Photo by Gil Asakawa
Audio By Carbonatix
If you’re at an outdoor event like this weekend’s Colorado Dragon Boat Festival or the Cherry Blossom Festival and you hear a thunderous sound that draws audiences towards the stage, chances are you’re hearing Denver Taiko beating their drums like a siren’s call.
On Saturday, Aug. 29, Denver Taiko will make that rhythmic call to celebrate its 50th year performing as Denver’s ambassadors of traditional Japanese music with an anniversary concert at Colorado School of Mines. On Aug.30, the group will perform at the Dragon Boat Festival.
When Denver Taiko was formed in 1976, it was only the fourth taiko group in the U.S., and the first founded outside of California. Now, there are a handful of taiko groups in Colorado, and up to 700 groups across the U.S. Taiko still isn’t as mainstream as sushi, but it’s almost as familiar as anime.
The musical form was established in Japan as far back as the 6th century, with the sound imported from China and Korea. The drums were used to accompany religious ceremonies and warriors in battles, but the modern style of various-sized drums performed by ensembles was refined in the 1950s and ‘60s. So the idea of taiko concerts as cultural exports wasn’t so ancient when the drums crossed the Pacific and eventually made their way over the Rockies.
The man who’s acknowledged as “the father of taiko in North America,” Seiichi Tanaka, who had founded the San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968, performed in Denver in 1976, and a group of musicians who were familiar with taiko met with him and formed Denver Taiko. One of those original members, Mark Miyoshi, is now a taiko drum maker in California. Another, Joyce Nakata-Kim, will join Denver Taiko on stage for the 50th anniversary show.
Three years later, as original members left the group, new members joined, including Aiko Tagawa, who was only 13 at the time. She became the leader of Denver Taiko in 1986 and later married Yuji Kimura, who had joined the group in 1984. Today, Aiko Kimura remains the leader of the group.
Denver Taiko hauled its drums in various configurations all over the U.S., from throughout Colorado and the western states to Kansas City, Houston, Cincinnati, and Middletown, Ohio – anywhere that a festival wanted to showcase taiko drumming. That was more common in the early years, when taiko was still a rare and exotic sound.
Photo by Gil Asakawa
The Kimuras don’t remember when taiko became popular enough that people didn’t treat it as an oddity. For years, Denver Taiko was the main performing attraction at events like the Cherry Blossom Festival and later the Dragon Boat Festival, where they’ve been on the main stage every year since 2001, but not so much elsewhere. “Early on, I don’t think they played more than maybe five or 10 gigs a year,” Aiko says.
These days, they are booked an average of 35 times a year. Aiko performs at every gig, whether it’s the whole group or a smaller configuration, all year round. The group has brought their drums to ski areas in the snow, and for years now they’ve been one of the highlights at Denver’s Parade of Lights downtown on frosty December nights.
“Bringing Japanese culture to people is what makes Taiko really, really, meaningful,” Aiko says. “You’re not playing just because you know you can make loud noises and make people feel happy. Yes, it can make people feel happy, but you know it’s more than just the playing.” It’s the cultural connection, she says.
There will be two new pieces performed at the 50th anniversary concert, but there will be numbers that may not be familiar if you’ve only seen the group at outdoor events.
“There are a lot of pieces that we only play at concerts because they don’t really fit,” Aiko says. “Like one of our first pieces, we only play that at concerts, so in the past 10 years, we played it maybe three times. There’ll be songs like that.”
There’s also a piece composed by one of the new members, Josh Fandel.
A smaller group will assemble to perform at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival the next day, and though it’s tough to organize two shows in a row, Aiko says she wouldn’t miss the opportunity.
“We have to do it. We also have such a good relationship with the Dragon Boat Festival,” she says. “We started at the very beginning, and we’ve seen all the wonderful growth of the Dragon Boat Festival, so we can’t say no.”
Denver Taiko’s “Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future” 50th anniversary concert is at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, at Colorado School of Mines Bunker Auditorium, 924 16th St., Golden. Tickets are $35-$55.
