Hi everybody
I moved my blog to a different site. I created a facebook page where I will post my news and music related activities. Please check it out and hit the “like” button!
http://www.facebook.com/dennisfrehsemusic
世界体操 / Gymnastic World Championships
I went to see the “Gymnastic World Championships – Men’s Group Final” today. This year the World Championships are taking place in Tokyo. I’ve always wanted to see this sport live, it was amazing!
Germany made it only to rank six but Japan got the silver medal!
Here are some pictures…
Duo Concert
Yesterday I played a Duo concert (Piano/Drums) at the “Art Forum Azamino“, together with pianist Yuko Uchida. It was very nice! The sound was great and the format of only two musicians was very intimate. It was like having a conversation with a good friend… in front of an audience…
Unfortunately one of my cymbal stands broke during the setup and I had to play with only one ride cymbal and the hihat.
Here is a picture from above. Underneath the drums you can see a black mat. I cut the shape of that mat myself to fit my drumset. It’s made out of rubber and protects the bass drum and hihat from slipping during the performance. I made it recently and it works great!
書道 / shodo
A friend of mine is good friends with a shodo master (書道 / japanese calligraphy) here in Japan. She asked her to make a T-Shirt for me with my name written in kanji. It’s very nice!!!
Please check out the website of the Shodo Artist. She does fantastic works!
何これ… / worst Takoyaki
For a while we know about a small Takoyaki place close to our home. My wife is from Osaka (the hometown of Takoyaki!) and we’ve always been curious to try them and tonight was the night!!
We arrived and ordered a set of six pieces. On the shop’s Takoyaki pan where some half finished ones. After placing our order, the “cook” turned on the heat to finish baking them, BUT to my surprise he just heated them for about 10 seconds, wrapped them up and handed them to us for take out… I was shocked… I’ve never seen so white Takoyakis in my life before…
My wife tried a piece of one of the Takoyaki and decided to bake them a little bit more on our pan at home. Still don’t taste good but at least they are a bit more crispy now…
Xiamen & Hong Kong
I just got back from a 5 day concert trip to China. We went to Xiamen and Hong Kong. I recently went to China for a few concerts, but Hong Kong was the first time for me. Great city! Great energy!
From Tokyo it’s easy to go there, just about 4 hours flight time. To go to Xiamen we flew into Hong Kong and took another plane for about 55 Minutes. They served us a very delicious snack during that flight. The bred with some kind of meat filling was very good! 
Here are pictures of the venue that we played at. It was a nice hall and stage in Xiamen. The concert was almost sold out and it was a nice “party”! As an encore we always play some famous chinese songs on this tour. The audience is singing together with us… that is such a great moment!!
Before the concert we went to a chinese restaurant close to the hotel. I don’t know if this is a Xiamen style, but everybody had an own cooking pot in front where we could boil various vegetables, meats, etc. Interesting taste… The soup in the pot is made of Duck bones and mushrooms….. i guess….
Now Hong Kong! That city was just amazing. After arriving at the airport you can’t see the city yet. We had a bus that took us to the hotel. Using the highway, we had to go through a tunnel and after that… BOOM…. the skyline and the harbor of Hong Kong was right there..!!! I can’t forget that moment!!! Here are some impressions:
This is a curry dish that I had for lunch. On the right a typical Hong Kong drink: Yuangyang. That is a mixture of coffee and milktea. Delicious!
Here is an impression of our stage in Hong Kong. It was a big hall, on the picture you can’t see it but there was also a balcony… 
Before the concert we had some kind of religious ritual with the local promoter. We had to pray and cut a pig…
Sensaphonics Earplugs
I recently bought a pair of custom made Sensaphonics Earplugs (ER Series Musician Earplugs – Custom).
They are custom made to fit my ear and they come with two pairs of Etymotic Filters to work at different volume levels.
The filters I chose are ER-9 and ER-15. ER-9 provides flat 9-dB sound reduction through the mid range and 15 dB in the highs.
ER-15 provides uniform 15-dB sound reduction across frequencies.
I’m using these earplugs on my everyday job and I’m very happy with them. I’m mostly using the ER-9 filters. They reduce the sound level just a little bit and I can still hear everything around me with good balance, perfect for an acoustic band. The ER-15 filters are great too, but I’ll use those in more loud situations.
Using these earplugs, I feel like I can hear my own instrument better, as well as the balance of all instruments within the band. The instruments sound clearer and more define… and at the same time I protect my hearing… highly recommended!!
China Tour (Wuhan & Changsha)
I just came back from a four day concert trip to China with japanese singer/guitarist Lisa Ono (小野リサ).
It was the second time for me in China and it was an interesting trip. This time we went to Wuhan and Changsha. Unfortunately we didn’t have much free time to check the cities, but at least I could get a basic impression about those places. The cities felt very different from each other. Wuhan being more hip versus Changsha felt more “country side”, even though it’s a big city…
Here are some impressions of Wuhan:
The concert hall/ stage in Wuhan before the show.
Band members, local drum techs and me before the show. Everybody was super nice and helpful!
Going from Wuhan to Changsha we used the new “Bullet train”! I wasn’t too comfortable about that decision because of the accident that happened recently, where a Shinkansen-like train crashed into another train and the government trying to hide it all to the public…
I don’t know how much it was a topic in the western news, but in Japan it was a big deal.
Big topic was also, that the chinese bullet train (picture below) looks almost exactly like the japanese Shinkansen… well, I survived the ride and can proudly present these pictures…
These two pictures were taken from the train. It was about 8 o’clock in the morning…
The next two pictures were taken in Changsha. Anyway I was surprised how many new big buildings are in the making, either in Wuhan or in Changsha. China seems to really develop fast… in many ways….
This was our stage in Changsha before the show
Sound check…
This is how I received my suitcase in Shanghai coming from Changsha on the way back home. I wonder how that could happen…. it was also the first time that I used this “brand new” suitcase….
Dog Fun 新横浜公園
Today we went to a very nice park/sports area in Shin-Yokohama (新横浜公園). That park is very wide and has many things to offer. People can go running, play basket ball, they have a skate board park, tennis, … and you can use it for free… it’s awesome!!! Other good thing is, that they allow dogs! Only rule is, that they have to be connected to a leash.
We went to this huge greenfield side… nobody else was there that time and we could go running, play frisbee, …
Tomonao Hara Quartet in Saitama / 原朋直 Quartet, 埼玉県
Yesterday I was playing a concert with trumpeter Tomonao Hara and his Quartet in Saitama. We are playing regularly with that band at Tokyo’s “Naru” – a fine Jazz Club in Ochanomizu. This was the first time for us to play outside of Tokyo in this configuration. It was a very nice concert, I enjoyed it a lot. The concert hall, that we played at was also kind of special. Usually you’ll find the stage at one side of the hall and the audience is sitting in front of the band. This time the stage was in the middle of the hall and the audience was sitting around us. The sound system was above us on the ceiling so it felt like we were playing surrounded by our sound… fantastic!
We will play again with this band on Friday, September 9 at “Naru”. Don’t miss it!!
(left to right): 朝田拓馬/Takuma Asada (Guitar), Me (Drums), 島田剛/Go Shimada (Bass), 原朋直/Tomonao Hara (Trumpet, Leader)
Here are two pictures of the stage…
