author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Michael Pronko

Meta

Michael Pronko
Michael Pronko writes essays for ST Shukan. He also writes for his own website Jazz in Japan, as well as for Newsweek Japan and Artscape Japan. He has published three books of essays about Tokyo and teaches American literature, culture and film at Meiji Gakuin University.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 22, 2004
Drumming skills aside, Brecker earns respect
Studio musicians and fusion bands -- especially successful ones -- get the least respect from jazz purists. Saxophonist Michael Brecker is in both categories. His 30 some years of studio recordings with practically everyone (Average White Band, Parliament, Paul Simon, Dire Straits, Aerosmith) would seem...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 22, 2004
Greg Howe: Extraction
Guitar whizzes are common in the world of jazz fusion. They offer a quick, high-energy musical fix for guitar freaks, but their showy licks, screaming melodic climaxes and speed for speed's sake all tend to feel routine by the second listen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 15, 2004
The Rosenberg Trio: "Live in Samois"
Every summer, the peaceful French river town of Samois sur Seine is magically transformed into Djangoville in honor of Gypsy guitar wizard Django Reinhardt, who passed away there over 50 years ago. Sporadically since the late '60s and annually since the '80s, Samois has hosted a festival dedicated to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 8, 2004
Big band festival
Tokyo has the greatest number of symphony orchestras of any city in the world, and the same must be true of big bands. In an annual pre-springtime rite, jazz club Someday showcases two weeks' worth of the best.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 8, 2004
Expressions free of rules and genres
Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek's distinctive sound has shaped European jazz for more than 30 years. Working closely with the renowned ECM label of producer Manfred Eicher, Garbarek has released annual recordings since his first in 1969. Often labeled "chamber jazz," the music of Garbarek and his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004
Sex Mob: "Dime Grind Palace"
Unsuspecting visitors to the Sex Mob Web site will find not pornography, but a portal leading into a playfully eclectic avant-garde jazz quartet. As the name suggests, they do put plenty of sex into their music. Snippets of the bump and grind, the slow drag and the shimmy and shake remind post-boppers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 25, 2004
Tony Malaby: "Adobe"
While the bluntness of the rare sax-bass-drum unit inspired innovators like Ornette Coleman or Henry Threadgill to their best work, the format often caused listeners to squirm through extended bass or drum solos, even if they were patient with a single melodic voice. Saxophonist Tony Malaby leaps over...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 18, 2004
George Pajon Jr.: "Fried Plaintains"
Three years ago, Soulive's CD "Turn It Out" started an avalanche of groove-based, jazz-inflected instrumental music. Followed by soulful, good-time releases from newcomers Rodney Jones, Bobby Broom, Karl Denson and stalwarts like the Greyboy Allstars and Maceo Parker, an entire shelf of funk-jazz CDs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 11, 2004
Ba Cissoko: "Sabolan"
The infectious and joyous debut release from Ba Cissoko, four young Guinean exiles living in Marseille, connects the intensity of Salif Keita with the fun of Guinean dance bands. The keynote of their sound is the distinctive and elegant kora (21-string African harp). Instead of burying the kora's intricate...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Dec 21, 2003
Big steps for Tokyo's little jazz labels
Independent labels have always been a mainstay of the Tokyo jazz scene, but this year saw a bumper crop of good music coming from small labels. While many of these artists' recordings can only be found at their shows, stacked up neatly on fold-up tables at the back of the club, a number of the larger...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2003
Jazz clubs on New Year's Eve
Most evenings, jazz in Tokyo is squashed into a minuscule four hours, politely finishing early enough for customers to catch the last train home. By other countries' standards, the lack of a late-night set starting at 11 or midnight is almost unbelievable. On New Year's Eve, however, all that changes....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 14, 2003
Ann Dyer: "When I Close My Eyes"
Ann Dyer's newest release, "When I Close My Eyes," sets a new standard for intimacy, improvisation and experimentation in vocal jazz. On her previous release, "Revolver: A New Spin," she sang strikingly original interpretations of the classic Beatles album. Her new release moves toward even greater...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 7, 2003
Adam Rogers Quintet: "Allegory"
After years of guesting with the likes of funk-fusion leader Randy Brecker, pop-jazz diva Norah Jones and downtown wild man John Zorn, guitarist Adam Rogers finally released his own debut last year. This year's just-released "Allegory" is even better. The debut showed a tight mastery of bop quartet...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 23, 2003
Listening post: Recorded
Dino Saluzzi "Responsorium" (ECM)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 2, 2003
Joe Henry: 'Tiny Voices'
Joe HenryTiny Voices
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 10, 2003
Roscoe Holcomb: "An Untamed Sense of Control"
Among instruments, the banjo is one of the few considered truly an American original. Roscoe Holcomb's voice could be considered another. A just-released collection, "An Untamed Sense of Control," shows just how original he was.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Sep 7, 2003
Freedom at his fingertips
Yosuke Yamashita is one of the rare Japanese jazz musicians who is a household name in his native land. Despite his uncompromisingly avant-garde style, he is also one of the few to establish himself as a well-respected jazz pianist in Europe and the United States.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 3, 2003
Roy Hargrove
What's a nice, clean-cut hard-bopping trumpeter, one of the best to hit the jazz scene in the '90s, doing growing dreadlocks, wearing baggy pants and making a funk-soul CD?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 31, 2003
Jazz and more under one roof
The exaggerated rumors of jazz's demise can be put to rest. The second annual festival Tokyo Jazz 2003 showed that jazz is not ready to be relegated to the museum of past musical styles quite yet. An amazing (for jazz anyway) 40,000 fans headed to Ajinomoto Stadium in western Tokyo for two days of music...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 27, 2003
Richard Bona: "Munia (The Tale)"
One of the encouragements jazz players often shout to each other during intense solos is "Tell the story!" On Cameroonian Richard Bona's third release, "Munia (The Tale)," he does just that by weaving lovely epic tales in melody and rhythm that combine West African music with New York jazz.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER