Second time lucky

We trotted off for jazz on day two of our time in Osaka and Japan.  The club was called Donna Lee and photos showed a grand piano and Fender amps in a small bar so looking good.  The band was a quartet led by a tenor player.  But day two was Thursday and Thursday is regular kids night at this bar!  Plenty of joviality at my expense and the helpful manager trotted us off to a friend's bar for Megan's G&T.  That was a great pleasure in itself, finding a small obscure bar amongst karaoke joints.  Again much joviality amongst the small clientele and owners.  Day three arrived and we set off again for pre-session drinks at our now fave, Sake House Bunpuku, and on to Donna Lee.  The session was two sets 7-9pm.  Tenor and leader Minoru Satomura led with a jovial welcome, a massive tenor tone and a big melodic approach.  Apparently he played recently at the Detroit JF.  His offsiders were Shizuka Ramada with full fisted, exploratory and powerful playing, Junji Matsuda with sticks and often brushes and ear-cutting drum solos, other than his solo on the encore which was vocal scat.  Very unexpected and nicely done.  Finally Shuji Eto on a lovely old Italian cornerless bass, all attractive walks and nicely interpretive solos.  He had come from Kyoto for this gig.  Younger bassist Jorge Shiro sat in for one tune and it was fascinating to hear the bass sounding so different, more powerful rather than delicate and dramatically different soloing styles.  I got a feel of the bass after the gig, all low but not buzzing action and lovely fresh D’addario tone.  But the audience was very small, varying around 12, and the payment was by passing the bucket so not generous.  Nonetheless a satisfying gig and a nice opportunity to meet local jazz community.  But not ended yet.  On the way home I passed another jazz club, Bigsalt 845, and spoke to the woman outside, Yuki Harima, who had just finished a singing gig inside.  Thus is the way with public transport and a dense population, there are plenty of people around and chances to chat.

Minoro Satomura (tenor) led a quartet with Shizuka Ramada (piano), Shuji Eto (bass) and Junji Matsuda (drums, scat) at Donna Lee, Osaka.  Jorge Shiro (bass) sat for one tune.  Yuki Harima (vocals) had sung at Bigsalt 845.

Early days

We're in Japan for just two weeks and these are early days and we’re loving it.  But we've had some torrid times and the result is my laptop is dead.  So expect some shorter and less formulated posts.  The first days were in Osaka which seems to have a forgotten cousin air about it next to Tokyo and Kyoto but we loved it.  We stayed in a cool hotel in Namba, perhaps the nightlife capital of Osaka.  All driverless streets, covered walkways, plenty of food and indulgences and inevitable brothels and mega casino machine rooms and more.  There was the uber-touristy canal boat ride and the visit to the majorly impressive Osaka castle with moats and rocks and walls to make the lights of the London tower cower.  We were also off to Nara for a day for temples and gardens and deer.  Again touristy but impressive.  And a first jazz outing in Japan that ended an amusing failure.  But more on that tomorrow. 

Megan and Eric visited Osaka and Nara.