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Kodo – O-Daiko

An evening pause: Japanese drummers playing the Ōdaiko drum

Ōdaiko : One of the most memorable drums of many taiko ensembles is the ōdaiko (大太鼓). For many, the ōdaiko solo is the embodiment of power due to the size of the drum, the volume, and the endurance it takes to perform. The ōdaiko is the largest drum of all taiko, if not the entire world. The largest ōdaiko are too big to move and permanently reside inside a temple or shrine. Ōdaiko means “big taiko”, but within any group, it describes the largest drum in an ensemble, which could mean 12 inches (300 mm) in diameter or 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter. Made from a single piece of wood, some ōdaiko come from trees that are hundreds of years old.

Hat tip Roland.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • Chris

    I Think I saw these guys at Slippery Rock University a few years ago – without the really big drums

    They were impressive in very small but acoustically good auditorium

  • wayne

    Weezer
    –the appropriate cut–
    2001
    https://youtu.be/_9BGLtqqkVI
    2:52

  • wayne

    Roland–
    Good suggestion, actually liking this more than I would have thought.

    Chris-
    where is Slippery Rock U?

    came up on my Suggested list….

    Kodo Drummers with Blue Man Group
    2009
    https://youtu.be/tjAj4EIUF5c?t=273
    (cued to the music start)
    9:50

    “In 2009 Japanese Kodo Drummers came to New York City to collaborate with Blue Man Group on tribal drumming,”

  • Chris

    Wayne – SRU is in Slippery Rock PA -home
    Slippery Rock is a semi-rural town ~ 50 miles north of Pittsburgh

  • wayne

    Chris-
    Thank you.
    (My paternal great grand-parents settled in Erie, PA.)

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