"Chasing Trane" The documentary film of John Coltrane

Another beautiful day in LA! 😄☀️

I just watched Chasing Trane, the documentary film of John Coltrane. He is a super famous tenor sax player in jazz world. He brew new aspects and new life into jazz and, at the jazz schools like Berklee which I went to, we study his music a lot. To be honest, I don't know much about his life. The only thing I knew was that he had passed away young around 40. My friends who loves Trane or even who know a little bit about Trane, this movie is highly recommended. Now I'm going back home and listen to Love Supreme.

Musicians Union in Hollywood!

I played with a big band at the Musicians Union in Hollywood yesterday. Oh, I love energetic music 🎶 I had so much fun

playing the bass as well as dancing while I was playing! 🕺

Musicians Union in Hollywood!

Musicians Union in Hollywood! 🤗

As always, I rocked out the studio and danced whole way through. Oh I had a blast! The band members changes all the time in this band and today the trumpet player who used to live in Japan for 25 years came in! He was sitting in front of me, turned around and said "hey, where are you from in Tokyo?" in Japanese! My jaw was right on the ground.

I'm hoping to collaborate in the near future; him on trumpet and me on shamisen or sanshin!

YAKINIKU!!!

Last night, I was hanging with my old college buddy, Ken, who flew in from Japan for business, and we went to all-you-can-eat yakiniku! (Yakiniku is Korean-style BBQ from Japan). I set my diet aside, I sat right in front of the BBQ grill quietly, prayed to Buddha, then I released the hungry beast in me which has a knife on the right hand and a fork on the left hand.

OOOOOOHH MYYYY GOOOOOOD!! It’s SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!

It was 90 minutes of chaos. Ken and I ate yakiniku like there’s no tomorrow. I felt so really good.

We all need to release the beast from time to time.

It's spring! 🤣👍

Spring is here! 😆

How are you, friends? The spring equinox had passed a couple of days ago and the Northern hemisphere is officially in spring now! Well, I am really surprised that it was actually winter all this time. For the first time in my life, I almost got heat stroke in the middle of winter.🤣

I just made the first noise in spring at the Musicians Union in Hollywood! Ah yes, I felt so good to play loud in a big band! I was just too happy playing and dancing and doing both at the same time!

Aaaaa, I so wanna play more….. I need more of the good stuff…. I’m like suffering from withdrawal…..

Musicians Union in Hollywood!!

Hello,

The weather is great as always! LA has been almost 90F lately! Well, I’ve heard the weather in Boston and New York haven't been so bad either so there is no point of being sarcastic about it. Sigh. Not fun. I have to find other topics that I can be sarcastic.

I had fun at the Musicians Union in Hollywood yesterday! The time working with professional musicians putting our heart and soul is priceless!

All Saints Church in Pasadena!

I'm about to play at All Saints Church in Pasadena! Look at the cool robe! 😄👍

La La Land!

It's stormy weather in LA today!😆 Ha-ha.☂️

I had to come to the town right next to where I live before the storm hits, and since I'm really close to a cheap movie theater in the town, what the heck, I decided to watch a movie to cheer myself up in this gloomy weather! 🎥 I'm finally watching La La Land!

The sufferings of my Kindle

I don't have much luck with my Kindle lately. I lost all my data on it last month, and then, when I went to a rehearsal a few days ago, my bandmate warned me to watch out for the neighbor cats dung on the alleyway. A moment later he said it, I dropped my Kindle accidentally and of course it landed right on that! Soft landing, that was. I so wanted to go to the search & destroy mission for that neighbor cat.

I Clorox-ed it and Fabreze-ed it like crazy so it should be fine, I hope 🤞

Grand Annex in San Pedro!

Hello my brothers and sisters in Boston and New York. I've heard another big storm had hit you guys. Oh well, watch yourselves in there. BTW, I'm enjoying nice iced latte at a Starbucks under lots of sunlight right now. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! 😆 Last night, I played to open the famed bluegrass musician, Wille Watson, as a part of the French group I toured with before🇫🇷

Willie really packed the venue and the show was sold out. I was a bit nervous to play non-bluegrass music in front of full-house of hardcore bluegrass fans. I was bracing myself for a few beer bottles thrown this way. There was only one thing I could do, that was to feel confident of ourselves and decided to have lots of fun on the stage as always! Well, the audience was super nice and they did enjoy our performance! I certainly enjoyed playing in there and also enjoyed the Willie's show very much along with everybody in there! That was awesome! 😄👍

The 23rd anniversary of quitting alcohol!! 🎉🎈🎊

My quitting-drink anniversary! Cheers with non-alcoholic beer! With a little Japanese sushi roll!

I have not fallen off the wagon for 23 years. In those days, my life was so messed up. The self-destructing young & stupid luny that I was, I don’t even know how I even allowed some of the things to happen and I really do want to apologize to everybody if I think back. Then I quitted alcohol when I was 20, lived through this tough music business and I think I have cleaned up a bit and straightened up a bit. Although it took me 23 years…..

The most miraculous thing that happened to me in this long period of time without alcohol is that somehow I kept myself being a musician. I have loved and hated music so much. Well, if you have been a musician so long, you have more reasons to quit than to continue. It’s just hard to keep believing in a bright future being an artist. In the last few years, my mind became much clearer and I made some big moves. Now I think, even if I fail in this music world, I’ll find a part time job and continue doing my music in some local pubs. Even if I became a homeless or something, I’ll just spend the rest of my life going to library and read good books. I don’t have to worry about the future. I won’t die. So I’ll do the music I love. I’ll keep playing and dancing on the stage. It’s called self-confidence. For the first time in my life, I’m not repressing my feelings. I’m free.

I want to thank my friends that I met in the last 23 years. I am leading a happy life that I cannot even compare to the life when I was still drinking. Because of you guys, I’m here and I can continue to be a musician. Thank you!!

Done with the tour!

There wasn't a snowstorm ❄️ We didn't hit any deer 🦌 Therefore it was a very very good tour! 😄👍

We drove ten hours back to Seattle from Great Falls, Montana last night and I'm about to jet to LA.

It was a short tour but definitely was a productive, connected me to lots of great people and sure is leading me to future. The funny thing is that I kind of decided to retire from this touring business a while ago but I realized on this tour that I'm still in love with touring.

I am going to seek the way to somehow do both touring and recording. I just enjoy standing on the stage in front of audience.

Montana Performing Arts Consortium!

I've been touring with Russian 🇷🇺 /Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 group. We are about to play at a conference in Montana and the next 12 minutes will decide our future in 2018 & 2019.

The moment of truth! Tension is maxed out, but I'm still smiling because I am an entertainer. Even if I'm getting cold feet, having 100 butterflies in my stomach and almost peeing in my pants and I'm still smiling, because..... yes, that's right. Because I am an entertainer!

We are going to kick some ass.

Mermaid!

This is what I saw at a pub in Great Falls, Montana last night. A mermaid.

I thought nothing would surprise me in this world any more. World is wide. I under-estimated Montana.

Photo shoot in Seattle!

We just did a photo shoot at beautiful Bellevue Botanical Garden in Seattle! Photos came out pretty good! 🤗 Well, there is a reason for it. Two singers of this group are actually professional models. I learnt some serious modeling today! That was fun!! If you need a short middle-aged Asian guy for modeling, you know who to call! 😆👍

Right-O, now the photo shoot is done ✅ We are going to rehearse a bit then hit the road. It's going to be a 11-hour drive to Great Falls, Montana. Wish us luck!