Me and Take
I’ve known Take since 1996. He was one of the first friends I met in the States, and remaind my closest ever since. Over the past decade, we shared our personal issues as well as the bandstand, spent countless nights together drinking and talking about life and music… I cannot put to words how much I miss him.
Like many others, I still can’t stop thinking about him; Why he had to leave us this way? Was there anything that I could have done? And there are just too many thoughts at this point, it’s not yet the time to write something about him, or perhaps it will be too personal to share it with people. Instead, I decided to post some photos of Take and me, even though I doubt it would be of much interest to others either. However, everybody have their own time and memory with Take, and I’d like to cherish mine.
I’d also like to express my sincere gratitude to Oscar & Valerie Noriega, Matt Moran, Shane Endsley, Ben Holmes, Brian Drye, Michaël Attias, Nate Radley, Hal Crook, Natsuko Maemori, Hanayo Takai, Asuka Kakitani, Dan Pratt, Noriko Ueda, Olivier Conan, Kristina Melike, Toru Dodo, Eishin Nose for helping me getting through this tough time and put the memorial and funeral together. as well as all his friends and colleages who had kindly offered help. Thank you so much.
June 26, 2007
Yoshi Waki
April 15, 1997
After our first gig together with Hal Crook at AS220 in Providnce, RI. We were both at Berklee College at the time and played every day together at school.
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August 4, 2000
Me, Take and Toru Dodo at Take’s apartment in Boston. Toru just got a call from Kenny Garrett. He seems happier than ever with our congradulation kisses. We set the camera on self timer mode and took turns.
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October 8, 2001
Me, Take and Toru Dodo a year later, at a Japanese bar in East Village. I just moved to Brooklyn, and Take also got an apartment in Queens.
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March 18, 2006
Us dancing in his apartment in Brooklyn. We were just talking about a duo project called Moon Japan, which was named after a full moon we saw one night from the roof of his apartment.
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May 15, 2006
Rehearsal of Moon Japan at his basement studio in Lower East Side.
This was supposed to be improvisation based electronica music. Later, we had several recording sessions, and had our frined Nate Radley sit in on guitar for one day.
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August 17, 2006
After a karaoke hang in the East Village. He’s wasted.
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October 21, 2006
One of our last photo shot together. We were out in Warwick, New York for apple picking.
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June 6, 2007
Natsu found the kissing photos from 2000 and showed us a few days after the funeral. We had a good laugh, inspired, and tried to recreate the scene. First one is Take’s brother Kazu kissing Eishin Nose. Me, Dan Pratt, and Toru Dodo, then joined.
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