Stomu

Many years ago I spent some time in London. It was the middle seventies and culture was at it’s peak. Between working and revisiting the sites of my youth (quit hint to my background!) I got to see some classic concerts. I had a lot of luck that year. All the tickets for Elton John were sold out but my cousin managed to get a spare ticket for I group I wasn’t really fond of – Led Zeppelin. They concert, which lasted for around three hours including encores, was of course amazing and went down in history together with a movie and live disc named The Song Remained the Same. I was part of history.
At the time a new rock venue had opened which had a lot of buzz and acoustics to wake up the dead. On the nights that didn’t boast heavy metal (then called heavy rock), there was a lot of experimental stuff that included a nude ballet from Brazil (believe me it’s not at all sexy!) and a Japanese percussionist called Stomu Yamashta. This young artist – performing a masterpiece called  The  Red Buddha Theatre  was so good, so original and so unexpected that I immediately ran out and bought the album.

Many years later, nostalgia hit me along with around fifty percent of the Western World and I started collecting or recollecting (nice play on words there) my miraculous youth. Over the years I have forgotten a lot of places, names and people but for some reason the name of Stomu Yamashta remained in my mind.  In spite of a prolific lifespan,  Stomu never really made it big and most people only remember him for his collaboration with Stevie Winwood on Go.
I have always wondered why such a talent never really made the big time when so much lesser talent has risen so far.
Red Buddha of Red Buddha Theatre Fame