Among his many accomplishments, trumpeter and electronic music programmer Toshinori Kondo has won the friendship of the Dalai Llama, played on Herbie Hancock's influential album "Future Shock" and produced the World Festival of Sacred Music in Hiroshima.
Kondo, who has spent much of his adult life living in the United States and Europe, has enjoyed playing and recording with a wide swath of musicians, including DJ Krush of Japan, saxophonist Peter Brotzmann of Germany, Italian guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi and American guitarist Henry Kaisar. Kondo once said, "When a child is born it screams, and this scream sounds the same all over the world. . . . I want to find my way back there with my music."
One interpretation of much of Kondo's work, including his new album, "Nerve Tripper," is that he is continuing the legacy of Miles Davis' 1970s electric music. Like Davis at that time, Kondo favors playing electric trumpet and revels in tone-stretching devices. Also like Davis, Kondo surrounds himself with musicians who are interested in both the malleability of sound and the hypnotic power of steady rhythms.