So I made a little research on this topic that I would like to share with you in this post with some fine examples of Japanese jazz figures and their music.
Jazz in Japan:
Unlike general beliefs, jazz music in Japan goes way back than the WWII. In the early 1920s, cruising across the Pacific Ocean was quite popular, making Kobe, Osaka, Shanghai and Manila important ports of the time on the Asian side along with San Francisco and Seattle on the US side.
These cruise lines, especially the luxurious ones, always had musical bands on them either consisting of Asian or American musicians. When the Asian musicians arrived in the US, first thing they did was to go ashore looking for sheet music and records in order to dig the latest music and musical trends. This was one of the first explanations how jazz music arrived in Japan.
Another main reason was the Filipinos. At that time Philippines was like a US colony with a lot of US corps stationed there. Filipinos learned how to play jazz and blues from the US soldiers and these Filipinos traveled to Japan to work in hotel lobbies and clubs.
"My Blue Heaven" 1928
Maybe the first usage of the word "jazz" was in the below song that was used for a 1929 silent movie called "The Tokyo March". The lyrics to the song speak about modern life and things like jazz music and cinema.
"Tokyo March" by Sato Chiyoko
Busy ports such as Osaka and Kobe were the leading cities in Japan for entertainment. This was partly due to those cities attracted the cruise traffic hence tourists, and the 1923 big earthquake in Tokyo and the city needed a vast rebuilding. Even in the first half of the 1920s, Osaka had a vibrant nightlife with many dance halls and music clubs.
The "Satchmo of Japan", trumpeter Fumio Nanri from Osaka (later moved to Shanghai and San Francisco), is considered to be the first jazz musician of Japan.
One amazing story from the Osaka nightlife is that the dance halls had sold tickets to their customers per song. One ticket covered one dance to one song. Therefore the club owners hired musicians that would only play short songs without adding any touch to the original short composition and restricting the players from long improvisations. Obviously this meant short songs but many songs and many songs equaled more tickets...
In the beginning of the 1930s, exactly like what happened in Germany, jazz music started to be seen as an inferior music that was contradictory to the Japanese traditions and moral values. One by one the dance halls and clubs began to close down especially in Osaka. This led the musicians to flee to Tokyo where it was still less conservative. They found recording opportunities in many American record companies had already entered the Japanese market by establishing branches in Tokyo. Some jazz musicians such as Ryoichi Hattori combined Japanese sounds with jazz in order to avoid the controversies of pure jazz.
"Oiwake" by Ryoichi Hattori's Columbia Jazz Band
Another interesting story is related with the Japanese "Jazu Kissa" concept. This is a jazz cafe where people can go and listen to a jazz record while sipping their coffees. The main difference is that the audience in these Jazu Kissas are more like concert goers rather than coffee goers. They sat and quietly listened to the music just like they were attending a live concert.
I am following an instagram account about the current "Jazu Kissas" and they share wonderful posts. Here is the link if you would like to follow them.
Obviously jazz music during the WWII was considered as the music of the enemy and was banned to be played publicly. However on the contrary, jazz had become so popular to be banned by then. Music continued in different forms and mostly in the underground but never lost its popularity during those tragic years.
By the end of the war and with the US occupation in Japan, jazz again began to be widely acclaimed. The US troops were looking for dancing halls and these dancing halls were looking for musicians.
Oasis of the Ginza Dancehall in Tokyo after the WWII
Between the years of the Allied Occupation in Japan (1945-1952) thanks to the American Forces, jazz music became amazingly popular, very parallel to the developments in the Western world, but there was such a shortage on jazz players. Many American army members used every means to bring up new musicians for the Japanese jazz scene to entertain their troops stationed there. I have read many memoirs of notable jazz players saying that they had learned the jazz music with the help of American soldiers and officers in the army barracks.
One of the main jazz figures of Japan, Toshiko Akiyoshi was discovered during these years. She was only at the age of 20 when she moved to Tokyo with a passion in bebop. Couple of years later she met Oscar Peterson and that's how her life changed. She went to Berklee College of Music and after that became a notable bob pianist and a big-band leader.
One of the main jazz figures of Japan, Toshiko Akiyoshi was discovered during these years. She was only at the age of 20 when she moved to Tokyo with a passion in bebop. Couple of years later she met Oscar Peterson and that's how her life changed. She went to Berklee College of Music and after that became a notable bob pianist and a big-band leader.
Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio (including Eddie Safranski and Ed Thigpen)
Japanese jazz scene expanded immensely during the occupation years and following the end of the occupation, a lot of new artists began to develop their own sounds and styles and kept jazz music very much alive until today. Leading musicians are, sax player Sadao Watanabe (who started his career as a member of Toshiko Akiyoshi's band), trumpet player Tiger Okoshi, pianists Masahiko Satoh, Aki Takase and Tsuyoshi Yamamoto.
"Hank Jones Trio feat. Sadao Watanabe and Hiromi"
I have intentionally picked the video above in order to introduce you one of the greatest young Japanese pianists around, Hiromi. I believe she deserves a post just for herself which will come soon on this blog. I have to confess that I am a big fan...
The main problem of the Japanese jazz especially after the 1960s was that its image, most of the critics saw a little authenticity in the artists and calling the Japanese jazz as an imitation of the American jazz. I believe this was partly true due to the fact that jazz was not in the DNA of Japanese people and secondly all the musicians had been trained with American material. Just around these times and in response to these comments, a majority of the musicians tried to combine the Japanese traditional sounds (including instruments) to their music.
"Children in the Temple Ground" by Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band
"Yamanaka Bushi" by Hideo Shiraki Quintet & 3 Koto Girls
Japan still continues to be a leading country where jazz appreciation is relatively significant with its notable young musicians gaining global reputation just like the pianist Hiromi and trumpeter Takuya Kuroda.
"I Got Rhythm" by Hiromi
One additional info here is that most probably Japan is the Mecca for Hi-Fi enthusiasts and audiophiles. Today the Japanese LP pressings are the most sought after pressings.The country is still dynamic in terms of sales and full of record shops (both new & used) where the listeners have all the resources and means to reach all kinds of recorded physical music.
Let's finish with a video that explains a lot about where this audiophile obsession can lead a man especially if you are in Japan...
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