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July 17, 2024
 

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JAZZNICITY

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Dec 1, 2006
Ub-X freely tinkers with the engine of jazz
Piano, bass and drums form the engine of jazz. Most jazz bands build on this foundation by adding other instruments, while a select few work from within to upend the conventions of the piano trio and fashion a completely new sound. Ub-X, one of the latter, is a group that sounds like no other.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Nov 17, 2006
Dutch invasion
Jazz has established many homes outside its country of birth, and recently musicians and fans in these widely dispersed countries have begun interacting far from jazz's Mecca of New York City. The scenes in Holland and Japan -- long two of the most thriving -- stepped up their cultural exchanges this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Sep 15, 2006
Big-band education
On the sidewalk, in the parking lot and on the entrance stairs outside Fuchu Mori Art Theater Hall in western Tokyo last month, throngs of university students were fingering melody lines in the air, scrunching their faces trying to remember chord changes and counting out tempos in whispered voices.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 25, 2006
Hot slabs of jazz
While summer rock festivals are as numerous as fireworks, outdoor jazz concerts have recently become as rare as a non-humid day. Just five years ago, Japan had so many jazz festivals all over the country that musicians had trouble making the tightly scheduled gigs. Then, sadly, economics caught up, distance...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 30, 2006
Playing to projected light
A member of Sun Ra's Arkestra from 1958, Marshall Allen was there at the inception of the avant-garde jazz scene in the 1960s. Sun Ra, who died in 1993 -- or was transported to another planet, as the eccentric artist always insisted would happen -- led one of the most experimental, and controversial...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Sep 23, 2005
Keeping the Hot Club flame lit in Tokyo
One of Europe's biggest contributions to jazz, Gypsy swing jazz -- now more correctly called "jazz manouche" -- comes down to one man, famed Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt. Together with violinist Stephane Grappelli and a rotating ensemble of musicians, Django's Quintette du Hot Club de France shot...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 19, 2005
Only one way to get that big band sound
Forming a jazz big band in this day and age is a somewhat insane undertaking. Scheduling the right musicians, writing elaborate arrangements and hiring a studio with the right equipment to record 16 players at once are headaches big enough to hold back even the most inspired leader. The bottom line for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 27, 2005
Swing is the thing for bassist Nakamura
Not many Japanese jazz musicians have played in front of a President of the United States, but Kengo Nakamura is one. After leaving his hometown of Osaka to study at Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music in 1988, where he switched from electric to acoustic bass, and struggling for a while to find...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Nov 28, 2004
The power of one note
Power and imagination have been Kazumi Watanabe's mainstays for over 30 years. As a prodigy on electric guitar, his first release was in 1971 at the age of 18 and his ever-evolving guitar technique has served as the central pillar of near-annual releases. In the 1980s, his progressive and very muscular...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 1, 2004
Pursuing a degree in bop and beyond
Senzoku University is different from other universities in Japan. Huge black cases jam the hallways; five parallel lines are etched onto the whiteboards; lecterns hold stereo systems; and many classrooms are empty but for a few metal stands or the occasional grand piano. It's all down to the study of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 18, 2004
Candela rise above definitions of East and West
Japanese culture is famed for importing artistic forms and converting them to new patterns, but one local group of foreign musicians is trying to reverse that trend. Candela, a group of four American musicians with diverse musical backgrounds, creates jazz-based music with Japanese melodies; folk tunes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 6, 2004
A voice like none other
Though many postmodern jazz musicians are tireless experimentalists, they often end up producing interesting concepts more than good music. Pianist, composer and band leader Hiroshi Minami, however, is that rare jazz musician who sets up intriguing musical challenges that feel natural. He plays an engaging...
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 / 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 / JAZZNICITY
Aug 10, 2003
Akagi nurtures organic lifeform
Jazz pianist Kei Akagi clearly relishes the dual nature of the human mind. This is no surprise coming from someone who has divided his time between the United States and Japan, his college studies between philosophy and music, his musical training between classical and jazz, his jazz playing between...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 13, 2003
The sum of their parts -- and more
One of the common impressions of Japanese jazz is of skilled technicians working studiously within the confines of jazz tradition to turn out polished music. Indeed, many Japanese jazz musicians fail to exploit the full potential of jazz improvisation, preferring instead to remain dedicated, humble craftsmen,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 8, 2003
Synergetic possibilities at the heart
The piano trio is the heart of jazz. This core unit of piano, bass and drums pumps life into the music. All jazz groups, big or small, rely on the piano, bass and drums (called "the rhythm section") for their crucial thrust of energy. Taken out of a larger group, the piano trio contains all the essentials...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
May 11, 2003
A versatile jazz, classical and Latin lover
The typical image of Latin jazz comes mainly from salsa. Certainly, large bands playing fast-tempo dance music peppered by a hot horn section, thumping bass, razor-sharp piano and a small contingent of percussionists comprise the most common -- and perhaps most exhilarating -- form of Latin jazz.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Apr 13, 2003
Extracurricular cool at Hitorizawa
Hitorizawa High School in Kanagawa appears to be a normal Japanese high school. Plentiful shoe-boxes jam the entryway, a sign-in sheet for visitors dangles alongside the nub of an old pencil and lists of rules hang accusingly in the wide and somewhat dusty halls. After classes, administrative staff work...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 9, 2003
All of it . . . why not hear all of it?
"You took the part/That once was my heart/So why not take/All of me?"
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
China’s economic growth comes in worse than expected
Pedestrians in the Wangfujing shopping area in Beijing on July 11, 2024. China's economic growth in the second quarter was lower than forecast, adding pressure on Chinese leaders to lift confidence at the Chinese Communist Party's third plenum this week.
Kansai airports to increase takeoff and landing slots ahead of Osaka Expo
Kansai International Airport in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture. The upper limit on the number of takeoff and landing slots at the airport as well as Kobe Airport in Hyogo Prefecture will be raised in spring next year ahead of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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