Jazz otaku - the things you learn

When you think of Jazz music what comes to your mind? Take a moment, I’ll wait.

Now some might instantly come up with Miles Davis, or Herbie Hancock. Others might be thinking of Etta James. Some might envision the 1950’s in America, or perhaps Harlem in its heyday. For me all of these and other aspects of jazz come to mind. But I just learned of one aspect that I doubt most would come upon.

Jazz and Japan.

The 2 sound like an odd mix. It almost jars the mind to conceptualize the 2 together. But Jazz coffeeshops have long maintained the connection in Japan.

It is a post about Professor Michael Molasky of the University of Minnesota that provided me the connection that these 2 share. He is also a jazz pianist, and spent a year searching out the jazz coffeehouses. And in them he found a rich history which he shared with an audience at UCLA.

In reading about Prof. Molasky I found out that jazz was first introduced in coffeeshops in 1929. Of course the first such establishment was across from the University of Tokyo. And at the time jazz was not associated with African Americans by the general populace.

Even in the 1950’s when French films incorporated jazz wholesale there remained a separation of the expression and power of jazz and African Americans. But that changed in 1961 when Art Blakey did a tour of Japan. It was the first time multitudes of Japanese were able to see a Black man, let alone connect them to jazz music. Which in a way I find amazing.

I find it hard to understand how jazz could be separated from the artists and musicians that created it. That a music genre could be so isolated from those that created it. Of course there was no cable television, not music videos, so to a degree it is understandable. And when you add in the fact that the cost of audio equipment and foreign music was prohibitive to most Japanese people it make a tinge more sense. Yet for the otaku (roughly geeks or hardcore fans) I would have expected a different take.

Still Prof. Molasky expressed that it was the connection of Art Blakey and jazz that had many Japanese people not only going to the jazz coffeeshops, but also intensely following the Civil Rights Movement. Again this was something I was unaware of. I had no idea that anyone in Japan cared. Not because they were racist or anything of that nature, just because they are so far removed physically and socially.

Of course jazz in Japan was an inspiration, just as it was and is in America today. It was a feature with the Japanese Student Movement, influenced Nobel Prize winner Oe Kensaburo, and provided a living to Haruki Murakami.

All of this were things I had no idea of. I’ve always enjoyed jazz, and knew of its influence in Europe. But I always felt that the biggest impact was just here in the U.S. It seems that I was very wrong, and niaeve.

For me, I find it refreshing to have learned all of this. It’s a bit of humbling, and moreso learning. It makes my appreciation of jazz all the more stronger. And it makes the world just that much more friendly.

And for my readers that have never ventured far from the reheated refuse that is gangsta rap, or the overly commercialized R&B of these days, I suggest you check out jazz. There is more there than you might imagine. Just as I have learned today.