Improvised Music from Japan / Otomo Yoshihide / Ground Zero

HISTORY OF GROUND ZERO

* concert information

1990

Formed by Otomo Yoshihide as a changeable unit

August 31
*Otomo, Hideki Kato (bass), Yasuo Sano (drums), Makio Tada (drums), and Kyoko Kuroda (piano), with guest Koichi Makigami (vocal) at Aisling in Azabujuban, Tokyo

1991

February
In addition to Otomo, Hideki Kato (bass) and Masahiro Uemura (drums) established as regular members
February 18
*Otomo, Kato, and Uemura at Gospel in Senkawa, Tokyo
April 6
*The Best of Indies concert in Hong Kong as Ground Zero, with Otomo and two local musicians, Eric Wong (bass) and Mayfair Z (drums)
April 17
*Otomo, Kato, and Uemura at Gospel in Senkawa, Tokyo

Very active on the Tokyo scene, with guest appearances by Eye Yamatsuka (vocal), Shuichi Chino (keyboards), Junji Hirose (sax), and Tony Buck (drums)

May 27
*Otomo, Kato, and Uemura, with guests Chino, Hirose, and Michiaki Tanaka (percussion) at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
Jun 13
*At Buddy in Ekoda, Tokyo
July 12
*At Buddy in Ekoda, Tokyo
August 6
Recording for Fun House Inc., which was included in Now's the Time Workshop, Vol. 2, released in November of the same year
August 15
*At Manda-la II in Kichijoji, Tokyo
September 2
*Otomo, Kato, Uemura, with guests Yamatsuka (vocal), Chino, Hirose, Tanaka, Hideaki Sasaki (videos) at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
October 19
*At Chocolate City in Yoyogi, Tokyo
November 1
*At Manda-la II in Kichijoji, Tokyo
November 22
*Ground-O Orchestra at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo, with Otomo (guitar, turntable, conducting, arrangement), Makigami (vocal), Tenko (vocal), Kazuhiro Nomoto (saxes, horn arrangement), Hirose (sax), Sachi Hayasaka (sax), Masami Shinoda (saxes), Chino (keyboards), Kuroda (keyboards), Ryoji Hojito (piano), Natsuki Kido (guitar), Kato (bass), Uemura (drums), Buck (drums, sampler), and theater group Rinkogun (voices)

1992

January 18
*Otomo, Kato, and Uemura, with guests John Zorn (sax) and Mick Harris (vocal) at the Knitting Factory in New York
February 27
*Otomo, Kato, and Uemura, with guests Yamatsuka (vocal) and Hojito (keyboards) at Penny Lane 24 in Sapporo

Addition of Chino (keyboards), and Hirose (sax) as regular members

February-May
Recording of first album, GROUND-ZERO (God Mountain), which was released in February of the following year
May 5
*Otomo, Kato, Uemura, Chino, and Hirose at Beam Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo
May 10
*Ground Zero Orchestra at Beam Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo, with Otomo (conductor), group A: Naruyoshi Kikuchi (sax), Kido (guitar), Hojito (piano), Joji Sawada (bass), and Buck (drums); and group B: Kumiko Takara (marimba), Michael Sheridan (guitar), Hirose, Kato, and Uemura

Kato moves to New York, is replaced by Kazuyoshi Kimoto (bass)

August 1
*Otomo, Hirose, Hoppy Kamiyama (keyboards), Kimoto, Uemura, and Hedeaki Sasaki (videos) at Shinjuku Pit Inn

Addition of Sasaki (videos) as a regular member

December 7
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki at Kid-Airac Hall in Tokyo

1993

March 5
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki, with guest Seiichi Yamamoto (guitar) at Shibuya Quattro in Tokyo
March 12
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki, with guest Yamamoto at Shinsaibashi Quattro in Osaka
March 13
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki at Muse Hall in Kyoto
March 14
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki at Nagoya Quattro
May 21
*At Buddy in Ekoda, Tokyo
May 27
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kato, and Uemura at Das Festival in der Röhre in Germany
May 30
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kato, and Uemura at the Moers New Jazz Festival in Germany
June 24
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki, with guest Samm Bennett (percussion) at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
Summer
Recording of second album, Null & Void (Tzadik), which was released in 1995
August 29
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kato, and Uemura at the International Now Music Festival Sapporo
October 24
*Otomo, Kato, and Uemura at the STEIM Festival in Amsterdam
December 9
*Otomo, Hirose, Chino, Kimoto, Uemura, and Sasaki at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo

Temporary disbanding after the concert on December 9

1994

Membership change: Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar), Mitsuru Nasuno (bass), Masaki Shimizu (bass), Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (drums), Uemura (drums), in addition to Otomo

August 11
*At Manda-la II in Kichijoji, Tokyo
September 7
*At Arena Hall in Futagotamagawaen in Tokyo

1995

Shimizu replaced by Sachiko M (sampler)

January 22
*At Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
March 9
*At Manda-la II in Kichijoji, Tokyo
March 11-16
Recording of third album, Revolutionary Pekinese Opera (Trigram), which was released the same year; and fourth album, Revolutionary Pekinese Opera Version 1.28 (ReR), which was released the following year
April 2
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at TAKTLOS Festival in Switzerland
April 6
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at the Knitting Factory in New York
April 8
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at Lounge AX in Chicago
April 19
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M, with guest Heiner Goebbels (piano), at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
May 22
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Canada
May 27
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at Musique Action in Nancy, France
August 8
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at Shinsaibashi Quattro in Osaka
August 9
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at Takutaku in Kyoto
August 10
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M in Okayama
August 11
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M at Bad Lands in Hiroshima
August 17
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M, with guests Naruyoshi Kikuchi (saxes) and Yumiko Tanaka (gidayu-shamisen) at La Mama in Shibuya, Tokyo
August 20
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Yoshigaki, and Sachiko M, with guest Yumiko Tanaka, at International Now Music Festival Sapporo

1996

April 28
*At La Mama in Shibuya, Tokyo

Addition of Kikuchi (saxes) and Tanaka (gidayu-shamisen) as regular members, to form an 8-piece unit

April 30
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, and Tanaka at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
December 12
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, and Tanaka at 20000V in Koenji, Tokyo

1997

January 5-15
Recording of fifth and sixth albums, Consume Red (Ground Zero / Project: Consume, Vol. 1) (Sank-Ohso Discs) and Plays Standards (Nani Records), which were both released in April 1997
March 25
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, and Tanaka at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
April 14
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, and Tanaka at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo
April 15
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, and Tanaka at Shinjuku Pit Inn in Tokyo

Announcement of the disbanding of Ground Zero after the European tour in May

May 6 and 11
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, Tanaka, and Yoshiaki Kondo (engineer) at the Angelica Festival in Bologna
May15
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, Tanaka, and Kondo at the International New Music Festival Ring Ring in Belgrade
May 20
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, Tanaka, and Kondo at FLEX in Vienna
May 22
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, Tanaka, and Kondo at the Tolbooth Theatre in Stirling, Scotland
May 24
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, Tanaka, and Kondo at the LMC Festival in London (BBC Radio Session)
May 26
*Otomo, Uchihashi, Nasuno, Uemura, Yoshigaki, Sachiko M, Kikuchi, Tanaka, and Kondo at the LMC Festival in London
July
Release of Conflagration (Ground Zero / Project: Consume, Vol. 2) (Sank-Ohso Discs)
Autumn
Remixes of tunes from Cassiber's live performance in Tokyo, 1992, under the name Ground Zero, which were included in the two-CD set Cassiber Live in Tokyo (off note) released in December of the same year

1998

March 8
*The final Ground Zero concert at On-Air West in Shibuya, Tokyo, with members Otomo, Hirose(sax), Kikuchi (sax), Masahiko Okura (sax), Chino (keyboards), Tatsuki Masuko (keyboards), Sachiko M (sampler), Kazunao Nagata (electronics), Tanaka (gitayu-shamisen), Nasuno (bass), Uemura (drums), Yoshigaki (drums) and Kondo (engineer)
April
Release of Consummation. (Ground Zero / Project: Consume, Vol. 3) (Sank-Ohso Discs)

1999

May
Release of the final album, Last Concert (AMOEBiC), which was recorded live on March 8, 1998

Last updated: July 17, 1999