Dispatches from the Bamboo Way
In the autumn of 2021, in the haze of a world reeling from the shock of a global pandemic, jazz faculty members at Leeds Conservatoire, myself amongst them, were offered a small bursary towards continuing professional development. After one lesson with the extraordinary Indian violinist Kala Ramnath, I decided to try my hand at something else entirely. Thus it was that my relationship with the Japanese bamboo flute, the shakuhachi (尺八), began, not altogether surprising considering my longtime fascination with the country and its rich culture. I chose as teacher grandmaster Cornelius Shinzen Boots, a player in the lineage of Watazumido. Like me, Boots arrived at the bamboo via Western classical and jazz music, and so, from a distance, he seemed something of a kindred spirit who would be well placed to ferry me across this musical, cultural, and spiritual membrane (and I wasn’t wrong).