Q: What would the indigenous gong-chime music of the Southern Philippines called Kulintang sound like when paired with the thundering Taiko drums of Japan along with a dash of bass guitar and a hint of soprano saxophone? A: KULINTAIKO!

Kulintaiko came about during the Directions in Music Making with Asian Americans (+1 Canadian) Improvisers festival at Sky Cafe where taiko sensei and shamisen player Melody Takata, leader of Gen Taiko, and Conrad Benedicto, kulintang player and leader of Kulintang Dialect were featured on separate weeks. After some discussion during a set break, bandleader Chris Trinidad asked "what if we brought them both together, and added Jinji Sayson, Conrad's fellow bandmate in Kulintang Dialect And, hey ... maybe Francis and I can hang out with them and add our own spices and sounds to the mix.

So, here we have it … as Robert Fripp once said: “Music so wishes to be heard that it sometimes calls on unlikely characters to give it voice, and give it ears.” This unlikely combination of music makers would not have happened had our colloquy by Asian American improvisers not come together at Sky Cafe.

Kulintaiko is:
Melody Takata, taiko, shamisen
Conrad Benedicto, kulintang, gandingan, dabakan
Jinji Sayson, kulintang, gandingan, dabakan
Francis Wong, soprano saxophone
Chris Trinidad, bass guitar, babendil