Asagaya Jazz Streets 2015
October 23 and 24
To see just how deeply jazz is rooted in Japan, you need only go to the annual Asagaya Jazz Streets. The area of western Tokyo with a laidback vibe, small yakitori grills and drinking spots opens its streets, and interiors, to jazz once a year for the past two decades. This year’s 21st annual Jazz Streets was perhaps the best ever, with more venues, a bigger audience and more jazz than ever before. The once-upon-a-time couple page guide is now a 12-page pamphlet!
What Asagaya gets right is having something for everyone, without diluting the music or the vibe, and they do it for the whole weekend. The wide choice of free events on the streets and public areas makes it easy for casual visitors to drop in and check things out. Parents with kids in tow, retirees in groups with matching hats, and people hopping off their bikes for a few minutes got a chance to hear something they might never pay for. The crowds looked enrapt and the streets felt alive.
More serious (meaning paying) jazz fans got a great tour of Asagaya, too. Paid events in community centers, churches, a hospital and (my favorite) a grade school gym (where everyone had to take off their shoes) were scheduled all day both days. The passport ticket allowed entrance to a dozen venues with nicely staggered 45 minute sets from noon to nine both days. That made it possible to easily catch five or six sets with a nice walk and time for a quick drink and bite to eat, or one of the street shows, in between. Other jam sessions and clubs had live shows after that until the last train. Headlining on Friday was Yosuke Yamashita, who makes it a point to perform in Asagaya almost every year. Three members of the Soul and Pimp Sessions brought in the younger, hipper crowd on Saturday. In between Yamashita’s pristine, progressive piano trio and the Soul and Pimp’s laidback cool, several other sets also stood out.
The Ayumi Koketsu quartet played a powerful set of fluid, tensile post-bop to a standing room crowd in the early afternoon. Her takes on Lennie Tristano and Gerry Mulligan classics, though rather rare ones, were striking for the originality of her arrangements and the energy of her soloing. Koketsu drew inspiration for her own original compositions from such unlikely (though of course very inspiring) sources as painter Frank Stella and California’s giant sequoia trees. Her group was energetic, fun and dedicated to making sure the 150 members of the audience, plus plenty standing in the back, would be looking forward to hearing her again.
Yoichi Kobayashi and the Japanese Jazz Messengers played a straight-ahead set of classics, such as “Mood Indigo” and “Moaning,” in a grade school gymnasium. The vocals of Atsumi Hirano took center stage on half the numbers where she led the parade, but the band had a deep reserve of hard-jamming energy. Sitting on the chairs in the primary school gymnasium where they played, the strikingly creative banners made by students hung along the walls, creating a marvelous atmosphere. The audience got just the right lesson on the traditions and practices of jazz.
Bassist Yoshio Suzuki is one of the best known of Japan’s many jazz players and for good reason. Playing without a drummer, for a softer touch, the church was a perfect setting for his calm, gorgeously arranged music. Soichi Noriki on piano and Shinpei Inoue on flute leaned into the interplay with Suzuki so fully that the trio became one. Each led on different tunes. The originals were, as Suzuki explained, not classical but not jazz, and influenced by Ravel (for sound) and Monet (for image). The set captivated the crowd, who filled the interior of the small chapel. One wonders if the church is as fully packed for services as it was for Suzuki, but no matter, it was an aesthetically religious experience.
Kohsuke Mine’s Forever Quartet played a rousing set of powerful, high-tension jazz that ranged from free and funky to sad and strong to pulsing. Mine never fails to delight. His phrasing stops and starts at all the wrong places, which turn out to be the right places. The unpredictability of his gutsy yet intelligent sax work is always compelling. His tone sounds like the saxophone has been smoking for decades, just the right amount of humanly gruff. The band, of course, the pick of Tokyo’s top players, propelled the sound far and wide. Takashi Sugawa on bass, Eriko Shimizu on piano, Tamaya Honda on drums, did not sound generations younger than Mine, though they are. The quartet played ballads, bop and free jazz, with a dash of funkiness, mixed in all the right proportions.
Asagaya Jazz Streets is an excellent place to jump into new music and old favorites. Jazz vocals, Dixieland, brass bands, big bands, bossa nova and every other genre under the umbrella of jazz all had a stage, and when they didn’t, they marched through the streets! To present jazz without over-seriousness, and without amateur awkwardness either, is a hard trick. ASJ manages to make jazz open and accessible, fun, too, with a relaxed and yet very serious aim. See you there next year.