Jeff Hammond - The Japan Times

November 24, 2024

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Jeff Hammond

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF

Apr 17, 2009

Yuki Tawada: "Missing Folklore"

For some photographers, the decisive moment for a photograph is the second the shutter is pressed. For others, the darkroom offers a host of possibilities: tonal variations, framing, paper quality, even superimposition. For Japanese photographer Yuki Tawada, the artwork is not considered finished even...

Japan Times

LIFE / Lifestyle

Feb 5, 2009

Creative dialogue

While it's not unknown for practitioners of the fine arts to gain fame and fortune almost overnight these days, (even through notoriety rather than talent), only a handful of artists in the graphic design field have gained worldwide recognition. Britain's Neville Brody is one.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jan 23, 2009

Crossing borderlines of consciousness

Most of us have experienced waking up in a strange room, perhaps in a hotel or a friend's house, and, for a split second, not knowing where we are — that fuzzy, vague feeling in the twilight zone between waking and dreaming. Imagine having those same feelings when waking up in your own, usually familiar,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Dec 18, 2008

The subcontinent shows its heart

Over the last decade or so, India has gone through unprecedented change, from largely missing out on the advances of the 20th century to rapidly becoming a leader of those in the 21st. But while the fragmented media coverage of the country hails its successful IT and biotechnology industries, it also...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 22, 2008

Champion 'turntablist' Kentaro gets mixed up

It's been a busy few years since DJ Kentaro won the 2002 DMC World DJ Championship and became the first Japanese to bring back the prize — a golden pair of Technics record decks (the turntable of choice in clubs around the world) — to the land where they were made.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 24, 2008

Bettye LaVette brings her triumphant soul battle to Fuji

Few artists could have struggled through a career as thoroughly frustrating as that of American soul singer Bettye LaVette and still continue to display the strength and good humor that she does.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 19, 2008

The Album Leaf at Metamorphose

Although The Album Leaf started in 1998 as a side project to Jimmy LaValle's work in another band (San Diego's Tristeza), his postrock power-pop solo venture has since evolved into his main gig. The band's lineup often changes — multi-instrumentalist LaValle even performed as a one-man band on live...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 2, 2007

Variously described as a jazz-folk mystic, a singer-songwriter, a soul man and a reluctant musician, Terry Callier is in many ways the genius that slipped through the net, fluent in a variety of styles but destined not for mainstream acceptance. Callier himself has always been reluctant to have his creativity...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Dec 15, 2006

Building a new jazz generation

There are plenty of things you might expect to find a jazz legend such as Herbie Hancock doing with his time -- flying to concerts in Europe perhaps, or preparing for a jazz festival in North America, composing new songs, maybe even catching a break from his hectic schedule.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 27, 2006

On-U Sound from way out

At most live gigs, all eyes are on the band while the mixing desk is tucked out of sight with some guy in a T-shirt standing behind it simply making sure each instrument comes out at the right level.

CULTURE / Music

Oct 6, 2006

Warrior Charge, Dry & Heavy and icchie

'The most talented producers in Britain. . . . the Sly and Robbie of 2006" is how rapper Tricky has described the rhythm unit of Perry Mellus and Wayne Nunes, better known as Warrior Charge.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 6, 2006

Spawned by the energy of punk, a new crowd of British bands known collectively as the ska revival, or the two-tone movement, emerged in the late 1970s around the Midlands area. Unlike the mainly white punk groups, bands such as The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat were comprised of both black and...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Sep 22, 2006

Accolades for Afrobeat originator

Producer Brian Eno has been variously quoted as saying Nigerian drummer and songwriter Tony Allen is "the most important musician," or "the best drummer" of the last 50 years. Whatever Eno actually said there is no doubt of the high regard Allen is held in, not only for his rhythms, so tight and complex...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 7, 2006

Deejay U-Roy's still-righteous chat

"Wake the town and tell the people" rings the trademark battle cry of Jamaican deejay extraordinaire U-Roy, who plays three live dates in Japan this weekend.

CULTURE / Music

May 26, 2006

Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band "Your New Best Friend"

By naming itself after the soft-porn mondo director Russ Mayer, and his erstwhile cameraman, Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band seem to set themselves up as purveyors of the kind of low-fi, freaked-out lounge music that graces soundtracks. On their second album, "Your New Best Friend," the Norwegian...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

May 5, 2006

Man from Wareika returns

During a break in a Tokyo recording session, Rico Rodriguez puts down his trombone to lark around on the roof with the teenage members of Oreskaband, the all-girl ska band he's been working with. That, at 72 years old, he is now old enough to be their grandfather doesn't even faze him.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 14, 2006

Spank Rock "YoYoYoYoYo" (Big Dada/Beat Records)

If Spank Rock sound like a bunch of college kids clowning around, that's probably not so far off the mark. Until just a few years ago, that's exactly what they were. But while injecting hip-hop with a much-needed dose of humor, on their debut album "YoYoYoYoYo" the Baltimore duo have delivered a refreshing...

CULTURE / Music

Mar 24, 2006

Nightmares on Wax "In a Space Outta Sound"

Hip-hop has made an art out of delving into the past to render something relevant for the present. It's a tradition George Evelyn of Nightmares On Wax is well versed in, but on his latest album, the sampler vies for action alongside more live instrumentation. As on previous outings, dub, jazz and funk...

Japan Times

Features

Dec 18, 2005

New chief puts paradise on map

Many dream of traveling the world and setting themselves up in a tropical paradise, but very few people make it happen. Even fewer get themselves appointed village chief of a remote Melanesian island in the process. But that's exactly what has happened to entrepreneur and art collector Ofer Shagan.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 5, 2005

Adrian Sherwood: "On-U Sound Crash"

The recent On-U Sound reissue program through Japan's Beat Records has been a kind of heaven for longtime followers of the London dub/reggae label. For newcomers bewildered by the stream of titles, a new megamix "On-U Sound Crash," by the label's founder and producer, Adrian Sherwood, could be the perfect...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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