EVENTS
Jazztopad Festival New York 2025
Michiyo Yagi & Hamid Drake Duo
w/ guest Wacław Zimpel
June 13 (Fri), 2025
Door opens 19:00, music from 19:30
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
61 W 62nd St, New York, NY 10023
Free admission!
https://www.lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city/jazztopad-884
MICHIYO YAGI
(electric 21-string koto, 17-string bass koto, electronics, voice)
A virtuoso of the traditional Japanese transverse harp known as the koto, Michiyo Yagi has devoted much of her career to making music that sounds simultaneously ancient and futuristic. She has developed extended techniques and incorporated electronics while taking care to preserve the uniquely resonant character of the koto in its most primal form. In addition to performing her own compositions either unaccompanied, with her own jazz-oriented trio, or with her multi-koto ensemble Talon, Yagi is known as the premier improviser on her instrument. She toured extensively in the 2000s with Peter Brötzmann and Paal Nilssen-Love, regularly performs with Tamaya Honda as half of the koto-drums improv power duo Dōjō, and has enjoyed collaborations with Hamid Drake, Eivind Aarset, Akira Sakata, Tony Buck, Elliott Sharp, Wacław Zimpel, Mark Dresser, Jan Bang, Ned Rothenberg, and William Parker, among many others. Yagi has been featured at many of Europe’s major jazz festivals, most recently at Jazztopad in 2022, Cologne Jazzweek (Featured Artist) and Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Artist in Residence) in 2023, and Moers Festival in 2024.
HAMID DRAKE
(drums, percussion, voice)
Hamid Drake extensive studies of drums and percussion incorporated jazz, rock, and classical styles as well as Asian and Caribbean music. In 1974 he began a long-term musical relationship with Chicago's free jazz legend Fred Anderson, who introduced Drake to George Lewis and Douglas Ewart in the late 70's. His most significant percussion influences, Ed Blackwell and Adam Rudolph, date from this period. The latter, a childhood friend, became another continuing collaborator and they appeared together in numerous contexts, including Anderson's 1979 recording The Missing Link. Don Cherry, whom first Drake met in 1978, was another significant collaborator. Also in the late 70's, Hamid Drake became a member of the Mandingo Griot Society, appearing on the group's first album. For many years Hamid Drake provided deftly inventive rhythmic support to forward thinking musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, with whom he played in a quartet alongside William Parker and Toshinori Kondo, Borah Bergman, Marilyn Crispell, Pierre Dørge, Georg Gräwe, Herbie Hancock, Misha Mengelberg, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Malachi Thompson, Michael Zerang, Kent Kessler, Ken Vandermark, and Michiyo Yagi. With these diverse artists, playing in a broad range of musical settings, Hamid Drake comfortably adapts to North and West African and Indian styles as well as Reggae and Latin music.
WACŁAW ZIMPEL
(alto clarinet, khaen, electronics)
Virtuoso reed player, improviser, composer, and electronica artist Wacław Zimpel is one of Poland’s most innovative artists. After making a name for himself playing avant-garde jazz with prominent European and American musicians, his expansive musical knowledge and forward-looking nature led Zimpel to explore other styles and musical traditions such as minimalism, Indian classical music, Moroccan gnawa, and traditional Japanese music. Zimpel’s landmark solo album “Lines” (2016), featuring him on analog electronic instruments in addition to his clarinet work, became his gateway to the international electronica scene, where he now collaborates with artists such as James Holden, Forest Swords, and Shackleton.