Thank you TenGooz!

Dear TenGooz!

after only two years as a Saxphone player with the TenGooz I have to leave Japan already!

What a great time - it was truely one of the lucky encounters of my life to come across the TenGooz right after arriving in Japan. 

Thanks to all former and current TenGooz members for their unique creative contributions to our great pool of original songs. And special thanks to Avi and Hase-G for keeping the TenGooz alive through the years - to the benefit of me and many music lovers around the globe. 

I am looking forward to hearing more from the TenGooz. Keep grounded in groove. 

Michael 

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Avi Landau and Thomas Mayers of The TENGOOZ

Jenny and Michael performing The Tengooz RAIN FALLS.. at Capio Hall

Going crazy @ a TenGooz gig

Thomas and Michael of TenGooz @ NALUS

Hase G Setting Up at NALUS TOYBOX

Lots of recording and a big beachside for The Tengooz before Michael Frei Leaves for Germany

Its been a hectic and heavy-hearted summer for the TenGooz as we
frantically try to get as much material recorded before saxophonist
Michael heads back to Europe. We have been going up to the NIJI NO ONGAKUDO studio,and have been piecing together
EIGHT completely new TenGooz tracks in various genres, but all with that distinctive TenGooz sound.
Tomorrow night- Saturday July 17th, we will be back at one of our favorite venues- NALUS TOYBOX - an atmosperic hangout for surfers,
beach-bums, and music lovers. Starting time will be 8:30 pm.
We hope to see you there- it should be an exciting show and there could be no more comfortable place to be than by the Pacific Ocean on a July night.
Hassan should be there to percuss and there should be a big all-night drumming session after we finish our sets.
Keep GROUNDED IN GROOVE

Avi

Hassan Practicing with The TenGooz for July 17th gig @ NALUS TOYBOX

TenGooz In Practice

UTUBE VIDEO USES TENGOOZ SONG- TOO MUCH INFORMATION

The TenGooz have never put any video footage online, but sometimes others have uploaded little clips or used our music to accompany a short film.

An interesting work which has just come to our attention was created by a video artist in Italy.
He used our song TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

Please check it out and send comments. You can see it at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXa48GO0NRY

And remember- always stay grounded in GROOVE

Avi Landau

Beach Bossa Nova- A Song On The TenGooz G-strings Album

Though we recorded Beach Bossa Nova just this year, it has been with us for a long time.
Hase G ( Nodoka Hasegawa ) had come up with and been playing the bass part, in almost its exact present form even before our second Australian tour 2 years ago. I think that the vocal melody line, too, goes way back to that time, as what G played almost instantly clicked with me.
Obviously it took a long time for everything to come together with this piece, but I think that all of us who have been living with it for the past two years or so have grown to love it.
It goes without saying that without Michael Frei`s saxual instincts and Thomas Mayers inspired guitar playing things wouldnt have worked out as well as they did.

I'm embarrassed to say it, but for two years I had always improvised lyrics during live performances. It was only when we went into studio that I set down these words inspired by memories of camping out on the beach in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

As you can imagine we DO play this song during our beachside gigs at Nalu`s Toybox

Here are the lyrics

Beach Bossa Nova

Ship shape silhouette sunrise shimmers
on a Red Sea Holiday

your eyes, the surf and sand were all light blue

Sitting on the sandy shore I tap you
as the Bossa nova Plays
pass one earphone to you

IM Taiti Lo Ratziti (If I erred, its not that I wanted to
Ze Lo Het Lishol Its not a sin to ask)

Gam raglaich (my feet and my hands are fidgetting in the sand)
gam yadaich
mistabchim bachol

Lo chashsavti (I didnt think that when I loved I would go for a fall)
az ksheahavti
sh ani yipol

histovavti hishtivavti ( I have wandered around and fooled around
Halomot la hol and all my dreams have come to dust)

Avi Landau

Neji-Bana in Tsukuba

Nejibana at Tsukuba U

You Screwy Flower!

The summer greenery is overpowering. Big-blossomed, brightly colored flowers abound. Summer fashions are often eye-catching (or almost get your eyes pop out of your head!) . That is why it takes a little extra effort to notice the little, sometimes wondrous, details which are often right at our very feet.
In June and July, check the patches of grass along sidewalks or bordering parking lots, office buildings, etc., and you might very well find the very small, yet enchanting NEJIBANA (screw-flower, as translated directly) which derives its name from its unique shape.

The spiral can be clock-wise or counter-clockwise- Isn't the world amazing! I took this picture just beside the police station at the TX Tsukuba Center Station.

Remember , while you're taking in the big picture, stop and check for the usually unnoticed details.

Avi Landau

The Tengooz

Michael warming up for recording

Sent from my iPhone

Avi Landau and Michael Frei of The TenGooz

Thomas in Studio on the acoustic

Rice Fields In Onozaki Tsukuba June 4

TenGooz Setting Up For A Big Night At Nalus Toybox

Revolving Door- a Song By the TenGooz

There are certainly few songs with such an impressive bass and drum intro.
This is another of our songs which generated out of Hase G`s bass creations. When I first heard him fooling around with what ended up being the opening riff to Revolving Door, I knew we had to turn this into a full song.
This way back, before michael joined us, at a practice session at the Song Cycle Studio in Tsukuba. Luckilly on that day I had my md player running so it was not lost for eternity as have been so many other magical Hase G Bassinalia.

The song took a long while to take its present shape, though the A pattern and B pattern were set pretty much at the first improv session. When michael Frei eventually joined us just after our second Australian tour, he suggested the key change into F, and with that
the shape of the song was finalized. The only trouble was my slowness in coming up with lyrics. When we used this song for the multi-media performance piece- Ki no Ballad, which we did at Capio Hall in Tsukuba, we used the instrumental version of this song as i led some kids around the stage imprivising on various sculpture instruments.
It was at this time that guitarist Thomas Mayers joined us and his special touch gave the song the full quality that it has now.

When recording the album G-Strings I finally stopped procrastinating and put down the lyrics under the influence of having read Joyce`s Finnegans Wake.

Here are the lyrics

Revolving Door

Big Bang clap roar cosmic soup pulls from the shore
Life sky land sea competition birds and bees
Riverrun shore to bend of bay earth revolves another day
Cities rise grow fall nothing new you know Ive seen it all

Its like a big revolving door
Takes you back where you were just were
To what it was like once before

Commodius vicus

Newton`s apple sudden squall
Stockcrash humpty-dumpty`s fall
Buddha Thor Prometheus Amaterasu Atman Zeus
Marzipan matzah dumpling noodles
Baked Alaska sushi strudel
Hunters gatherers city states
Theocracies and Shogunates and more

Its like that ol` revolving door
You up where you were before
And then you go through it once more

Commodius Vicus

Its like that Ol` revolving door
You know Ive seen it all before
We`re back to where we were once were

Avi Landau

Listen to Revolving Door at

www.jamendo.com/en/album/41155