazz courses as a guest professor at Senzoku Gakuen College.
16 Eugene Pao 1980 Simply put, Eugene Pao is Hong Kong s most publicly recognised jazz musician and his name is synonymous with jazz in our city. This reputation is well deserved as he has been at the vanguard of promoting jazz in Hong Kong through his performances and recordings over the last 20 plus years. Hong Kong first discovered its own guitar hero in the mid 1980s when Eugene Pao returned from studies in the US and began playing around town. Recognition came early from leading jazz musicians. Some of his first recordings featured such legends as bassist Eddie
17 1996 1999 2001 2005 Gomez, blues great Jimmy Witherspoon and saxophonist Michael Brecker. He made his first solo album in 1996 called By The Company You Keep with a stellar cast of jazz greats, drummer Jack DeJonette, bassist John Patitucci and Michael Brecker again on saxophone. In 1999, Pao released This Window, another outstanding album on which he penned half of the tunes, with the support of Jack DeJohnette, bassist Marc Johnson and pianist Joey Calderazzo. In 2001, Pao travelled to Europe and recorded a set of beautiful, lyrical standards with the Mads Vinding Trio from Denmark. In 2005, he made a live recording at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts featuring top Asian musicians called Eugene Pao Project. Jazz greats with whom he has performed live or on record include: Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Terumasa Hino, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Berg, Jackie McClean, Joe Pass, Ulf Wakenius, Ernie Watts, Martin Taylor, Kazumi Watanabe, James Moody, Bill Bruford, Jeff Berlin, Stu Hamm, Bobby McFerrin and Eric Marienthal, among others. Over the last two decades, Eugene Pao has truly established himself as Hong Kong s premier jazz guitarist. These days, he can be heard performing in different venues around town when he is not touring the world.
20 Jack Lee 1966 9 2 With roots planted firmly in his Asian heritage, technique and sensitivity honed by his schooling and experience in New York, Jack Lee combines formidable technique with a penchant for gentle, flowing lyricism that makes his music eminently appealing to both musicians and non-musicians. Lee s music is known for his combination of jazz, Brazilian, Rhythm and Blues, pop, funk and Asian influences which leaves a deep emotionally satisfying impact upon the listener. Born in Seoul on 2 September 1966, Jack Lee absorbed the sounds of rock guitar heroes such as Eric Clapton,
21 1991 1992 1994 Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck before discovering the jazzier sounds of Pat Metheny, Larry Coryell and Miles Davis. As a student in New York he was able to experience the living legends of jazz in the city s renowned clubs, and it also enabled him to study with such guitar luminaries as Larry Coryell, Emily Remler, Bill Connors and John Scofield. In 1991, Lee released his first disc Poong-Un (Winds and Clouds), followed by tours of Korea and Hong Kong. In 1992, he released Magnolia Blossom which evolved after meeting Brazilian guitarist and composer Toninho Horta, and again went on to tour with his own band to Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, as well as to Moscow as part of the Tri-Cultural Festival. In 1994 Lee recorded Where My Heart Goes, which explored his Asian cultural heritage and grew from his collaboration with accomplished multi-instrumentalist Norihito Sumitomo, featured keyboardist Gil Goldstein, bassist Mark Egan, and drummers Danny Gottlieb and Billy Kilson. He also toured Japan with saxophonist Takeshi Ito and produced Ito s Groove Island, and Toninho Horta s Foot On The Road. While working and performing with pianist Bob James, Lee produced James s latest project, Angels of Shanghai featuring a group of classical Chinese musicians in Shanghai. Asian*ergy is Jack Lee s latest project co-founded together with multi-percussionist Lewis Pragasam. Their debut album, Asian*ergy, features award-winning musicians, pianist Dave Grusin and drummer Harvey Mason, as well as good friends, Norihito Sumitomo and Toninho Horta.
22 Lewis Pragasam 1979 Malaysian Lewis Pragasam has become an icon and hailed as a music legend throughout Asia. He has garnered international critical acclaim as one of Asia s leading drum/percussion exponents and an innovator of new trends in World Music. Pragasam was the founder and moving spirit behind the pioneering ASIABEAT project which began in 1979, and whose recordings and performances create an exciting dynamic synthesis by merging Asian and western music styles. Under Pragasam s leadership the project has toured to international festivals
23 1982 FMG 1990 2006 5 including the Perth Music Festival and Nigata Cultural Festival. Since 1982 the ASIABEAT project has released five recordings: Asiabeat, Dare to Dream, Spirit of the People, Drumusique (live) and Monsoon. Aside from his ASIABEAT project, Pragasam has toured, performed and/or recorded with many internationally renowned artistes Paul Jackson, Tony Levin, Billy Cobham, Jeff Berlin, Ernie Watts, John Kaizan Neptune, Bob James, Ottmar Liebert and Toninho Horta, among others. He has performed at major festivals around the world, and was chosen to represent Asia at the Prince s Trust Royal Gala for HRH Prince Charles in Edinburgh. Lewis Pragasam has produced and organised numerous percussion festivals all over Southeast Asia working with various percussion exponents/groups including: Steve Thornton, Yaya Diallo (Guinea, West Africa), Pete Lockett (UK), Shanxi Drummers (China), Parry s Pan Steel Drum Orchestra (Trinidad), Tokyo Dageki Dan (Japan), Guru Karaikudi R Mani (India), Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians (New Orleans, USA), Tepak Rampak Drum Ensemble (Indonesia), Drum Drum & the Siale Dancers (Australia/Papua New Guinea) as well as other percussion ensembles from Southeast Asia. Pragasam also travels extensively conducting drum and percussion clinics and workshops. His Trash percussion group performs and conduct workshops for children, using recyclable materials to make interesting percussion instruments. In 1990, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and served as Artist-in-Residence at East Carolina University, as well as lecturing at various academic institutions throughout the US. His educational DRUM TALK series (Volumes 1 & 2) for drums and percussion instruction was released in May 2006.