The lively season for jazz lovers is on the horizon as the Seiko Summer Jazz Camp (SSJC) prepares for its fourth annual round of jazz seminars in the heart of Tokyo from Aug. 12 to 15.
Launched in 2016, SSJC is a four-day intensive program under the tutelage of leading professionals invited from the jazz mecca of New York to cultivate young musicians in Japan who aim to become professional jazz performers.
"I'd long been entertaining the idea of creating a good educational place for young people in the form of a jazz camp during summer vacation," said SSJC Executive Director Tomoki Sassa, who launched and produced the camp. While many educational programs for young jazz musicians are set up as summer camps in the U.S., "unfortunately, there are not yet so many opportunities in Japan," Sassa said.