Conventions

After missing one gig I managed another in the afternoon.  The Japanese can seem unconventional.  Certainly a club that has gigs every afternoon and evening seems unconventional to me.  This was the Shinjuku Pit Inn and the music was again free jazz.  I was a few minutes late and came into a trio of alto, piano and drums playing moving segments of solos, perhaps alto leading the trio, a piano duo, alto trio again, alto with drums, drum solo, piano enters.  Moving through combinations, mostly at a steady medium tempo with all manner of interactions and free interplay.  Then towards the end of the set, strains of Ornette Coleman Lonely woman and the head tailing out the set.  The second set started much the same way, finishing with a lovely rendition of Body and soul including some richly substituted but self-evident piano chordal accompaniment.  And unexpectedly, a take on Blue Monk with an obvious melody from the start. End of set and a short encore.  All expansive and dissonant alto with a malleable time sense, full handed piano with a great ear and a responsive drummer laying down a fairly constant mid-tempo.  There was a surprisingly large audience for an afternoon gig, ~55, mostly older and mostly male.  I enjoyed but struggled through a conversation with a neighbour who recommended another bar, No room for squares.  Great name but I won't be able to visit.  But this Pit Inn was impressive with its stage and Yamaha grand, little JBL phase array and its recording Studio Pit Inn by the stairs in the basement of this otherwise glass and steel building.  Quite a revelation.  And on the way to the station, another music store, this time e-instruments with ~200 basses on level 2f at Ishibashi Musical Instruments.

Eichi Hayashi (alto), Ami Ogaeri (piano) and Toyoaki Sekine (drums) performed one afternoon at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo.

Small gig, big sound

I managed my first Tokyo jazz gig with just one set in a small basement bar.  The closest of many jazz clubs to the restaurant where we had eaten with friends.  It was a dive into an unconventional, uncommercial world but one which I loved from the first notes.  This was free jazz played by guitar, bass and drums to an audience of three and host.  The opening whacks of drummer Kuniyoshi had me reaching for tissues for my ears.  The guitar followed.  I was immediately entranced.  All Taiko-like explosive drumming in place of grooves and slaps and taps and slides and effects on guitar.  The second improv added Rickenbacker bass and more effects.  The floor was littered with effects as were a few tables.  I heard mostly loopers and reverb and delay but there were strange otherworldly noises too against descending repetitive basslines or repeated chromatic steps from Naoyasu.  Then unexpectedly some bluesy guitar licks and an end on some lovely descending chords. Tetsuya spoke  of having played punk but this seemed prettier.  I was fascinated by this outing, even entranced, but despite the seemingly simple unconventional instrumental techniques I wonder how to play thus so effectively.  Alternative techniques with effect unit abandon and yet with a sense of control and development.  It certainly worked this evening in this little venue and only seven people in the room.

Tetsuya Hayashi (guitar), Naoyasu Takahaski (bass) and Kuniyoshi Yamada (drums) played free jazz at Asagaya TEN, Tokyo.

Gardens

I remember Tokyo being spoken of as the largest population of any city in the world but I didn't think that was still the case. It is. Wikipedia lists cities by UN 2018 data (see List of largest cities) with Tokyo top of the list with over 37 million, ie ~1.5 x Australia.  Tokyo also has a superb train-cum-Metro system (and the busiest train station, Shinjuku; ~3.6m people pd!) but still it is time-consuming to travel around this town.  So our visit is limited but we saw a lovely traditional Japanese house, Kyu Asakura, and we especially marvelled at its garden.  But today we visited the Nezu Museum, somewhat a decorative arts museum. Its displays were informative and charming and gratifyingly small and well labelled.  Galleries covered paintings of summer and autumn (Hiroshiga+), Buddhist art and ancient Chinese bronzes (~1500BCE+), shades of white in ceramics and the end of the year in tea ceremonies.  Quite a fascinating list.  But Nezu Museum also has a garden, larger and more detailed and probably older than that of the Kyu Asakura house.  I am not a garden goer but this was deeply beautiful and significantly educative.  The care taken is obvious although discrete.  The paths, the statuary, the pruning, the choices of species, the buildings and water were all a part of a most stunning environment.  I walked through with eyes aghast and camera in action and every photo was a thing of calm beauty.  Some drizzle just added to it all.  Now I think I understand a Japanese garden. Look at the pics and marvel.

Kyu Asakura house and Nezu Museum are on open display in Tokyo.  They both have wonderful gardens. 

Window shopping

Our local station is in Tokyo Shin-Okubo.  Just look what I found in the next street.  Two big music stores on interest!  First was TC Gakki.  I'd heard the name and it was a pleasure to peruse.  Ground floor was electric guitars, basses, effects, repairs, sales.  Then a floor for acoustic guitars and another for brass.  Lots of impressive second hand instruments, not least some I own or gave owned.  Plenty are lined up with no strings for repairs and setups.  A naked fretless ‘70s PB was probably my fave but lots caught my eye.  Then further down the street for T Kurasawa & Co.  First sight was a window of nice e-basses and I idled through that area.  Most seemed new.  Presumably the other classical strings were there but I descended to the basement bottom enders and the Kurosawa Bass Center (sic) and ~75 basses on obvious show.  I tried an old Eastern European instrument, listened to a staffer playing B5 and demonstrating tones of various German bows, saw a Reghin bass like my other contrabass.  But just window shopping.  I later discovered there was another shop in the same street that sold vintage e-instruments, but I missed it : hyperguitars.com

TC Gakki and Kurasawa Bass Centre are music stores next to Shin-Okubo station in Tokyo.  Hyperguitars was nearby.