Letter from the Road in Japan: Four

Tokyo clubs. Last night's club--T's Lounge in Kokubunji-- was exactly as I wrote in the last entry, a small club, packed with people, mostly students and recent graduates. They were extremely enthusiastic. The manager had contacted her regulars to let them know that a special event was coming to this club and at the end of the gig, she paid me more than we had agreed to. How come it doesn't work like this in the U.S. or in other places? This is the question that I keep coming back to. Somehow, in these small clubs in Japan, there is an expectation that the MANAGEMENT of the club has a responsibility to bring out people to hear the featured artist. The smaller the club, and often, the farther from the center of a city, the more the club owners have this sense of responsibility. When they turn out their regular members, the gig feels like a celebration and the excitement and energy makes the gig memorable for the musicians as well. However, I guess the main reason these clubs can function like this is that they don't have music every night. If it's only once a week or twice a month, it's possible for the club owner to get behind the promotion for the gig in a way that is impossible if you have jazz seven nights a week. Still, it's a model that is well worth exploring more and I guess you could say that the Brooklyn clubs that have music, places like Barbes, Sycamore and Fifth Estate are working somewhat in this way. 

Of course, not every venue in Japan functions like T's Lounge. In Tokyo, as in any big city, the more established older full-time jazz venues are cooler. The next two nights we are playing in two of these kind of clubs, tonight Naru in Ochanomizu and tomorrow Body and Soul in Aoyama. Naru is in the Music store part of town (something like 46th street in Manhattan) and every Tokyo jazz musician has probably played there at one time or another. On Tuesdays, a terrific sax player, Mabumi Yamaguchi has been playing at this club for the last 30 years. I often join him when I am in Tokyo, but this time he's away for the holiday so I am playing with Igarashi Issei, a great trumpet player in the Miles tradition who often plays with Mabumi. Issei is one of the first Japanese musicians I met when I started coming to Japan in the early 90s. Japan, like a lot of European countries, has several generations of jazz players, something that makes the scene a lot deeper than in countries without this tradition. Players like Issei who I guess is in his mid to late 40s, came up listening to Mabumi, Shunzo Ono, Teramasa Hino, Fumio Kawashima, Motohiko Hino, Kosuke Mine and others. They had real musical examples of strong musicians who were connected to jazz history, and were playing and recording with musicians like Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones. This is the reason that there are so many strong players in their 40s and younger here, players who moved to Boston or New York and developed careers in Japan and America, like Makoto Oszone, Junko Onishi, Massa Osaka and Yosuke Inoue to name a few. In recent trips here, I've heard someone new who impresses me each time, such as pianists Hori and Wakai. 

Naru also has a great owner, Hiro san, who is always dressed impeccably and standing near the entrance, welcoming guests. A powerfully built large guy, his email is sixpackhiro, recalling his working out/body building days. Probably you don't want to mess with him. He's keeping the jazz club going, something I believe his father began, although he has another club that is a little more r and b oriented. As always, looking forward to playing there and if you're in Tokyo, kitte kudasai!