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Taiko Rangers
The Taiko Rangers performing at the 3rd UK Taiko Festival in July 2007
In the summer of 2001 James Barrow was asked to lead an initiative funded by Youth Music as part of the Newroots Youth Music Action Zone. This project was managed by ShYAN. The first part of the project in North Shropshire was a taster workshop in a number of schools and youth centres. After the initial taster sessions, one of which was in Wem, the second part of the project kicked in with regular (once every two weeks) sessions through the spring term of 2002. James worked with a team of about 24 students aged between 14-16. Of all the projects in the whole of Shropshire this was the most successful in terms of progress and attendance. At the end of the spring term the funding stopped. However the ‘Taiko Rangers’ had already been born and had started to fuse the art of Japanese drumming with modern dance music creating the unique fusion which is TEKNO TAIKO. The students however still managed to perform in an outdoor festival in July 2002 as part of an arts week. It rained… a lot!
In September 2002 the project was extended with further funding from Youth Music. At the same time the ‘Taiko Rangers’ were invited by Youth Music to perform at the Arts Ball on Friday September 6th at the ICC in Birmingham. Enter the Taiko Rangers in their distinctive luminous Youth Music green and pink into the black and gold dinner party atmosphere for the great and the good of the Art World. ‘Rare Wolf’, the DJ sliced the earth with the start of “Plump DJs..” and then thunder as the energised Taiko Rangers beat out their eastern rhythms, exploring the gaps and beats of the western music. A night not easily forgotten! The synthesis of raw physical energy and complexity of sound that is TEKNO TAIKO was born.
Throughout 2002 James continued to work with the ‘Rangers’. Many performances followed and more students were recruited. Recordings were made and then the funding dried up… but not before a set of drums were made by James, one of the many legacies he left.
The new academic year found the group with no mentor or leader and no funding. So, they looked within and planned what they might do…. And so the core team of Todd Smallbone, Abi Edwards, Jacob Foord and Sarah Fischer decided to take up where James had left off. They started meeting weekly and working with younger students to pass on what they had learned about the art of Taiko. This developed into a zealous desire to spread the gospel according to Taiko and culminated in a series of workshops in local primary and secondary schools in Shropshire in the summer of 2004. Then they were invited to run workshops at the Sidmouth International Festival; a great way to end the year. Whilst there they saw ‘Kagemusha’ and were inspired!
So, what to do next? Well no sign of any more money from Youth Music meant we had to look elsewhere to fund the development programme. James put us in touch with Japan 21. I filled out a bid form and they gave us £1000 for the year. So, what next… well the workshops continued and yet there still seemed something missing. So it was back to composition. Jacob and the other Rangers have been busy putting together a series of new pieces fusing the art of Taiko with modern western dance styles, taking their influences from Taiko poetry amongst other things. The pieces were performed for the first time at the 1st UK Taiko Festival hosted by ‘Kagemusha’ in Exeter in July 2005.
Jacob, Abi, Sarah and Todd ended the summer with a series of workshops at Towersey introducing scores of youngsters to the wonders of Taiko… then they went to university! Thus ended the first chapter in the story.
In 2006 a rebuild of the ‘Taiko Rangers’ was necessary due to the exodus of the previous year… and so a team building exercise was planned which of course revolved around the building of a set of drums for workshop use out of irrigation pipe and lorry tarpaulin! Having built a new set of drums with design help from ‘Kagemusha’ the team started rehearsing a new set of pieces. The ‘Tekno’ was out and so back to tradition with ‘Fearless’ and ‘Edge of Magic’ with a ‘Rangers’ twist. The first performance was in December, with further performances in March and May. At the beginning of July the ‘Rangers’ will host a series of three workshops in partner schools in North Shropshire. The highlight of the year however is a second visit to perform at the ‘UK Taiko Festival’ in July! The ‘Rangers’ performed two of their own compositions; ‘Ryōtsu Jinku’ (based on a traditional folk song) and ‘Yumegatari’ (an account of a dream).
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