On New Year's Eve, while thousands of celebrants packed Tokyo's shrines and temples to hear the 108 bells ringing out the sins of mankind, many others crowded into Tokyo's jazz clubs to hear musicians offer their own prayers. For these ritual yearend jam sessions, the doors remain open all night so people can end one year and start another to a jazz beat. This New Year's Eve, I decided to join them.
From 8:30 in the evening till 5:30 the next morning, I heard eight hours of music at three different clubs -- all filled to capacity. The players thrived on the atmosphere, playing with special vibrancy and joyous abandon. As with many New Year's Eves, snatches of conversation and disconnected images are all that remain, but these memories are suffused with a jazz spirit.
My first stop was Aketa no Mise in Nishi-Ogikubo, where the regular musicians were already playing to a packed house. At the club, speakers sit on cinder blocks, amps rest on milk cartons and the secondhand furniture is all mismatched, but there's always a seat.