Matsumoto Visits International Music School For Teenagers
Tak Matsumoto News 
Tak Matsumoto has visited an international music school called LIVEJAM. They held an event about “the surroundings in which everyone can study hard together to achieve a goal as a band”.
When asked to come to the school, Matsumoto gladly accepted the request: “If it’s for the kids, I’ll do it with pleasure”. He also spoke highly of the school’s new program called JAM PROGRAM. He thinks it’s a great thing to connect the children to one another and making new friends of music.
Tak talked about his experiences of being in a band at the event. He furthermore elaborated on various things from “How B’z succeeded”, “How I practiced playing the guitar” to “What’s a band?”, “What’s rock?”. Afterwards, they went on to a Question & Answer session where members of LIVEJAM could ask Matsumoto questions and he would try to reply in an easy to understand manner.
One of the children asked “When you were young, what would you do in your free time?” to which Tak replied “I played Super Mario. I was really good at it!”.
Another question was “Recalling past live performances, what moment will forever be in your memory?” to which Tak replied “Probably when Inaba suddenly disappeared from the stage. I could still hear him singing, but I couldn’t see him. When I wondered where he was, he actually fell off the stage. But even though he fell off the stage, he was still singing!”
Everybody was very delighted to have Matsumoto-san as a guest. They were listening very closely to everything he had to say and enjoyed the time with him. To finish off the event, they took a group picture:
Tak Matsumoto DC Standard Plus Top Now Available in Japan
Tak Matsumoto News 
Hey folks, it has been quiet on the B’z front these days, but I’m still alive and kickin’. Today, I bring you this piece of news: Tak Matsumoto is releasing another Epiphone Double Cutaway(DC) model in Japan. It’s available in Japan starting today at a price of 122,850 Yen. It comes with a hard case and a limited edition gigbag.
Judging from the picture above, it looks like Tak has already used that guitar while touring North America this year.
Epiphone has also posted quite a stunning article about Tak’s new gem:
Epiphone announces the new Tak Matsumoto DC Standard Plus Top Cherry Outfit, a stunningly beautiful guitar designed by Epiphone and Tak Matsumoto exclusively for Japan. From his blistering solo work and his long-standing association with the band B’z to his GRAMMY winning albums with renowned artists like Larry Carlton, Tak Matsumoto has proved himself not only one of Japan’s true masters of the fingerboard, but one of the world’s most powerful rockers. With a searing tone that is utterly infectious, Matsumoto has bridged the musical gap between East and West and proved that rock is truly a universal language. Now, Epiphone brings Tak’s unique design and superior tone home with the one-of-a-kind Limited Edition Tak Matsumoto DC Standard Plus Top Cherry Outfit which embodies Tak’s own asymmetrical take on the popular DC Standard Les Paul style with a carved Hard Maple cap with AAA Flame Maple Veneer and a stunning Black Cherry finish.
Check out the full article here: Introducing the Tak Matsumoto DC Standard Plus Top (Japan Only)
Matsumoto Congratulates Carlton For Lifetime Achievement Award
Tak Matsumoto News Larry Carlton, who won a Grammy Award together with Tak Matsumoto in February this year, has received the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award at The Canadian Smoothies 2011 on April 29th. A video has been put on vimeo in which various musicians congratulate Mr. Carlton for this outstanding award. Among them is Tak Matsumoto. For the impatient: watch from 3:43!
“Hi, Larry-san! Congratulations to you. You are an amazing guitar player and so inspiring to me. I learned so much by working with you on the Take Your Pick album. So winning a Grammy with you is one of my greatest achievements in my life. I’ll treasure it forever. I owe you one.”
Larry Carlton: Benson Lifetime Achievement Award from TrueFire on Vimeo.
Congratulations to Mr. Carlton! And may he come to the States or Europe (or both!) and perform with Tak someday! 😉
Artistic Portrait of Tak Matsumoto
Tak Matsumoto News I found this a few days ago while browsing a few B’z related websites. Rima Fujita, a full-time artist living in San Diego, posted this on her blog:
[…]
After many years I’ve begun having this urge to paint portraits again, and when I was thinking about doing a portrait series once more I got a commission offer to do a portrait of Tak Matsumoto, the guitar player of the Japan’s renowned rock duo, B’z, by a good friend of mine who wanted to give it to Tak as a gift. Tak had just won the Grammy award this year. “How timely,” I thought. I was thrilled to do his portrait, yet the last time I met Tak in person was over 10 years ago. Normally I don’t like to use photographs to paint portraits. So I really had to depend on my imagination!
[…]
If you’d like to check out her drawing of Tak Matsumoto and what else she had to say about her encounter with Tak Matsumoto, check her blog right here: http://rimafujita.blogspot.com/2011/04/portrait-series.html
Tak Matsumoto’s Grammy Story
Tak Matsumoto News I was so excited that I was not able to write up a proper article and ended up posting the videos instead. However, this is a huge success for Tak Matsumoto and I think it deserves a good, and thorough article. Also, it is a great opportunity to look back how it all started, and how Tak Matsumoto finally came to receive this outstanding award.
It is a rather lengthy article, so be sure to bring some time with you! 😛 Click read more to see the article!
Take Your Pick DVD Release Worldwide
Tak Matsumoto News 
I don’t know why they didn’t release it before… I mean it has been out in Japan since October 27th, 2010, but oh well…
On Larry Carlton’s official website, they announced that because of winning the Grammy and all the excitement, they decided to set the release date of the DVD to tomorrow(February 18th)!
What’s funny, however, is that they say “See the GRAMMY WINNING album “Take Your Pick” performed live in Tokyo with a 12-camera high definition shoot!”. What is this all about?
I bought the DVD and it’s only in standard definition. Why did they not release a Blu-ray version although they shot it in high definition? A budget problem?
Well… I guess they want to jump on the bandwagon and expect great sales since Take Your Pick jumped to #1 in the iTunes charts in Japan after word got out that Carlton and Matsumoto had won the Grammy.
But that’s not all:
“According to the Shibuya store of Japan’s largest music and video rental chain store operation Tsutaya, all copies of Mr. Matsumoto’s newest album were sold or rented out by Tuesday morning. “Take Your Pick” also soared to fourth place on Amazon Japan’s best selling CD ranking, just behind – inevitably –all-conquering girl group AKB48’s latest album.”
(Taken from: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/02/15/after-gdp-blow-japan-still-rocksat-grammys/)
Anyway… if you haven’t bought the DVD yet… here’s your chance! And it’s cheaper, too. It’s only $25.99 opposed to 5250 Yen (roughly $50) in Japan.
You can order it via Larry Carlton’s web store: http://www.larrycarlton.com/store.html
