Japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto to debut in Hawaii

No doubt about it, Japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto is big. Matsumoto is one-half of the hard rock duo B’z and therefore one-half of Japan’s top-selling recording group. Since 1986, B’z — singer/lyricist Koshi Inaba is the voice of the act — has racked up certified sales of more than 80 million records.

Matsumoto also has had a successful parallel career as a solo act, touring with Jack Blades, Eric Martin and Brian Tichy as leader of the Tak Matsumoto Group in 2004.

In 2010, after completing B’z’s “Ain’t No Magic” tour with Inaba, he partnered with American studio guitarist Larry Carlton to record an album titled “Take Your Pick.” It won the Grammy for best pop instrumental album in 2011.

Matsumoto makes his Hawaii debut Sunday when he and Hawaii-born Daniel Ho play a one-nighter at Blue Note Hawaii. They’ll be featuring their new album, “Electric Island Acoustic Sea,” which was released in February.

Ho and Matsumoto met, and discussed a musical pairing, after a mutual friend in Los Angeles introduced them. Ho, a recording artist and producer long based in California, sent Matsumoto a demo recording of “Soaring on Dreams,” now the first song on the album, and Matsumoto liked what he heard. Work started in earnest on their recording project in January 2016.

They met at Ho’s home in Southern California for some preliminary work and continued separately. Matsumoto recorded most of his parts in Tokyo in May and July in between spots for a tour to promote his most recent solo album, “Enigma.”

“Musicians have their own schedules, so I totally trusted Daniel for recording his parts,” Matsumoto explained, responding via email from Japan. “I wasn’t sure what kind of music we could create together, so I kind (of) wanted to wait and see. Then he sent me three more songs, and I felt he wanted to create something different than his past albums, and work with electric guitars. We were both quite open for exchanging ideas, and working with him was effortless. It generated synergy and made this project such a great collaboration.”

Ho, also in Tokyo and calling Hawaii during a tour of Japan to promote the new album, said one of the things that made the partnership work is that they are both “detail-oriented.”

“We worked well in the studio, and then one song led to another and another. In a year’s time we had an album,” he said.

The album that came out of the long-distance collaboration has 11 new songs, all of them instrumentals. A 12th song is a remake of a Journey hit, “Faithfully,” that displays Ho’s ability as a singer.

Matsumoto’s guitar work extends from power rock and electric blues to delicate duets with Ho playing acoustic six-string guitar. Ho plays other instruments on individual songs: ukulele, 12-string guitar, bass, piano and sanshin. Japanese-American koto virtuoso June Kuramoto of Hiroshima is one of the few guests who sat in with them.

Matsumoto describes the results as “very unique.”

“Daniel had so many ideas on using instruments like sanshin and koto on a specific part of the song, or we’d decide to have a counter-solo section between electric guitar and sanshin, where I would usually just play a guitar solo,” he explained.

“Basically, we wrote separately but we created ‘Adrenaline Up!’ together. The experience inspired me to write songs that are a little more rock-sounding, like ‘Wander Blues’ and ‘Fujiyama Highway.’”

The title of the album refers to Matsumoto’s electric guitar as an “island” in an “ocean” of acoustic music.

Working with “a virtuoso like Tak makes the album really, really special,” Ho said. “The cultural statements that we both make with taiko and a sanshin ukulele — the power of taiko matches electric guitar very well.”

One of the things Ho has enjoyed most about the project is bringing different cultures together — not only through his choice of instruments, but also his choice of melodies and rhythm patterns.

“If I’m doing a Latin song, I’m not going to use congas,” Ho said. “I’ll do that rhythm on something else. Or instead of clave I’ll use (Hawaiian) kalaau (sticks) — it doesn’t have to be the clave to play that particular rhythm pattern. If you pay attention to things like that in the same way that you pick chords for piano or guitar, then the music you create is your own. Every chord that I play is unique to the notes that I choose to play; I don’t just grab chords from a chord book.”

With Carlton, Matsumoto played the Blue Note Tokyo in 2010. “First time I played, I thought ‘Wow! The audiences are so close!’ but I came to enjoy every time I played,” he said.

He’s ready to play for the intimacy of the Waikiki club.

For Ho, a five-time Grammy Award winner as a record producer and recording artist, the Blue Note one-nighter is an opportunity to return to his birthplace after touring with Matsumoto in Japan.

“Those were some of the biggest shows I’ve ever played, not just in regard to the audience, but also in regard to the production,” Ho said. “He has a crew of about 15 people, and they manage the stage. I’m playing a different instrument almost every song, and I have a guitar tech who tunes the instruments and keeps track of what’s happening next. With all the lighting and sound crews, it’s a process that really needs a lot of rehearsal and a lot of practice. You’re not just learning the song; you’re learning the show.”

In contrast, Ho said, when he’s touring as a solo artist, he and his wife do everything themselves.

“This is really an experience unlike anything that we have ever had in 27 years of being a musician,” he said. “Tak is not a ‘showman,’ but he speaks through his guitar like no one I’ve heard. It’s an amazing sound.”