Tony Scott: Music For Zen Meditation And Other Joys
1964, February: Tokyo, Japan
Back Cover Liner Notes
by Alan Watts and by Tony Scott

About Zen:
This superb record is not only a delight to the ear but an event in musical history.
For it took Tony Scott, Western jazz clarinetist to coax two of the greatest masters of traditional Japanese music to join him in an unrehearsed session of purely spontaneous playing.Ordinarily, Japanese classical music - as performed on the koto (table harp) and shakuhachi (bamboo flute - is extremely rigorous and formal, but Scott, like the Pied Piper, charmed Yuize and Yamamoto into this free-floating improvisation by his skill in playing the clarinet in the mood and style of bamboo flute, in some ways the result is more Zen than Zen - in the sense that, today, Japanese Zen Buddhism and the many arts associated with it have settled too firmly into the rigid- though nonetheless expert - ruts of traditions. Early Chinese Zen, so close in spirit to the Taoism of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu was much more spontaneous , and this record recaptures its feeling quite remarkably.

Zen is a way of living ( not a theory), through which peolple experience themselves, not as separated beings, but as one of the whole universe, of which every individual is a unique expression. The Zen artist, therefore, puts both his skill and his instrument…flute or harp, brush or potter's wheel, at the disposal of the Tao, the Way of Nature, so that his art becomes as natural as the clouds and the waves…which never make aesthetic mistakes. as a Chinese poem says:

This new and serene experience of being is nurtured by meditation (Za-zen) - a way of letting go one's thoughts and feelings, whatever they may be, and allowing them to settle into quietness, to the point where the sensation of the separate 'I' gets rid of itself. An old master became enlightened in this way while hearing the sound of a flute, and said: 'I just let the player play whatever tune he likes '. Meditation is letting your mind go until there is no one to let go of it, but only

Waters flowing on and on by themselves;
Flowers of themselves growing red.

Alan Watts - Through his books and lectures, Alan Watts has become known in the Unites States and abroad as one of the most stimulating and unconventional philosophers of our time. His special interest over the years has been an interpretation of eastern thought to the West, particularity of Zen Buddhism. Dr. Watts was born in England in 1915. He has been editor, Episcopalian minister, professor, graduate-school dean and research fellow of Harvard University. A prolific writer Watts wrote his first book, 'The Spirit of Zen', at the age of 20 while active in London in the organization of the world congress of Faiths. Since then he has written more than 15 books. Among them: 'The Wisdom of Insecurity', 'Myth and Ritual in Christianity, 'The Way of Zen', 'Nature, Man and Woman', 'This is It', 'Psychotherapy East & West', 'The Joyous Cosmology', 'The Two Hands of God.' and 'Beyond Theology'.

About the music
In the spirit of Zen this music is the result of an enlightenment' or satori with my fellow men. This music is totally improvised with no premeditation or rehearsal. All the more amazing because in Japanese classical or traditional music improvisation in an unused and unheard of element.

Shinichi Yuize and I have improvised together many times on my visit to Japan in concerts, on TV and radio, and even in night clubs. For Hozan Yamamoto, this was a first. His solo is to me the most soulful and complete musical piece I have ever heard. While listening to us improvise, he expressed a desire to do the same. We then used this improvisations as the basis for duets and finally a trio titled, Is Not All One?

I first met Shinichi Yuize when I first arrived in Japan in Dec. 1959.I was recording some traditional music with Yasko Nakashima for a radio program. At the end I asked if she could improvise with me using the Japanese scale called chidori. We had finished a piece and it inspired me to improvised in the same scale. She could not improvise and I turned to Shinichi Yuize and asked if he could play koto (he has been involved with our recording as a conductor). He told me that he could, and he was a composer but he had never improvised before. Having been a composer and the top koto player with many awards in both field he could improvised but had never done so in public.

I titled our first improvisation The Cranes in Winter Fly Away

It turned out that the koto players were man and wife, and their family owned and operated the Seiha Music College in Tokyo, from which the musicians are sent who represents Japan in music festival around the world. We became very close friends and on my last visit to Japan in 1964 I had the pleasure of living at the school. I gave classes in American jazz to the musicians. I stayed in Japan three months on my last visit there and this album is the result of the only time we were together musically. It was recorded in February 1964. My idea was to make music for an album to be titled 'Music for Zen meditation and other Joys'. I Am happy and amazed to say that the whole idea had been retained in its original pure form. Shinichi Yuize , who taught at Columbia University in 1964-1965, will return to America in 19666, and I hope we will able to play concerts for all of you who are interested in our music. Tony Scott

-A traveller-
Let my name be thus known
This autumnal shower
Basho (1644-1694)