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.

Want 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? If so, Japan is the place to go. More than any other country in the world, jazz fans in Japan are crazy for collecting rare, special, and unique recordings.

Japanese have a great love of all things from the past and a passion for what is singular and unique. Whether ancient temples hidden in a forest or vintage cars, old and rare means good. With a recorded legacy stretching back a century, jazz fits that passion for collecting, archiving and musing on the past perfectly. The covers of prized vinyl recordings are displayed like pieces of art in clubs and jazz coffee shops. Tucked away in large cities, are thousands of small CD and vinyl stores. Spread through the small side streets in hard-to-find spaces with cheap rents, the buying and selling of jazz recordings in Japan is a substantial part of the jazz scene.

One of the most unique aspects of Tokyo is the way certain parts of the city are devoted to specific products. Akihabara, the six-block center of electronics and animation/manga culture, is the most famous, but the rest of Tokyo has similar, small enclaves—villages, really—where you can find one particular product or activity. If you want kitchen supplies, you go to Kappabashi Dori; sweets and rice crackers are found in Ningyocho; and motorcycle parts are almost entirely sold in just a couple blocks in Ueno. Even plastic sushi models are sold all together on one street!

南博 Hiroshi Minami – piano
竹野昌邦  Masakuni Takeno – sax
水谷浩章 Hiroaki Mizutani – bass
芳垣安洋Yasuhiro Yoshigaki – drums

Hiroshi Minami’s website: http://www.graphic-art.com/minami/

On this twelfth (or so) outing from Minami, the pianist and his long-time associates dig into lyrical straight ahead jazz from the first moment. They dig in, take off and go! That has always been the case with this quartet that he calls aptly enough, “Go There.” This work, though, is another level up from his previous (also excellent) recordings in terms of composition and interactive quartet playing. The melodies here are powerful, full and captivating, the musicianship deeply collaborative.

一噌幸弘Yukihiro Isso—Noh-kan, dengakubue, recorder, gemshorn, whistle

鬼怒無月Natsuki Kido—guitars

吉見征樹Masaki Yoshimi—table, kanjira, matka

Dynamic, surprising and intense, Yukihiro Isso’s music is delightfully impossible to describe. It’s not that it’s just a mix of sounds, tones, melodies and harmonies from all over the world; it’s more that half the instruments on the recording are hard to identify! That makes for a fantastic, eclectic, and ear-pleasing recording. When Isso plays, the wind feels like it’s coming right out of the speakers.