6Kaoly Asano:Soul, Spirit, and Sound
Look at Kaoly Asano today and you’ll see the founder of afree-spirited new style of taiko drumming. She’s the lead per‑cussionist of Japan’s legendary GOCOO band. With GOCOO,
she has performed music for the world’s largest festivals andprovided music for the sci-fi blockbuster Matrix Reloaded andMatrix Revolutions movie soundtracks. But on the spring day
in 1990 when a friend first invited Kaoly to hit a drum, she
was thinking up excuses to stay home.
Kaoly was more than merely disinterested in music—sheactively avoided it as a young person. She didn’t play an instru‑
ment. Ditto for sports. She didn’t run, she didn’t shout. Laugh‑
ing and even breathing can be difficult for a child with asthma.
The prospect of getting sick was real and frightening. Kaoly
had to be careful. She lived a calm and, above all, quiet life.
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But out of consideration for her friend, Kaoly accepted theinvitation to drum. And that meeting changed everything.
The moment Kaoly stood behind the big barrel-shaped taiko
drum, the moment she brought the thick wooden bachi sticks
down on the skin, she knew: “I’m finally back where I belong!
It was like being struck by a wave of memories that rushed
back into my body.” She had never played before, yet she could
draw sound out of the taiko as if she were drawing on memory.
From then on, Kaoly’s life has been anything but quiet.
You may be wondering: Who is this bold drummer, and what
did she do with quiet Kaoly? It’s a good question—one thatKaoly still ponders. “Inside of me, I have two modes,” she says,“the ordinary Kaoly Asano and the GOCOO KAOLY.”
How did joining a taiko band suddenly tap into all thatpower? And how does she keep it flowing?
Kaoly was raised in Tokyo and the Kanagawa prefecture inJapan, the most populous metropolitan area in the world.
There, she took music classes at an early age, but by second
grade, Kaoly had decided that the subject was “very difficult.”
That same year she transitioned from public to private
school and found herself in a classroom where everyone
already understood music theory. Everyone, that is, except
Kaoly. She recalls, “Since then, I avoided singing and playing
a musical instrument until I met taiko.”Music wasn’t the only thing Kaoly missed out on in child‑hood. Attempts to keep up with the other kids could result in66

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Kaoly Asano
asthma attacks. And worries about physical health affected hermental health. It became a cycle. And to break it, Kaoly brokewith Western medicine and took healing into her own hands.
Kaoly became a vegetarian. She embraced Eastern medi‑cine. And as a young adult, she studied under a practitioner
who taught her about acupuncture—specifically, about how
strings of acupuncture points, called the meridian, form a kindof energy superhighway along which Qi (life energy) flows
through the body. Using Eastern medicine techniques, Kaoly
triggered her own body’s healing response and accessed energy
reserves that had always eluded her. As her health improved,
so did her emotional well-being.
Kaoly came to see that all the years she’d suffered as a youth
contained a meaningful lesson: “Whether you are healthy, sick,strong, or weak, one can live the role of his or her life to its
fullest.” She wanted to share this idea with others.
It seemed natural that Kaoly would go on to treat patients
herself, but a seven-year stint as an acupuncturist left her witha “one-way feeling.” When she encountered patients resistantto embracing change, Kaoly sensed that she wasn’t making
enough of a difference. She hadn’t found her calling.
During the years before Kaoly discovered taiko, she drifted.
“I was choosing to let go of everything and everybody aroundme,” she recalls. “It felt as though another person inside me
was making the decisions for me against my will.” Perhaps
instinct and intuition drove that decision-making. Perhaps it
was GOCOO KAOLY.
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In the moment Kaoly first hit the taiko, everything she’dlearned fell into place.
For example, as an acupuncturist, Kaoly had discovered thatthe meridian is both the path of Qi and the path of movement,
and her unique taiko style draws directly on that insight. Theway Kaoly hits the drum doesn’t rely on mere muscle power.
She explains, “My strike comes from letting the energy fromthe tanden [the body’s center] flow through to the tip of mybachi. Playing taiko this way allows me to feel an endlessenergy within me.”To understand what she’s talking about, pull up a YouTubevideo from Kaoly’s section of the playlist found in the backof this book. Go ahead. The story can wait as you experience
the incredible energy of GOCOO.

Taiko
Taiko drums were first beaten thousands of years ago inJapanese villages. Originally made from large hollowed-out
tree trunks with cowhide strapped across the tops, thedrums make a booming sound when struck, which historians believe served various purposes: it kept time andordered space (since town boundaries were establishedby how far the drum was heard from the central square).
And for centuries, taiko accompanied dancing in festivals,praying in temples, and fighting in battles.
“Traditional uses were mostly ritualistic and did not use
as many drums, drum types, or players as you would see
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Kaoly Asanoon stage today,” Kaoly explains. It wasn’t until the second
half of the twentieth century, as Japan reaffirmed its
identity after World War II, that taiko drumming becamea performance art in its own right. In the 1950s, charismatic jazz drummer Daihachi Oguchi established theensemble taiko style now widely known as “kumi daiko”
or simply “taiko.”“Your heart is a taiko,” he once told the Associated Press.
“All people listen to a taiko rhythm dontsuku-dontsuku intheir mother’s womb. It’s instinct to be drawn to taiko
drumming.”
After Kaoly’s life-changing drumming date, her friend
became her master, teaching her the essentials such as how
to “care for the tone and nuance of the sounds” and “playwith the breath.” She says, “Everything spirit-wise that a taiko
player must nurture, he taught me.” But he left the rest to her.
Typically, a member of a taiko group or school would learn
the specific form or style of the leader. But Kaoly’s master
didn’t tell her how to hit or what style to play. “I was very
lucky that he let me take my time to explore my own path.”
Kaoly stayed with her master for six years, until his ensem‑
ble disbanded in 1996. This might have been the moment tostart a solo career or join a new group—instead, Kaoly rallied
the remaining band members and took over as leader.
At that time, it was still common to see all (or mostly) maletaiko groups. Taiko was characterized as something “brave”
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Excerpted with permission from Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry, published by Chicago Review PressPower to Performand “masculine,” and the women on taiko stages were usually
dancing, not drumming.
It seemed as if the only way to “level with men on stage” wasto physically train the body and become powerful. But during
the 1990s—a period of government investment in regional
revitalization—a movement to bring back traditional arts
emerged throughout Japan. Community taiko teams formed
all over the country, and women joined them.
In 1997, the majority of Kaoly’s original band members
were female—seven of the twelve. “In the professional taiko
field, it was still very rare to have a group led by a woman
or a group that featured female performers up front,” Kaoly
remembers. “For that reason, we attracted a lot of attention.”
Kaoly stayed away from all generally accepted notions oftaiko: “What I felt with a pure mind when I first started playing
taiko was a history much deeper than the history of so-called‘traditional taiko.’” She’s referring to a history that stretches
all the way back to drumming and dancing at festivals in theprimitive era—“the era of the gods.”
But Kaoly had no idea whether such a different type of taiko
band could “make it.”And then there was the matter of instruments. The band
didn’t have enough, and taiko are expensive.
Every player needed a set of three to five performance
drums, each tuned to a different pitch. Because they consider
taiko as their melodic instrument, wind instruments (suchas fue) and string (shamisen) were not required. But the70

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Kaoly Asanoensemble incorporated metal percussion instruments includ‑ing an atarigane (a hand-held gong played with an antler mal‑let), a jagan cymbal, and (for occasional use) a slit drum madeof bamboo. To make ends meet, the group sought out used
instruments and even built their own.
Fortunately, Kaoly enjoyed the sound of secondhand
drum skins. She still does. When a drumhead has been
played and softened, it creates “deeper, warmer tones thatresonate.” This is what Kaoly admired about the beat-up
2.5-shaku okedo taiko (an approximately 30-inch diameterstaved, roped drum) she picked up for herself. Kaoly says,“To most people it may have looked too worn out, but inmy eyes, this taiko looked like an ancient taiko deity andthe old skin looked like its universe.” Over the years, she
has repeatedly sewn the aging, ripped skin.
Kaoly doesn’t know how many people played on this drum
before it found her, but it’s been with her ever since. “To playthis taiko means to connect with the person who made thetaiko, with the people who have played the taiko, and all thespirits they put into it that becomes the sound.”When Kaoly is on stage with this drum, she feels at peace.
“This taiko is my partner and my mentor,” she explains. “Forthis taiko to have found me at the beginning of my life asGOCOO was nothing less than a miracle and a gift from thetaiko spirit.”
Kaoly gained an opportunity to perform at Japan’s firstEarth Day event in Tokyo. There, the band attracted the71

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attention of a production team from Rainbow 2000, one of
the nation’s biggest techno music events. “Not many of us
knew what a ‘mega outdoor music festival’ was like,” Kaolyrecalls, “but we accepted the performance request without
hesitation.”
The people who contributed to events like Rainbow 2000
and the now-famous Fuji Rock Festival shared the same ide‑
als—namely, to keep primitive-era festivals alive in the mod‑ern world. With the rise of outdoor festivals and raves, people
started to recognize new genres such as “roots music” and“world music.” And Kaoly is proud that GOCOO was partof that recognition. This shift was a small step toward taiko
being seen as “not just a traditional performing art or regional
performing art but part of the general music field.”
All this validation didn’t automatically earn GOCOO a placein traditional music circles, however. Some of those players
and afficionados pushed back, claiming, “That is NOT taiko.”That lack of faith would have been undermining without
the support of GOCOO’s loyal audience. One of the band’ssteadfast fans encouraged Kaoly with the idea that all tradi‑tions start out as something new. Though a new thing is hardto accept, if you don’t give up, it will become a tradition.
And sure enough, in 2000, GOCOO was invited to perform
at the prestigious Nihon no Taiko (Taiko of Japan) concert
held at the National Theatre in Tokyo, the home of Japan’sclassical performing arts. Kaoly explains, “For GOCOO’s taiko
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Kaoly Asano
end at outdoor music festivals and on another end at the Taikoof Japan concert at THE National Theatre—was an unbeliev‑
able honor that gave us confidence in what we do.”Another confidence booster: during GOCOO’s NationalTheatre performance, audience members stood up anddanced! That behavior is normal for an outdoor festival, butnot a Nihon no Taiko concert. Kaoly says, “Culturally, you will
never see this happen at a venue like the National Theatre.”
GOCOO moved on to the international music scene, play‑
ing the huge Sziget Festival in Hungary, the Boom Festival
in Portugal, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, theMawazine Festival organized by Morocco’s king, and the Fes‑
tival Internacional Cervantino, the largest international arts
festival in Mexico and Latin America. To get an idea of thescale of these shows, see the Paléo Festival Nyon performancein the playlist.
The band represented (musically) the entire Asian continent
at the opening event of the UN’s Conference on BiologicalDiversity.
Newsweek Japan featured GOCOO in a special report about“100 Japanese people who overcame cultural barriers andshine in the world,” a list of the country’s pioneers, heroes,
and icons.
Kaoly jokes, “The grade school kid that was traumatized bymusic would’ve never imagined a future where music would
become her life work that takes her all over the world.” And thechild who once struggled to keep up with her peers has shared
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Excerpted with permission from Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry, published by Chicago Review PressPower to Performthe stage with many highly acclaimed musicians, including
famed Korean samul nori player Kim Duk-soo, Seiichi Tanaka,founder of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, and the late West
African djembe player Mamady Keïta. Kaoly toured the UnitedStates with the late Native American activist Dennis Banks. Andwith Juno Reactor, GOCOO recorded music for the Matrix
movies, which earned more than $1.6 billion worldwide.

The Soul and Spirit in the Sound
The two great inspirations of Kaoly’s life are the late
Mamady Keïta and the late Dennis Banks. Neither man
played Japanese drums, but they helped her “grow anunshakeable root” as a taiko player.
Djembe artist Mamady Keïta founded the renowned Tam
Tam Mandingue school of drumming in the West African
nation of Guinea before taking his teachings around theworld. He also performed and recorded percussion withhis group Sewa Kan.
Multitalented Dennis Banks taught, wrote, acted in Hollywood, collaborated with Grammy Award–winning Japanese composer Kitaro on Let Mother Earth Speak, andserved as a leader in the American Indian Movement.
“These two incredible individuals taught me how to be,”Kaoly says. “It’s not about what techniques you use orwhat pieces you perform. It’s about whether or not yoursoul and spirit are in the sound.”74

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Kaoly Asano
Something that has fascinated Kaoly throughout her longcareer is how to be yourself on stage. When performing, shestrives to let go of ego and become a medium of sound. “Whenthere is ego, to try to play better or to try to look good, 100
percent of the time, I will make a mistake, or the performance
will not go well,” she says. “With a pure and blank mind, I
entrust my body, and something lets me play taiko.”Though Kaoly’s inner drummer appeared suddenly andunleashed a huge reserve of creative energy, keeping it flow‑
ing requires ongoing attention. And that focus wasn’t possible
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Right after Kaoly’s birthday on March 17, 2020, Japan’ssocial distancing measures forced her to stop playing and per‑forming for the first time in more than 30 years. “I couldn’t
believe how physically weak I became during that period,” sherecalls. “I couldn’t find any sign of GOCOO KAOLY withinme, and I worried that I might have lost her.”But once she was allowed to reopen her dojo, her innerdrummer emerged little by little. And when it was time toperform for an audience again, Kaoly took her place behind
her favorite okedo taiko. She brought the bachi down on thedrumhead. And GOCOO KAOLY exploded back to life.
“I felt an enormous amount of energy burst out as if she
could break out of my skin,” Kaoly rejoiced. “That energy
does not come from me, but it comes as a result of the infinite
circulation that occurs by being connected to the audience.”That’s the key—listeners. Every time, right up to the moment
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Excerpted with permission from Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry, published by Chicago Review PressPower to Performof a performance, Kaoly is nervous, but on stage, all the inse‑curities disappear and GOCOO KAOLY takes charge.
These distinct aspects of self are important. Kaoly insists,“Only because [Kaoly] knows of her weakness and incomplete‑ness, GOCOO KAOLY will always do her best.”
The ability to play taiko that “fell upon” Kaoly, the early
discovery of her GOCOO family—these feel like “the workof a miracle.” Kaoly says, “This miracle will stay as long as
I stay sincere toward taiko. If I slack off or cut corners, themagic will disappear at once. That is a promise I made withthe taiko deity.”
By playing as GOCOO and operating her own Tokyo dojo,
TAWOO, Kaoly is answering a question asked long ago—
namely, how to help people live fully. Instead of treating
patients, she takes a taiko approach to serving the world. “Bydelivering a performance or opening a dojo where many peo‑ple can gather and play taiko easily and in a fun way, I am
able to help many people be in touch with their inner energy,
filled with love, and exert their own natural healing power.”If you’re ever in Tokyo, Kaoly welcomes you to TAWOO.
Overall effect is a rich and inspiring mix of talent and career
directions...high-interest volume with educational value.—Booklist
Music Mavens takes inspiring role models and blends theirtriumphs and challenges into pathways that set a musicallyinterested young person on their journey with a sense of hope.
—Mitch Glickman, Symphonic Jazz Orchestra

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All aspects of the industry are embodied in these stories, revealing
the nuance of the craft, reaching beyond the stories of fame we too
often hear about in mainstream media.
—Jennifer Carroll, Inner-City Arts
Learn more at musicmavensbook.com

Excerpted with permission from Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry, published by Chicago Review Press