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!

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!

Back in Musicians Union in Hollywood!

This is the first time to come to the musicians union in Hollywood after the tour. Well, I felt totally different tension in there from the stage because I need a different skill. Our job on the stage is to entertain our audiences for whatever it takes. Our job in the studio is to read the charts precisely and play as the composer imagined or even better. I have been almost only playing on stages and I am now trying to change my career to be a studio musician.

I was thinking I had to choose one or the other, but that's not true. I’m going to do both. I can do it. It just takes more time. That's all.

The first performance of the year!

First job this year at musicians union in Hollywood!

I don't think I am a loud bass player but I have been told to play quietly all the time. 🤐and, to be honest, I've been a bit stressed out about that. This band, however, is critically different from any other bands I've been a member of; this is a jazz big band! The bass needs to be louder! I tell ya, with the requests from the fellow band members, I went quite loud. Behemoth loud. And they liked it. And I liked it.

Aaaww, I felt so good and I was dancing all the way to home.

The last performance of the year 2016!

Hello, how are you, friends~~😄😄😄

It’s winter. It’s the season for knit caps, scarfs, gloves and hot cocoa. Well, here in Los Angeles is in winter as well but the temperature went up to 80F (26C) yesterday! 🤣 Sun is shining and lots of trees are still lively with full of green leaves🌴🌴🌴 What a winter. Now I’m a bit worried about what the summer looks like in here.

Anyway, I played at the musicians union in Hollywood as usual. I don’t have a count-down gig this year, so that was it for the performing side the year 2016 for me. That was a fun!

Only three days left this year! To tell the truth, without seeing snow or icicles outside of the window, I cannot quite bring myself to believe that this IS the end of the year, but I’ll go with the flow. Ha-ha. I’ll just keep practicing and keep reading books.

Recording Sanshin!

Just put the sanshin track down with my brother Adrien! 😆 That was a fun recording session! I'll bring shamisen next time!

Musicians Union in Hollywood!!

Hello, I got fat.

I ate like no tomorrow a few days ago on my birthday and now all the abs are gone. Six pack became one pack. It's amazing that human bodies can transform like this just in one day.

Anyway I went to the Musicians Union in Hollywood again. Today we were taking some stills while we were playing. Now everyone can see our pretty faces. We are hoping to get more gigs with this. Crossing fingers.

Kubo and the two strings!

This is the best second run cinema place! Only a couple of bucks for a flick! 😆👍 I wanna come here everyday! I just watched the animation movie about shamisen, Kubo and the two strings!

The main reason why I moved to LA was that I wanted to find recording jobs in Hollywood playing shamisen or sanshin, so the sound track of this movie with shamisen on it is exactly the gig I am zeroing in. I couldn't stop thinking of how I could take over the shamisen player's place while I was watching it. Then what the professional musician like me naturally think next is how much compensations I can get doing this kind of gigs.

Oh no! 🙈 I wasn't really watching this movie with such a touching story and was just counting the chickens before they are hatched! I polluted my mind with money and became a materialistic weasel. I feel so dirty myself!

Came to Musicians Union in Hollywood!

I'm at Musicians Union in Hollywood again. I just put my name on another musicians list in there. Now I'm going to make a website, do a recording, make a promotional video then pray.

Okey, time to play fun music! I'm gonna rock out!

Rehearsal for a recording

Done with the rehearsal for a recording this weekend. Ten days had passed since I came back from the tour. Christmas season had already begun in Boston and my head is switched from the touring-musician mode to the party-musician mode. I have to switch it back once again and give my 100% for the recording. I needed something like this.