We are unaffected by cool

It was last summer that I had the chance to see the Shibusha Shirazu Orchestra for the first time. I had never heard of them before and they provoked the greatest impression in me. From the very same moment the concert started I was in shock, and the shock lasted well beyond the concert finished.



I have said concert, but it would be a bit limited to qualify their show just as a concert. Shibusha Shirarzu (that according to Wikipedia can be translated by "We don't understand / are unnafected by the cool"), is not just a band comprising some of the best Japannish free jazz musicians, it is a group of performers, musicians, painters, dancers; that put together an integral show that blows all the spectator senses. They make of every performace a party and they make sure that their public enjoy it as much as they do.

A show of Shibusha Shirazo mixes the surreal with the finest arts. The contention of the Butoh dancers with the bursts of free solos. The woman with the bananas at the top of the ladder and the painter improvising on a never ending roll. And of course the dragon. As limited as I am, I always try to put what I see in the frame of my own references; I remember telling a friend that was with me at the concert: "It is as if Frank Zappa and Fellini had put together this show". But it was not Zappa, and it was not Federico's circus, it was Daisuke Fuwa and the outrageously good Shibusha Shirazo Orchestra.