I recovered the guileless purity of my initial infatuation with jazz in Japan this month. As a scratchy copy of Phineas Newborn Jr.’s 1961 album A World of Piano! played at a jazz kissa in Kyoto, I focused on the music without the intrusion of a single analytic thought.
Unconcerned about Newborn’s legacy, the contrast between the playing of Philly Joe Jones and Louis Hayes or the possible influence of the recording on musicians back home in Kansas City, I allowed the forty-minute album unfiltered access to my soul.
It felt so good.
Conversely, attending a gig by a piano trio led by Riyoko Takagi was stressful. After waiting on the stairs of the sold-out Tokyo basement club Naru for thirty minutes, I was allowed to stand at the back of the venue.
Fifty patrons focused on the Takagi original “Cool Swing” and standards including “Moanin’” and “Manhã de Carnaval” with frightening intensity. I paid the equivalent of $40 for cover and a one-drink minimum for the bucket-list experience.
I also encountered jazz in unexpected places during my first trip to Japan. Frothy J-pop is clearly the dominant genre, but classic jazz played at many of the establishments I frequented.
Tokyo’s massive Tower Records complex has a solid jazz section. I found the Count Basie album pictured above while cratedigging at a department store. And when I encountered an antiques dealer at a flea market in Ueno Park playing Fletcher Henderson recordings, Japan suddenly felt like my second home.