Music for Zen Meditation & Other Joys
A celebrated jazz clarinetist in the 1950s, Tony Scott started collaborating with Japanese artists on a trip he made to the country in 1959. He returned in 1964 to teach classes in American jazz and ended up collaborating withkotoplayer Shinichi Yuize andshakuhachiflute player Hozan Yamamoto on a dozen improvised collaborations. Based on the Zen concept of beginner's mind, a state of openness that leads to exploration, the Scott-led pieces predate the more modern concept of "ambient" by a good couple of decades--but, as music descended from temples and designed to ease the mind to a state of higher consciousness, it follows many of the same directives. The gentle clarinet is complemented by the flute, with thekoto--a 13-stringed zither--providing a comfortable contrast, though all three musicians appear on only a single track, the opening "Is Not All One?"--Randy Silver