Live in Japan
Arabica Records CF-33
Produced by Dakota Dave Hull
Executive Producers: Kristine Smith, Cheryl Hall
Recorded live in Japan between March 13th and April 21st, 2024
Compiled and edited by Dave Hull at Arabica Studio, Minneapolis
Mixed and mastered by Steve Wiese and Dave Hull at Creation Audio, Minneapolis
Photos by Xavier Ohmura
Trio photo by Kosuke Nagai
Layout by Ella F. Eyeno
Notes by Dakota Dave Hull
Edited by Jerome Clark
$15.00
Dakota Dave Hull — guitar, guitar-banjo
Special guest Xavier Ohmura – guitar, track 4
Special guest Takasi Hamada — guitar, track 5
- Beginning to See the Light (Ellington, Hodges, James, George) 2:41
- Buddha in the Alley (Hull) 3:33
- A Trip to Otaru (Hull) 4:56
- Yodogawa Glide (Hull) 3:46
- Hure Hure (Hamada) 2:20
- Revival Rag (Hull) 5:16
- Southbound (Watson, Watson) 2:12
- Buddy Bolden’s Blues (Morton) 2:44
- Larson Standard Time (Hull) 2:26
- Petit Waltz (Hull) 2:27
- Kid Shirt (Hull) 5:20
- Victory Rag (Public Domain) 2:30
- The Long Drive Home (Hull) 3:57
In early 2013 I was fortunate to receive an invitation to play a show in Tokyo with Tokio Uchida, the great Japanese fingerstylist. Also on the bill that night was Takasi Hamada, one of the world’s premier practitioners of Classic Ragtime guitar. Takasi and I immediately hit it off.
The next year I returned for a few shows with Takasi-san in the Tokyo area, and the following year we extended our geographical reach to encompass a few shows in the Kansai area. When we met Xavier Ohmura in Osaka, we incorporated him into the mix. For the last several years (excluding the pandemic) I’ve traveled to Japan annually and done some shows with Takasi-san, some with Xavier-san, and a few trio shows to boot. My partner Cheryl Hall has joined us on several tours, and we’ve made some dear friends along the way. It’s become a highlight of my year.
The 2024 tour was the most extensive yet, 33 shows over five weeks or so. I decided to record the shows so I brought along a portable recorder and did exactly that. Choosing the best performances and capturing that live energy proved a daunting task, but I think I’ve managed to put together a set that captures the feeling. There are some tunes I’ve recorded before, in the studio, along with a couple of new ones, and two duets, one each with Xavi and Takasi.
As a listener I dislike a lot of applause on a live recording so I faded out that distraction pretty quickly on most of the tracks. After all, it’s the music that matters.
On this tour I used only two instruments: a 2022 Fairbanks F-35 Custom with a mahogany top and a 1923 Gibson GB-4 guitar-banjo – a hundred and one years between them. Xavi also plays a Fairbanks, an F-20 Nick Lucas, and Takasi plays a 1953 Martin D-18. All four of these instruments are better than each other.
I consider myself an arranger first and foremost. The tunes, original or otherwise, fall into arrangements as I learn them or compose them. Over time some of them change here and there. Others stay pretty much the same. Every once in a while, something that my late friend Peter Ostroushko called a “moment of madness” hits—a reach or a stretch that seems to come out of nowhere yet somehow fits. A couple of those moments appear on this offering. I think that’s the point of a live record.
