Performing Jazz in Japan
Performing Jazz in Japan
In 1998 I had the good fortune of achieving a lifetime goal; performing jazz in Japan.
Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Katayama and the Ebetsu Citizens’ International Exchange Association, I was able to spend a week performing and traveling in Ebetsu and Sapporo Japan, the sister cities of Portland and Gresham Oregon USA.
This was a truly amazing experience and one that will always be a highlight in my musical career.
The video is a little choppy, and cuts in and out of tunes but the sound is still pretty good for a VHS tape that sat in a box for 17 years before being transformed to digital in 2015.
One of the more interesting parts of the trip to Japan was the extra two band members. I don’t recall if we knew when we got on the plane to fly there that we would be turning our well-rehearsed trio into a quintet or not. I do remember be taken to the rehearsal, which was on stage in an impressive auditorium with amazing accoustics (like nothing I had played in before or since) and being introduced to our two new bandmates from Japan. “Ken” and “Suzie” didn’t speak any English, and none of us spoke any Japanese, and our rehearsal was scheduled between interpreter shifts, so the five of us were on our own; our only shared language was music.
By the end of the rehearsal, we learned what jazz standards and international pop tunes the vocalist was prepared to sing, and her accompanist on the piano helped Mike and Dan sketch out her keys and changes to their tunes. They were both very experienced jazz musicians and once we realized that, we all relaxed and had a great time getting to know each other musically.
I really hadn’t appreciated what an established, international language jazz is until I had that two-hour rehearsal where music (and jazz specifically) was the primary language; played, not spoken.