Listening to jazz at one of my nearby, favorite haunts, Sometime, in Kichijoji, after a particularly long and satisfying solo, I started to wonder why jazz has so many long solos, and why those solos appeal so strongly to Japanese jazz listeners, who seem to be picked up and carried along on the jam, responding to each and every turn of phrase. Are jazz solos gift or commodity? I wondered.
Read MoreThe overlapping concepts and practices of jazz and Zen have a common starting point. To put it simply, or reduce it to an initiating idea: All action springs from inaction and all sound springs from silence.
Read MoreWant the complete Lester Young Early Recordings? Need a DVD of early Louis Armstrong vocals? What about a vinyl record of Sonny Clark live in Paris? Looking for a re-mastered collection of mid-career Stan Getz? What about a reissue of, well, pretty much the entire Blue Note catalogue?
Read MoreAfter the earthquake and tsunami on Friday, March 11, from the middle to the north of the main island, Honshu, life in Japan has changed for everyone. Nearly 500,000 people are living in evacuation facilities and the count of the dead and missing has just gone over 20,000.
Read MoreJapan’s love for jazz has no stronger evidence than the constant sound of jazz being played all over the country. In elevators, convenience stores, restaurants, lobbies and public spaces of all kinds, jazz is the soundtrack for Japan’s daily life.
Read MoreSpontaneity is at the core of both jazz and Zen. The overlaps and parallels are hard to ignore when listening to really great jazz improvisers, and easier perhaps, when listening in a country with a long Zen tradition.
Read MoreWhen I first came to Tokyo, I was overwhelmed by the one-two punch of culture shock and "megalopolis shock." To me, Tokyo was a blur of fast-walking people, confusing spaces and unfamiliar customs. Though I had traveled a lot and lived in other cities
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