Racha Fora official site | Racha Fora on Facebook | Racha Fora on Twitter | Racha Fora on Instagram | Racha Fora on Soundcloud | Racha Fora on YouTube
“Don’t play the old s**t!” So says internationally-renowned composer, flutist, and audio engineer Hiro Honshuku, taking inspiration from the spiritual teacher he so reveres, the great Miles Davis. With Miles’ inspiring mixture of mischief and reverence, Honshuku founded Racha Fora to give jazz fanatics and casual music fans something fresh to groove to. “It’s a kind of music you’ve never heard before,” says Honshuku. “and because of – or despite – some complicated stuff going on under the hood, the result is immediately accessible. Even first-time listeners tell me they find themselves singing along to our melodies. And the groove… well, the groove is just undeniable.”
Racha Fora’s music has been described as a blend of Brazilian rhythms with jazz improvisation, but anyone who gives Racha Fora even a computer-loudspeakers-at-the-office listen (undoubtedly the least exciting and most biased way to experience new music) will understand that such a description says more about the limits of language than it does about the sound of the band. Sure, Racha Fora blends an outrageously tight Brazilian rhythm section (Andre Vasconcelos, guitar; Rafael Russi, bass) with violinist Rika Ikeda and flutist Honshuku’s gravity-defying solos, but one also has to consider Honshuku’s incredible song craft.
“As a composer who’s passionate about making music that is both original and artistically-irresistible, Hiro has the sensitivity of a world-class chef,” says Ikeda. “He’s not just sticking sushi on a barbeque and calling it Japanese-Brazilian fusion… he’s carefully considering ingredients and techniques and drawing on different traditions to create something entirely new and exquisite.”
Honshuku has been perfecting his craft and working with Brazilian rhythms in a jazz context since the early 1990s, shortly after he graduated with honors from both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. He has trained with Dave Holland, Bob Moses, George Garzone, Matthew Marvuglio, Thomas McKinley, and – perhaps most importantly – George Russell, inventor of the Lydian Chromatic Concept. Honshuku has adapted Russell’s difficult concept as the guiding structure for Racha Fora’s music, though his mastery of it makes the technique seem effortless and natural. “As I’ve worked it out, Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept definitely does not take the listener to the ‘puzzling wing’ of a modern art museum, where the art is all concept and no aesthetic,” says Honshuku. “The music I create for Racha Fora is grounded in an emotional connection to the listener, and – importantly – using Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept gives us an incredible groove!”
Racha Fora formed organically through Honshuku’s deep network of friends and alliances, which he developed over decades in the jazz and classical music scenes between New York City and Boston. “Rika, Andre, and Rafael are all top-notch musicians with excellent training and credits, and I have written all of Racha Fora’s music specifically for their talents,” says Honshuku. “Like me, Rika is trained in both classic music and jazz, and she combines a beautiful sound with aggressive solos. Andre is spontaneous and super creative when comping, and he always impresses audiences with his burning solos. Rafael is a guitar player by training, and he uses that to his advantage to create supportive but unique bass lines with strong grooves. Perhaps most importantly, we bring a lot of serious musicianship together in a way that fuses into purposeful improvisation that connects with audiences.”