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Big in Japan: A History of Jazz in the Land of the Rising Sun, Part 1
Foreigners may be more intrigued by the possibilities of ‘Japanese jazz’ than Japanese are.
—E. Taylor Atkins
The music market in Japan—second only to the U.S. in terms of revenue—generates more than two-billion dollars in sales annually. Enthusiasts and collectors of jazz recordings had long ago discovered that Japan's robust music scene, and the now virtual accessibility to products have made the country a go-to resource for hard-to-find releases. Among the Japanese pressings of American artists, various retail outlets offer vinyl rarities such as
Oscar Peterson
piano1925 - 2007
Erroll Garner
piano1921 - 1977
Coleman Hawkins
saxophone, tenor1904 - 1969
Teddy Wilson
piano1912 - 1986
Lennie Tristano
piano1919 - 1978
Lester Young
saxophone1909 - 1959
Benny Carter
saxophone, alto1907 - 2003
Milt Hinton
bass, acoustic1910 - 2000
Lionel Hampton
vibraphone1908 - 2002
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
The demand for Japanese market jazz recordings is based on a number of factors. Some Japanese manufactures claim that in the 1970s and 1980s American record labels frequently contracted with pressing companies that used recycled or cheap vinyl to press their records, resulting in poor sound quality. Toshiba—one of three major record manufacturers in 1950s Japan—began producing a number of red vinyl pressings. From the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s these so-called "Everclean" pressings were designed to be less susceptible to the build-up of static electricity and, thus, not as likely to accumulate dust. But the red vinyl discs were reserved for specific recordings, only a small number of which were reissues of American jazz albums. Special consideration for these pressings were also given to the most popular international rock bands of the time -
The Beatles
band / ensemble / orchestra
Pink Floyd
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1964
Early Jazz in Japan
To understand the history of jazz in Japan, it is helpful to first look eighteen-hundred miles south to the Philippines; a country that was occupied by the US and later by Japan, from 1898 until 1946. A nationally famous pianist, Luis Borromeo, was sent as a child from his native island province of the Philippines to study music in the States. In 1915 he was coaxed into an impromptu performance at the San Francisco Pan-Pacific International Exposition, gaining the attention of a promoter. He was signed to a multi-year contract with the Orpheum Theater chain and toured with vaudeville-style stage shows in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. His trio included two Chinese-American singer/dancers and it became the highlight of the Orpheum stage shows. In 1920, Borromeo returned to the Philippines, now billed as "Borromeo Lou," and organized the first Filipino vaudeville company. In Chinese costumes, the trio performed a hybrid style of syncopated music that included jazz elements—introduced to the Philippines through the American military presence—and Asian influences as well. As Borromeo's act grew in popularity, he came to be known as the "King of Jazz" in his native country. During the American occupation of the Philippines, their trading activities with the Japanese grew enormously as did immigration between the two countries. Along with iron, copper and manganese, both counties were exposed to the other's musical cultural.The intermingling of African and Japanese cultures began before Japan had been formally established as a nation. Nubian, Berber, Moor, Copt and Zaghawa peoples from Northern and Central Africa were bringing their cultures—including their musical traditions—to the Asiatic Penninsula as far back as the Middle Ages. In his book The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2000), author Marc Gallicchio discusses the pre-World War II connections that were fostered between some Japanese academics and cultural figures in the African Americans community. The Japanese scholar, Yasuichi Hikida, was educated in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s and had established relationships with a number of prominent African-Americans of the Jazz Age, among them W. E. B. Du Bois, a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. The indirect connection would have provided Hikida a window into the jazz culture of
Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
Billie Holiday
vocals1915 - 1959
Chick Webb
drums1905 - 1939
Louis Armstrong
trumpet and vocals1901 - 1971
The Japanese became aware of American jazz in the late 1920, but more through media like newsreels, recordings and sheet music rather than personal contact. Ocean liners from the West that stopped in Japanese ports often had dance bands but those musicians rarely ventured out onto land other than for the occasional hotel gigs that came their way. In a 2014 A Blog Supreme article, NPR's Patrick Jarenwattananon (How Japan Came To Love Jazz), interviewed E. Taylor Atkins, the author of Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan (Duke University Press, 2001). Atkins suggested that musicians from the Philippines—during its period as a U.S. colony—had developed some level of expertise in mirroring the American jazz players that they were exposed to more frequently than other Asians. The Filipino musicians played venues in a few Japanese and Shanghai locations and served as proxy for American performers. As had been the case in the U.S., jazz was not universally popular in Japan, whose musical history was steeped in the classics, folk music and non-western structures.
Following World War II, a rebuilding Japan embraced jazz to an even greater extent than before and by the 1950s and 1960s it was as popular as in Western Europe, more so depending on specific countries. However, the migration of black American musicians going on in Europe was muted by comparison in Japan. The U.S. occupied Japan from the mid-1940s into the early 1950s providing the opportunity for American musicians to present themselves to the Japanese market. Some did, and as Atkins points out,
Cannonball Adderley
saxophone1928 - 1975
American jazz musicians, particularly top black artists, were migrating to Europe post-WW II, to escape racial discrimination in the U.S.
Don Byas
saxophone, tenor1912 - 1972
Oscar Pettiford
bass1922 - 1960
Clifford Brown
trumpetb.1930
Donald Byrd
trumpet1932 - 2013
James Moody
woodwinds1925 - 2010
Bud Powell
piano1924 - 1966
Tadd Dameron
piano1917 - 1965
Kenny Clarke
drums1914 - 1985
Dexter Gordon
saxophone, tenor1923 - 1990
Tony Scott
clarinet1921 - 2007
Cab Calloway
composer / conductor1907 - 1994
Donald Bailey
drums1933 - 2013
Jimmy Smith
organ, Hammond B31925 - 2005
In Blue Nippon, Atkins points out there was an almost complete obsession among Japanese jazz musicians to mimic the sound of their American contemporaries. The quality of a musician was judged not on his or her ability to improvise or to build cultural bridges, but on the musician's aptitude for impersonation. While this was largely the case in Europe as well, those countries were actively incorporating influences such as regional folk music, polka and gypsy music. It was not atypical to add an accordion or the balalaika to European versions of jazz. Some Japanese jazz musicians began to integrate native or Asian influences by the early 1960s but it was very limited. Much of Japanese jazz in the early 2000s sounds indistinguishable from its Western counterparts.
From the beginning of the American Jazz Age, Japan had staked its own claim to the music even as its musicians transparently copied U.S. artists. The Nitto Jass Band recorded the first Japanese jazz side "Walla Walla" (Nitto Records) in 1925. Soga Maoko and the Columbia Jazz Band (all native Japanese musicians) recorded at least one 78rpm side in 1929. As the band names indicate, these were groups that had been assembled by the record labels and Columbia, RCA and Warner all established Japanese subsidiaries. It would only be in the post-WW II years that Japanese musicians broke out as recognized players.
Pioneers
Louis Armstrong
trumpet and vocals1901 - 1971
Teddy Weatherford
piano1903 - 1941
Clark Terry
trumpet1920 - 2015
From the late 1950s on, Japan turn out an increasing number of native musicians, some of whom received global recognition. Drummer Hideo Shiraki was a rising star on the Tokyo jazz scene of the 1950s and 1960s. His quintet of that period was arguably the most popular in the country. He met
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Terumasa Hino
trumpetb.1942
Composer/arranger, bandleader and pianist
Toshiko Akiyoshi
pianob.1929
Oscar Peterson
piano1925 - 2007
Norman Granz
b.1918
Herb Ellis
guitar1921 - 2010
Ray Brown
bass, acoustic1926 - 2002
J.C. Heard
drums1917 - 1988
Charlie Mariano
saxophone, alto1923 - 2009
Lew Tabackin
saxophone, tenorb.1940
The debut release from the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band was Kogun (RCA, 1974) and like a number of their subsequent releases it followed a specific theme. The album was inspired by the story of a Japanese soldier who was lost in the jungle of Southeast Asia for nearly three decades following WW II. The soldier believed that the war was still being fought. Despite the subject matter, the music itself was firmly rooted in American big band swing style. It was for that very reason that many of Akiyoshi's ensemble releases were only available in the U.S. as imports; major labels felt that the style had passed its prime in the western market. Yet years later, with Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss (True Life Jazz, 2002), some critics felt that the incorporation of Japanese elements (limited, at best) in the big band setting, might be off-putting to American listeners. Still, Hiroshima was well-received and Akiyoshi—nearing the end of a five-year residency at Birdland—had become one of the most recognized talents to come out of Japan. By the mid-1970s Akiyoshi's music began to utilize themes and touches that reflected her heritage. Japanese harmonies and—to a smaller extent—instruments such as the utai, tsugaru and shamisen where infused with the American influences.
Saxophonist
Sadao Watanabe
saxophone, altob.1933
Roy Haynes
drums1926 - 2024
Jack DeJohnette
drumsb.1942
Mel Lewis
drums1929 - 1990
Elvin Jones
drums1927 - 2004
John Scofield
guitarb.1951
Miroslav Vitous
bassb.1947
Phil Woods
saxophone, alto1931 - 2015
Reggie Workman
bassb.1937
Hank Jones
piano1918 - 2010
Atkins makes an important observation regarding the Americanization of jazz in Japan. Stating that ..."foreigners may be more intrigued by the possibilities of 'Japanese jazz' than Japanese are. In the documentary Tokyo Blues, trumpeter Mike Price, a veteran of Akiyoshi-Tabackin orchestra...expresses a desire to incorporate traditional Japanese aesthetic principles into his jazz;" Atkins continues, citing Asian American jazz artists such as John Jang and Francis Wang who have made similar efforts. Nevertheless, in the 1960s Japanese jazz was taking on increased disparagement for its lack of national identity, at the same time that the genre was taking a back seat to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as well as American groups such as The Beach Boys. Japanese rock was quicker to develop home-grown hybrids and so-called J-pop and J-rock bands rode the movement of rock into new wave and synthesizer-pop with groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra and the Southern All Stars. Not only did younger Japanese fans more closely identify with this music but, in a reverse trend, other regions of Southeast Asia began to copy the Japanese styles. But jazz music remained relatively popular throughout this period and experienced a revitalization by the late 1990s. A new breed of Japanese jazz musician is emerging with talents such as guitarist May Inoue, drummer Shun Ishiwaka, trumpeter Shinpei Ruike and bassist Takumi Moriya having made break-out contributions. Big in Japan, Part 2, will look at the life and career of Osaka, Japan native and New York City resident
Eri Yamamoto
pianoRecordings of Interest
Sadao Watanabe
How's Everything (Cherry Red Records, 2008) Watanabe began recording with American jazz musicians early in his career when he and Charlie Mariano released Iberian Waltz (Denon, 1967). By the mid-1970s he was well entrenched in the fusion sub-genre and working with
Harvey Mason
drumsb.1947
Lee Ritenour
guitarb.1952
Michael Brecker
saxophone, tenor1949 - 2007
Steve Gadd
drumsb.1945
George Benson
guitarb.1943
Keyboard player
Richard Tee
keyboards1943 - 1993
Eric Gale
guitar, electric1938 - 1994
Ralph MacDonald
percussion1944 - 2011
Anthony Jackson
bass, electric
Jeff Mironov
guitar
Dave Grusin
pianob.1934
Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin
Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss (True Life Jazz, 2003) Conceptually and musically the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra's Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss is a challenging and thought-provoking experience. Several years before the album was recorded (in a live setting) in 2001, Akiyoshi had received a request from Buddhist monks to compose a memorial to the near obliteration of Hiroshima. Her suite—six tracks bookended by loosely related pieces—was meant as a definitive anti-war statement. And it succeeds on multiple levels.
In a cycle of musical emotions, Akiyoshi takes us from the energy of a large, modern city, to the horror of its atomic bombing in 1945, to the slowly developing hopefulness of rebuilding structures and lives. The primary soloists throughout the album are Akiyoshi and Tabackin with drummer George Kawaguchi and Won Jang-Hyun on Korean flute joining as guests of the large ensemble. Jang-Hyun, in particular, lends some authentic Japanese flavor to an otherwise traditional big band formula. More impactful are the verbal readings from the diaries of Hiroshima survivors. These "Survivor Tales," are taken from a collection titled "Mother's Diaries" and are positioned throughout the second movement of the suite.
Eri Yamamoto photograph courtesy of Dave Kaufman
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