La Jolla Acupuncturist still finds good medicine in his music

Jason Bazilian, co-founder of Bazilian’s Health Clinic on Wall Street, plays drums on Hawaiian singer-songwriter Henry Kapono’s new EP

By Noah Lyons

NOAH.LYONS@LAJOLLALIGHT.COM

Jason Bazilian has been offering integrative medicine in San Diego County since 1998, including complementary care at White Sands senior-living community in La Jolla. But he’s never lost his musical roots.

For years, Bazilian has taught drumming on Monday and Friday afternoons at La Jolla Music on Girard Avenue.

He and his wife, who live along the border of La Jolla and Pacific Beach, are the co-founders of Bazilian’s Health Clinic at 1140 Wall St. in La Jolla. The integrative health practices offer acupuncture services, Chinese medicine and wellness workshops.

Thanks to one of his long-standing musical connections, Bazilian recently got to play percussion on what he describes as “a true legend of the Hawaiian Islands.”

That would be Henry Kapono, a Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter, author and actor from Honolulu. Over his decades-long career, Kapono won 21 Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, described on his website as “Hawaii’s Grammy.”

He’s also co-founder of the Henry Kapono Foundation, a nonprofit that supports music programs across Hawaii.

The Kapono-Bazilian connection came by way of Johnny Helm, Kapono’s engineer and co-producer, in November.

Over the span of a week, Bazilian and Helm did a series of gigs together and worked on Kapono’s newest EP, or short record.

The first day, the band members rehearsed and got to know one another over Greek food. The second session in Oahu, Bazilian said, was loose and creative.

“It was just one of those really joyous, cool afternoons where there was no pressure,” Bazilian said. “There was no stigma. He’s very, very open about wanting you to play what you feel and go with the part, but drumming the percussion that seems most appropriate and fits the music the best.”

The result of those sessions is “Summertime,” a six-track EP released in April that spans 19 minutes and several genres. Bazilian described it as “Hawaiian flavored music with rock overtones and a little bit of funkiness … really good stuff with this little flavor of spiritual business.”

Much of Bazilian’s work on the record was intrinsic. Music had long been a part of his life, from music programs in elementary, middle and high school to touring in a rock band.

Overall, Bazilian sports 40 years of musicianship and teaching experience.

“I was torn about which direction to head,” he said. “I feel like at the end when I was a little kid, I was always banging on the drums in the kitchen. That’s all I wanted to do.”

Bazilian says his two fields of work — medicine and music — often overlap, as personal wellness depends heavily on some form of creative expression.

“I kept coming back to this,” he explained. “When you take hours and hours of listening, really good listening, and you put all that together, it’s a strong statement and a strong understanding of what you’re doing,” said Bazilian, who has a doctorate in acupuncture and Oriental medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland. His website says he is licensed in California, New York and Connecticut.

He and his wife work with approach patients with their clinic on one hand and on the other foster care. At White Sands residents, for example, offer services to ease migraines, arthritis, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, aches and pains.

“There’s a whole spectrum of services matched to each individual, and Chinese medicine will be much based on the individual pattern,” Bazilian said. “So there actually is a lot of room for artistry.”