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7-year-old snares professional drumming gigs04/15/2006

By YOHEI GOTO

The Asahi Shimbun

KYOTO--Meet Taiga Onitsuka. He is a professional jazz drummer who is so in demand he has been asked to play gigs about 15 times a month. He has shared the stage with such music greats as world-renowned jazz trumpeter Terumasa Hino, and performs at clubs in Tokyo and Osaka. Last year, he even made it to New York.


He is 7 years old.


The Kyoto second-grader credits everything he learned about the genre to his teacher, the jazz pianist Osamu Ichikawa, who died in January. "Uncle Osamu was kind to me," Taiga recalls. "Can't I see him any more? I just want to jam with him one more time." Ichikawa always praised Taiga for his "great rhythmic sense and timing."


Before Ichikawa's death on Jan. 31, at age 56, from a brain hemorrhage, he and Taiga performed more than 60 times together. They even formed a jazz band last June. In May last year, Hino called the boy onstage at Blue Note Osaka, where they received a rousing applause. Taiga, also known as "Tiger," started his musical career at 5, making his stage debut in November 2004, alongside his father's musician friend.


"It is fun to play music with other players while communicating with our eyes," Taiga said. Influenced by his father, music event producer Satoshi Onitsuka, Taiga has mastered the art of paradiddle, a drumming technique in which sticks in both hands move separately with different timing and accents. Last October, Taiga and his family toured New York for three weeks, where the boy performed at jazz clubs.


The New York audience also acclaimed Taiga for his performance at such a young age. When he is not on the road, Taiga attends a Kyoto elementary school. He comes home from school just before 3 p.m.


If he has a live performance that evening, he will take a nap. When he is not performing, he practices the drums for about four hours in the family's 12.4-square-meter living room. Taiga said he will not forget what Ichikawa taught him: "Jazz is a music originated from the suffering and sorrow of African-Americans who were forced to do back-breaking work," the boy remembers from his mentor.


"I want you to remember this," Ichikawa said, "and respect people's feelings."

(IHT/Asahi: April 15,2006)