Concert review: Kodo Drummers at the AT&T Performing Arts Center
by Todd Maternowski
DALLAS — Music is perhaps the most powerful artistic form when it comes to capturing and expressing the range of human emotion, and no one does it better than the Kodo Drummers. The Kodo Drummers of Japan performed in Dallas Thursday night at the acoustically impressive Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, and didn't disappoint. It was the taiko drum troupe's first performance in the area since their riveting 2007 show at the McFarlin Auditorium. Kodo, which can either mean "heartbeat" or "children of the drum," encompasses a wide variety of traditional Japanese musical instruments, including a half-dozen different types of drums, flutes, gongs, bells, and even singing, in creating a beautiful and moving live performance.
The drummers did ten numbers and an encore, with every number radically different from the next. Each piece was a powerful combination of both music and dance, as the performers expertly created beautiful music while executing martial arts-style choreography. The discipline and minute precision of the Kodo drummers was a show in itself; while the music soared from one emotional high to the next, the musicians themselves displayed a stunning spectacle of well-practiced cohesion, both with the music and with the other performers.
Too often performing artists mistake creativity with mere self-expression; to truly create something great, an artist requires craft, discipline and emotional dedication. All three were on full display Thursday night. The Kodo drummers have been touring now for over thirty years and more than 3000 shows, spending a third of the year touring Japan, a third touring the rest of the world, and a third sequestered on Sado Island in Japan, where they rest and perfect their craft.
Like any live act with three decades under its belt, the show was a mix of 'greatest hits' with brand-new material; but unlike most live acts that are getting long-of-tooth, the new material was exceptional. Traditional crowd-pleasing Kodo classics like the energetic Chonlima and Miyake were mixed with numbers that hadn't even been composed the last time they toured through here, such as the thundering and powerful Stride. Often the old and new were placed back-to-back for a stronger effect, such as when the silly, audience-pleasing classic Jang-Gwara was blended with the explosively happy Sora, composed just last year, which was itself followed by the somber and reverent Kumo no Namiji --an intense, newer piece that mentally prepares the viewer for the massive O-daiko's near-religious experience.
From the very beginning, where the troupe performed the haunting, beautifully choreographed Sakaki, through the bleak minimalism of Monochrome and finally finishing up with the hyper-energetic Yatai-bayashi, the Kodo Drummers explore and express the full range of real human emotion with astounding artistry.
