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.

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. 

Her music

Shilong presented a wonderful overview of Australian women composers with his program called Her music speaks for Musica da Camera.  I've played lots of music by women composers recently and lots of Australian composers, but not a full program (the closest was one by Sally Greenaway with MdCC a year or two ago).  Some of the composers were on this program, too.  They were Sally Greenaway, Corrina Bonshek, Helen Gifford, Margaret Sutherland, Betty Beath, Maria Grenfell and Elena Katz-Chernin.  And the music was delightfully varied and nothing disappointed.  Sally's homage to the Balkans and Batik was culturally influenced, bouncy and melodic.  Then through a slow pensive Dream, a free-like atonal and a-rhythmic piece that came together for me as  watched Shilong's conducting, all changing time signatures, sparse odd harmonies, varied techniques, even thumbs on bass.  I loved it.  Then a Margaret Sutherland concerto in three movements, an sad adagio lament for Kosovo, a homage to knitting unicorns to bring solace and optimism in hospital settings and a final jaunty and challenging piece in 5/4 and various divisions thereof by Elena Katz-Chernin Fast Blue Village 5.  For this concert, I was in the audience recording so it was a new vision of MdCC but also missing playing such an imaginative program.  Well done all round.

Shilong Ye (musical director) conducted Her Music Speaks for Musica da Camera Canberra.

Itinerant, somewhat

It was an interlude with friends visiting from Melbourne but surprisingly I found it fascinating.  I hadn't expected it.  This was the Gauguin exhibition at the NGA.  It was big (~140 works), one of which had just been bought for the NGA and from now is his only Australian owned work.  It was intriguing how he worked in so many fields (painting, woodblock and other printing, ceramics, carving, one lone bronze head.  Self-taught, varied in styles and influences, fairly unsuccessful in his business ventures despite his success in his art, very well travelled (this is late 1800s; travel wasn't quick) from the youngest of age through the merchant navy and military call-ups and marriage and kids.  And the reviled affairs with young Tahitian girls.  We booked into a tour guide session and learned lots.  He doesn't seem too easy a person, even if a self-taught master.  He shared a house at one stage with Van Gogh and they had a run-in, although, as with his wife, they continued to correspond.  He did have an affair with a 13-yo maid, but at that time the age of consent was 13 in UK (11 in US!) and she had several other affairs while in his employ.  Apparently early sex was preparation for marriage in that culture.  Odd to our ears and infuriating to some.  Generally, the impressionists are not my faves, but we learnt of how he's different and how he's related.  All interesting and making for an intriguing NGA mega-exhibition.

Gauguin's World : Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao was an exhibition of works of Paul Gauguin at the National Gallery of Australia.

Sandwich

Not too many gigs these days but then think quality not quantity (although frequency can also correlate with quality).  But this was a good gig, with James and Mark and me at OCI.  It actually sandwiched my NCO films gig with another at Mercure on Saturday night, so there was at least considerable frequency this week.  Both Tilt gigs were great fun.  At OCI, I got out the P-Bass for a few funkier lines, but mostly the double and that felt lithe and sounded full.  Mark just played snare and high-hat given some kick problem but still blew the place out with his understated syncopations.  James has been playing with increasing litheness and inventiveness of late and this just continued.  So all was well.  Thanks to James and Mark.  And to Liv who was double-booked.

Tilt played at Old Canberra Inn and Mercure with James Woodman (piano), Eric Pozza (bass) and Mark Levers (drums).

Satriani and more

I was amused just how different were the Wesley concerts of the CGS and CGGS (Canberra [Girls] Grammar School).  The CGGS concert was huge, with a string of performers, with choirs and larger ensembles, and located in the larger Wesley Church venue.   The CGS concert was mostly single or pairs of students with an accompanist performing in the Wesley Concert room ... and with two electric guitars.  But I enjoyed both the gigs.  Perhaps the difference was that the CGS concert featured 6 performers preparing for the HSC music exams.  So we had a Sally Greenaway, Elgar, Joe Satriani (unexpected, all tapping and chordal fingering, obviously on an e-guitar, not surprisingly Ibanez), Richard Percvile, Paganini, JS Bach (on another Ibanez electric guitar, this time a wide, flat maple-necked 7-string) and Hindemith.  The playing was good to excellent and always entertaining: the piano accompaniment from Anthony Smith was also excellent; interestingly one performer, Ben Monro, appeared on two instruments, cello and trumpet; those two Ibanez guitars and especially the Satriani were unexpected but interesting; the other instruments were flute, oboe and viola.  So a mix of capable players in preparation for exams.  Great.

Six players on various instruments appeared at Wesley in preparation for their HSC performance exams.

Thrills

I've always thought myself immune from popularity of film music  I was wrong.  NCO just played a concert of film music in the Snow Concert Hall and I was thrilled by the event and enamoured by the music.  Especially the works of John Williams.  Now along with film music, I remain reticent about going to films so I'd seen just a few of these.  First up Star wars suite.  Fabulous, intriguing, inventive, involving, unexpected, by John Williams.  This was exemplary.  Not easy, either, for the syncopations that change all over the place and the bowing and odd intervals and some delightfully delicate tunes too.  Then Lord of the Rings, Two towers, and the Dambusters march.  I remember that film from my childhood, although I see it rather more reticently these days.  "History is written by victors" is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but perhaps not, as he'd be undermining his own place in it.  But the music is a fabulous, driving march and the NCO did a great job.  And it's a big NCO now: ~80 players on stage for this concert in our new venue, the Snow Concert hall at Canberra Grammar School.  The stage was chockers with the orchestra and the venue was almost full with 800+ in the audience.  Sound was great, too, from where I sat.  It's a relatively intimate place for ~1,000 seats and a decent stage, with organ and Steinway so it works.  Then after the interval, the Complete Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean medley, Interstellar suite and How to train your dragon end credits.  Well, some films I have not even heard of, but the music was good to great and the orchestra played up to the occasion with a few costumes and the reception was enraptured.  A great and successful way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

The National Capital Orchestra performed a concert of film music at the Snow Concert hall under Louis Sharpe (conductor).

Which one

It was Ariana so I fully expected a worthy concert, but this was a doozy.  It was entitled Repeat and the audience got to choose works to play on piano or harpsichord, or to choose the order then to vote for a preferred instrument.  So this was a fascinating comparison of the Yamaha C6 and a well renowned Australian-made harpsichord (forgotten the maker).  The works  were from Bach, Beethoven and a modern work by Psathas called Waiting for the aeroplane, played this day on piano and apparently played numerous times by Ariana at the Venice Biennale 2011.  The vote was generally for harpsichord, certainly for Bach Prelude Cmaj BWV846 and his Goldberg variations.  I preferred the piano for the Beethoven (Moonlight sonata) but Ariana observed that it wouldn't have been played on an instrument like the Yamaha and her preference was the harpsichord.  So be it; maybe just habit on my behalf.  But lovely playing and very different sounds and a range from Bach to modern and the audience participation made for a fascinating concert.

Ariana Odermatt (harpsichord, piano) performed at Wesley Music Centre.