Midori Takada

“During the last decade, Midori Takada’s reputation has transformed from an intriguing cult percussionist and composer whose records were easier to hear about than hear into what she has always been—a pioneering and boundary-breaking polyglot whose sumptuous minimalism reimagined the sounds and feelings such music might hold. Takada was raised in post-war Japan by an English-teaching father and piano-teaching mother; she played classical music, even serving as a soloist in a Berlin symphony orchestra. But a sense of youthful adventure led her first to prog-rock and then to study percussion styles and structures from all over the world—Indonesian gamelan, Korean samul nori, even early electronica. Her percussion trio, Mkwaju Ensemble, issued two staggering records in 1981 before she disbanded it due to high costs. That led to 1983’s Through the Looking Glass, a spellbinding and warm studio creation that still feels like its own world.

Takada played every instrument on Through the Looking Glass, from reed organs and marimbas to a Coca-Cola bottle she blew like a flute. It is pensive and anxious, eruptive and serene. But for decades, it was almost impossible to find outside of collectors’ most sacred stacks. In 2017, after online sharing boosted its reputation, Through the Looking Glass (and, eventually, its follow-up, 1999’s Tree of Life) properly reemerged, pushing Takada’s reputation beyond the margins and creating a renaissance for a masterful performer who had been busy with theater. In 2022, she released a solo percussion performance of a customary Zimbabwe house-warming ritual and, in 2025, a captivating collaboration with guitarist Jakob Bro. Takada will be 76 by the time of her rare U.S. performance at Big Ears 2027; her concerts remain complete adventures, as she summons a world of percussion to build a world of her own.
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