Biography
Masashi Harada pursues a wide range of artistic disciplines. Beginning in the early 1990s he entered the sphere of free improvisation through percussion, piano, and voice, then moved into leadership roles on record toward the close of that decade. Dance forms another part of his practice, and his visual pieces—most notably the ice paintings—have appeared in both collective and solo shows, underscoring the breadth of his accomplishments. Every facet of his work stems from an insistence on immediacy during spontaneous creation, a principle he named “generative improvisation,” in which the maker continually produces new context that reshapes the unfolding event—an ongoing exchange that releases the artist from fixed structures. The same principle governs his approach to ice painting, where the unstable and transient surface demands comparable adaptability and quick response.
Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Harada received early vocal training from Yasuo Harada, Koji Abe, and Kenjiro Watanabe. While still in his teens he also studied traditional Japanese percussion, then relocated to Massachusetts in the early 1980s. Throughout that decade he pursued studies in both music and art across the United States, periodic returns to Japan, and Finland, where he collaborated with John Cage in 1983. He joined the third-stream program at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1986; during his years in New England he began appearing as a drummer in free-improvisation ensembles.
Harada earned his third-stream diploma in 1990 and a jazz-composition diploma three years later. In the intervening period he studied piano with Avram David and elaborated his ideas of generative improvisation alongside “condanction”—a method of directing a large improvising group through movement—seeking modes of expression that engage the entire body, an impulse comparable to the work of Keiji Haino. Among his earliest significant appearances were performances with the Joe Maneri Trio in 1989, documented on the album Kalavinka, and live dates with Cecil Taylor’s trio in 1990.
During the first half of the 1990s he participated in numerous ensembles, among them his condanction group, yet none of those activities resulted in recordings. He accepted a teaching position at the New England Conservatory of Music and concentrated on painting, only to reemerge in the middle of the decade. Emanem issued Enter the Continent, a disc of condanctions, in 2000; subsequent releases featured two trios on CIMP and Leo plus a duo with bassist Barre Phillips on Cadence Jazz, each documenting a distinct dimension of his practice. At the turn of the millennium Harada divided his time between semesters in Boston and Hiroshima, where he teaches art at Hiroshima International University.
Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Harada received early vocal training from Yasuo Harada, Koji Abe, and Kenjiro Watanabe. While still in his teens he also studied traditional Japanese percussion, then relocated to Massachusetts in the early 1980s. Throughout that decade he pursued studies in both music and art across the United States, periodic returns to Japan, and Finland, where he collaborated with John Cage in 1983. He joined the third-stream program at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1986; during his years in New England he began appearing as a drummer in free-improvisation ensembles.
Harada earned his third-stream diploma in 1990 and a jazz-composition diploma three years later. In the intervening period he studied piano with Avram David and elaborated his ideas of generative improvisation alongside “condanction”—a method of directing a large improvising group through movement—seeking modes of expression that engage the entire body, an impulse comparable to the work of Keiji Haino. Among his earliest significant appearances were performances with the Joe Maneri Trio in 1989, documented on the album Kalavinka, and live dates with Cecil Taylor’s trio in 1990.
During the first half of the 1990s he participated in numerous ensembles, among them his condanction group, yet none of those activities resulted in recordings. He accepted a teaching position at the New England Conservatory of Music and concentrated on painting, only to reemerge in the middle of the decade. Emanem issued Enter the Continent, a disc of condanctions, in 2000; subsequent releases featured two trios on CIMP and Leo plus a duo with bassist Barre Phillips on Cadence Jazz, each documenting a distinct dimension of his practice. At the turn of the millennium Harada divided his time between semesters in Boston and Hiroshima, where he teaches art at Hiroshima International University.
Albums
