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February 5, 2023 at First Presbyterian Church of Edgewood in Pittsburgh, PA. Featured on the album Mountain Hermit's Secret Wisdom: Performed on 3.2 Taimu shakuhachi made by Ken Mujitsu LaCosse Cameras by Felicia I. Chavez and Michaela Waltz. Natural shakuhachi - root-end wisdom - deep nature blues Cornelius Boots is a certified grandmaster of Zen shakuhachi, a renegade classical composer and lifelong woodwind performance visionary-pioneer. Long bio below. Composed (2009) & performed by Cornelius Boots, this piece is available on the album Mountain Hermit's Secret Wisdom Written for wide-bore, jinashi Taimu shakuhachi The long tone honkyoku pieces (like Kyorei) and slow Mississippi blues tunes (like solo Junior Kimbrough) are the primary inspirations for this piece, which is mukyoku #21. “mukyoku“ are pieces for Taimu shakuhachi, flutes made by Ken Mujitsu LaCosse. Woodwind Nature -- Elemental Musicianship Black Earth Shakuhachi School Traditional Zen Shakuhachi Flute Practice and nature meditation merges with deeper musicianship. Lessons & info: 深竹道 - 地無し尺八 #shakuhachi #meditation #尺八 Follow, Listen and Connect: Website: Spotify : iTunes: Bandcamp: Facebook (personal): YouTube: Twitter: Instagram: Facebook (shakuhachi): Bio: LONG BIO: Founder/composer of Black Earth Shakuhachi School, Cornelius Boots has forged his own eclectic style as a professional woodwind performer since 1989. A licensed shakuhachi grandmaster (dai shihan), prize-winning composer and former bass clarinet performance innovator, he is actively merging the threads of Watazumido, Eric Dolphy and Son House on jinashi (all-natural) and Taimu (bass) shakuhachi. Boots has generated and released an entire body of new songs and compositions for these large, raw and rare bamboo flutes of Japanese Zen Buddhist origin: mukyoku (27 pieces for Taimu) and Shakuhachi Unleashed (48 virtuosic songs of rock, Zen, blues, metal and more). In 2018, he was a finalist in the World Shakuhachi Competition, a featured performer for Sony PlayStation’s E3 press conference (LA) and a featured performer/lecturer at both the World Bamboo Congress (Xalapa, Mexico) and the World Shakuhachi Festival (London). A three-time graduate of the renowned Jacobs School of Music (BM Classical Clarinet ’97, BS Audio Recording ’97, MM Jazz Studies ’99), Boots’ training and work experience is deep and diverse: jazz saxophonist, swing clarinetist, symphony bass clarinetist, funk and progressive rock bandleader and founder/composer of the world’s only composing bass clarinet quartet, Edmund Welles. With his latest three albums, the Shakuhachi Unleashed series—Holy Flute (2017), Bamboo Rising (2018), and Sacred Root (2019)—Cornelius continues to develop “bamboo gospel,” a robust, cross-cultural solo style utilizing rare breath-defying techniques and maximum polystylistic prowess. A Performer’s Certificate Awardee from David N. Baker’s seminal Jazz Studies program at Indiana University, Cornelius is the first student of Grandmaster Michael Chikuzen Gould to have earned a Shihan (master teaching license) in 2013 and was given the shakuhachi name 深禅 “Shinzen“ (depth Zen or deep Zen). In 2022, he was awarded a Dai Shihan (grandmaster) certificate in recognition of his dedication and contribution to the art and practice of shakuhachi. In addition to teaching, Cornelius has recorded and written, in shakuhachi calligraphic notation, a series of 27 etudes (mukyoku) for Taimu shakuhachi. First-prize winner of the 2013 International Clarinet Composition Competition, Boots has also received commissions and awards from Chamber Music America, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Areon Flutes, International Songwriting Competition and Meet the Composer. ~~~~~ Visit - sign up and contact Cornelius for online lessons. Woodwind Nature Music Video: 尺八 深禅 (Shinzen)
