Kuramoto’s Koto Style Blends Jazz and Tradition

The plangent sound of June Kuramoto’s koto has been an essential element in the multicultural music of the group Hiroshima since the late ‘70s. Working closely with partner Dan Kuramoto, she has helped forge an ensemble that has brought an appealing world-music quality to the usually predictable menu of the smooth-jazz genre.

On Saturday night at the Japan America Theatre, Kuramoto took center stage for a solo performance, accompanied by members of Hiroshima as well as a few gifted guest artists. Elegantly garbed in a kimono-like gown (Kuramoto explained that it was actually a kimono undergarment), seated behind her 6-foot-long, 13-stringed instrument, she presented a program ranging from atmospheric traditional themes to groove-driven contemporary works.

The classically trained Kuramoto has never really departed from the precise articulations of the traditional style. And it is to her credit--and Dan Kuramoto’s--that the even note phrasing of her technique has somehow managed to fit effectively into the more free-floating rhythms of jazz fusion.

For this performance, even in its more exuberant moments, she remained firmly in touch with tradition. Unlike the envelope-stretching efforts of Miya Masaoka, another California-based, jazz-oriented koto artist, Kuramoto seems to find sufficient creative stimulation in the essential Japanese cultural view of music performance as an enhancement of existing material.

Although the repetitious, out-of-context drumming of Danny Yamamoto was an occasional distraction, Kuramoto’s original pieces were most appealing for their root-sounding qualities, for the manner in which she delicately and thoughtfully examined engaging fragments of traditional sounding melody.

Kuramoto was aided by the presence of two musical associates: singer Kimaya Seward and er-hu player Karen Hwa-Chee Han. Seward’s work was impeccable, a soothing element in the background mix on some numbers, a powerful, gospel-tinged shouter in one of her solo passages. The virtuosic Hwa-Chee Han added a contrasting element, enhancing several pieces with the vocalized sounds of her two-stringed violin-like instrument, creating an unusual blending of elements from Japan (the koto ) and China (the er-hu).

Add to that the impressive, orchestral sounds generated by keyboardist Kimo Cornwell from his synthesizers, and the result was an evening in which Kuramoto, despite her initial assertions of nervousness, more than justified her role in the spotlight.