Hanz Araki

Reviewers have called his flute playing and singing "sweet and lush and full of feeling and nuance," and "wonderfully sunny sounding," but his favorite was when Sing Out! magazine called him "one of a generation of global beat players."
Hanz Araki, 37, plays a variety of Irish flutes and currently fronts his own band, playing traditional and new arrangements of Irish tunes, but he wants his music to transcend categorization.
"I want to make this music accessible to more people," he said.
With his youthful appearance and a name that seems to ricochet between German and Japanese heritage, not even coming close to Irish, Araki is used to having to explain how he came to play music more closely associated with older people named Sean or Patrick. Or try to explain.
"It's inexplicable, really," he said, before going on to say that he had always loved the sound of flute and banjo, and the fact that Irish musicians everywhere speak the same language. A "trad" (traditional) musician can walk into any pub in the world and join the session in progress.
Araki is also a sixth generation Japanese shakuhachi flute player, following in the footsteps of his father, Kodo Araki.
Araki's musical career started at 17, when he picked up his father's flute and found he had a natural talent for the instrument, which can take years to master.
"I suppose there's a genetic disposition to playing wind instruments in the Araki family," he says, "because after four months, in August of 1988, I debuted in Shimoneski, Japan."
After finishing high school Araki moved from Seattle to Tokyo, where he spent several years playing recitals and concerts, and teaching shakuhachi at Keio University.
Araki, whose full first name is the Japanese Hanzaburo, does have Irish heritage on his mother's side, which came out during breaks from shakuhachi practice. His mother's tapes of The Chieftains were an influence, as was the not-so-traditional Irish band, The Pogues.
Araki's virtuoso talent on the shakuhachi translated over to equal skill on the Irish wooden flute and tin whistle, which are his main instruments, along with a rich tenor voice, and he became a regular on the Irish pub scene upon his return to Seattle.
For several years Araki was a member of the high-energy Irish music band The Paperboys, out of Vancouver. The group toured internationally and won a Canadian Juno Award in 1997 for Best Folk Roots album.
He has also toured the United States and the United Kingdom with the Casey Neill Trio, and most recently has played and sang in the Pogues Tribute band, K.M.R.I.A. again with Neill as well as Jenny Conlee and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
In 2005, Araki self-released his first album, "6 of one five of the other," a collection of six ballads and five sets of instrumental tunes, co-produced with two-time Grammy Award winner Garey Shelton. His new album (also co-produced by Shelton), “Little Fires” is another collection of traditional songs and instrumentals with two contemporary songs (“Two People Blue” by The Hated and “A Rainy Night in Soho” by The Pogues) done in a traditional idiom, adding a new dimension to his repertoire.
The makeup of The Hanz Araki Band currently consists of a core group with Araki on flutes and vocals, Cary Novotny on guitar, Eddie Parente on fiddle, with Joey Abarta on bodhran.
Most recently, Hanz was invited to play a 9/11 Memorial concert in Mexico City as part of the Interdependence Day Celebration, and took part in discussions with an international group of musicians in Rio de Janeiro organized by the Future of Music Coalition. - The Beat, (N. Kitsap, Bainbridge Isl., Bremerton)

Hanz Araki – He is from Seattle. We had never heard of him. Then, WHAM! His album, Six of One 5 of the Other hit our desk. Araki is a terrific flute player, and a truly terrific singer. It is very rare to find a talent this good on an instrument, who also sings this well. Lots of great musicians think they sing well, and are dreadful. Not Araki. We only talked to him once. We still don’t know a lot about him personally, but what we DO know is that he has offered this amazing first album. Wow! This is a big time talent---and as we said in the full review, never mind the name, this boy can play and sing!! We love this album. We love this talent. - Irish American News