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Cornelius Boots Wood Prophecy 2020 21 (World Premiere) The Wood Prophets— bass shakuhachi quartet Cornelius Boots (); Kevin Chen () Karl Young (); Hiromi Inaba () Bass shakuhachi (Taimu) Wood Prophecy - a woodwind animism saga in five movements Elemental Nature Music in the Hour of Man's Demise. World-building Chamber Music. Dark Green Religious Music. Authentic Nature Music in an Age of Vanishing Soul The Main Idea: To transmit the feeling philosophy of the forest; Nature's quintessence, in sound. To transmit through direct experience the flavor of the peace, majesty and aliveness of the ancient days of the Earth. Actualizing an earthy and authentic nature-based woodwind musicianship, and returning to reverence. Earth's deep history shows us three vital stages in this Wood Prophecy: 1 - Blue-Green Algae Makes Oxygen 2 - Wood Makes Verticality 3- Awareness Grows Bass shakuhachi (Taimu) Shakuhachi is a vertical, end-blown flute made of root-end bamboo that emerged from Japanese Zen Buddhism back in the old feudal samurai times. The design is painfully basic—no parts, no mouthpiece, no keys, only 5 finger holes and a blowing edge at the very end of the tube (no whistle design as in recorders, we need a flute-like embouchure)—and the instrument appears as a cured and cleaned up version of exactly what it was when it grew from the ground. To keep the inner bore natural is called “jinashi“ and to use a wider, thicker piece of bamboo is called “hocchiku.“ San Francisco renegade flute-maker Ken Mujitsu LaCosse created the Taimu in the early 2000's by modifying jinashi, hocchiku versions of shakuhachi so that they had a bigger, “fog-horn glow“ to their tone. Taimu means “the big nothing“ and it is considered the full-throated, baritone or bass variant of shakuhachi: the Barry White, the redwood tree—the Bigfoot of all flutes. So rare, it almost didn't exist at all, but thankfully, here we are. Thank you Brother Ken (1960-2019). Composer/performer Cornelius Boots is a woodwind animist who has forged his own unique path as a professional musician since 1989. Known internationally as a style sorcerer and deeply innovative bass clarinetist and shakuhachi player, Boots has a long history of creating new repertoire by evolving the low-end capabilities of his instruments and artfully weaving deep blues and heavy rock threads into solo and small group compositions. His upcoming book Woodwind Nature illuminates the granular details of his method and philosophy, and his latest group, The Wood Prophets (previously known as the Heavy Roots Shakuhachi -Ensemble), is an apotheosis of the past 25 years of musical and spiritual explorations. The video for his composition Green Swampy Water won Best Music Video in the Tokyo International Short Film Festival in January 2021. In 2019, Boots founded the Black Earth Shakuhachi School, an East-West music school of international scope for wide and low, pure bamboo flutes (jinashi & Taimu shakuhachi), honkyoku ( solo Zen Buddhist repertoire), blues, and new music. 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 licensed shakuhachi grandmaster (dai shihan) and prize-winning composer, he is now integrating the lineages of Watazumido, Eric Dolphy, and Son House on jinashi (all-natural) and Taimu (bass) shakuhachi. Boots has generated and released a catalog 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). 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, Dixieland clarinetist, symphony bass clarinetist, funk and progressive rock bandleader and founder/composer of the world's only composing bass clarinet quartet, Edmund Welles. 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 “Shinzen“ (depth Zen or deep Zen). In addition to teaching, Cornelius has recorded and written, in shakuhachi calligraphic notation, a series of etudes for Taimu shakuhachi. Recorded live October 22nd 2023 at Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94109. For more upcoming concerts please visit
