LAST GIG IN TOKYO FOR THE SUMMER

We played at Body and Soul last night to not very many people unfortunately and that’s my last gig in Tokyo until next summer. It was a lot of fun musically. I am glad that I can come here and play trio gigs--it’s good for me as a pianist because in trio playing you utilize so much of your ability--playing intros and cadenzas, you can stretch the solo dimension of the piano, and with lots of soloing space with the band you can say whatever you have to say on the tune...at length. I always feel like I am more on top of my playing after a run of trio gigs. Also, I am starting to feel a connection to the clubs I play at--that they remember me from last year and look forward to the next--that we are building a relationship and a history. 

On the downside, when you play to an empty house, you wonder--how long can this world last? The mama-san at Body and Soul was extremely gracious. She was complimentary and paid us enough to put herself in the red on the evening, I think. She thanked me and told me she’d see me next year. But as the jazz demographic ages and so many clubs struggle, it seems like a very fragile ecosystem. There is a lot of competition for customers and live music is really taking a beating. 

Also, to complain a bit more here, often players like myself find ourselves in a bind: how much self-promotion around each gig can you do? In Japan without a publicist or sponsor, how do you fill the seats? Sometimes we are in the situation of competing with amateur players who play so rarely and are approaching their music careers as a kind of hobby so these people call all of their friends to fill the club and get a full house in spite of the low level of the music. Once a club goes down this road--booking Open mic style amateur nights--the walk-in trade dwindles further and it becomes that much more necessary to bring in every customer each time you play there. This is what happened to the Angry Squire in New York and many clubs have gone down that road. Players like myself sometimes find themselves in this bind--not enough star power to fill a room that has little following of it’s own, and unwilling to make lots of phone calls to friends at this point in our professional careers. 

Okay, end of rant. I think the way to make this work is for club owners and players to make filling the club a shared responsibility. When I play in Hiroshima or Himeji, the club owners there get the word out and try to bring out a full house. We keep returning to these clubs and develop a connection to the jazz fans there. Granted, this is a lot easier in a small town than in Tokyo or New York. 

Finally though, the music survives. Most jazz fans can tell a story of hearing great music in some club with no customers (Shingo related hearing Lenny White’s trio with Buster Williams and George Colligan with 5 other people, and Joe Lovano, George Mraz and I forget who on drums played to a tiny house in Tokyo last year, I am told. I’ve heard that a lot of well-known musicians don’t play as much in New York these days because they find it too hard to get people out to their gigs--although they stay busy touring in Europe.) We keep going, chipping away at the problem and hopefully the music comes to rest on a slightly steadier foundation over time.