Kenny Endo, Abe Lagriams, and Kaoru Watanabe

As a jazz percussionist and early innovator in Japanese taiko, Kenny Endo stretches the taiko genre, incorporating influences like funk, jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Hawaiian, with roots firmly grounded in tradition. With 40 years of performing and touring, he continues to lead the way in this Japanese style of drumming. Abe Lagrimas, Jr. is a musician, composer, educator, and author who plays the drums, vibraphone, and ukulele and studied at Berklee College of Music. Kaoru Watanabe is a Brooklyn-based composer and musician, specializing on the Japanese taiko drum and shinobue flutes.