Takehisa Kosugi of Taj Mahal Travellers & Group Ongaku R.I.P.

Another great bites the dust... Takehisa Kosugi passed away three days ago on 12 October 2018. A contemporary of Yoko Ono and Yasunao Tone, he was responsible for bridging the seemingly different worlds of psychedelia, modern composition, improvisation and modern dance during his lifetime.



A member of the Fluxus in Japan, in the early 1960s he was instrumental in the formation of arguably the world's first free music ensemble, Group Ongaku (with Yasunao Tone and Mieko Shiomi among many others), in Japan. He went on to form the hugely influential Taj Mahal Travellers in the late 1960s and globe trotted to spread his gospel of drone and minimalist informed space music at outdoor festivals and concert halls.



Later on, he worked closely with modern dance legend Merce Cunningham when he was invited to join Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1977 to 2011, working with David Tudor as music director for a number of years when their respective stints in the Company overlapped.



















In my opinion, these are some key albums which one should listen to which Takehisa Kosugi was involved in:

Takehisa Kosugi - Catch Wave




Taj Mahal Travellers - Live Sotckholm July 1971




Taj Mahal Travellers - August 1974




Toshi Ichiyanagi/Michael Ranta/Takehisa Kosugi - Improvisation Sep. 1975




Steve Lacy/Yuji Takahashi/Takehisa Kosugi - Distant Voices