For Tom Bojko's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
The Sept. 18 worldwide release of "Suimou Tsunenimasu (A History of DJ Krush)," DJ Krush's three-DVD retrospective, certainly gives fans quite a bit to chew on. Stretching back to the mid-1990s, when the turntablist/producer Krush (real name Hideaki Ishii) first toured overseas, this documentary ...
At the intersection of North Moore Street and Broadway in downtown Manhattan is No Moore, a bar favored by well-heeled young professionals. The walls are exposed brick, the wooden floor is comfortably worn and, in the daytime, sunlight gilds the space through floor-to-ceiling windows. ...
For six nights this week six different combinations of Japanese musicians will gather with bassist Bill Laswell and saxophonist John Zorn at the Pit Inn in Shinjuku. Among those onstage will be drummers Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro of Rovo, guitarist ...
Sierra Leone might be most closely associated with blood diamonds and gruesome images of civil war, but it is also the home of palm wine music, a happy, bubbling style of guitar picking. Palm wine music, or maringa, as it's known inside the country, ...
Soul Jazz Records has issued a couple dozen outstanding compilations of unusual music ranging from New York punk-funk and Philadelphia soul-jazz to Yoruba music and Haitian voodoo drumming. Particularly great are their releases of both vintage and modern Jamaican music, of which "Joe Gibbs ...
When the Rev. Charlie Jackson was a boy, he played sacred music on Sundays and blues the rest of the week. While Jackson himself saw no irony in this, his mother had little appreciation for her son playing electric guitar on both sides of ...
Summer might be the time for outdoor music festivals in scenic locales, but, then again, some of us prefer air-conditioning, a bar within easy reach and a taxi home. So, thank goodness there's a couple of festivals in Tokyo, too. Inspired by last summer's success, ...
"I had come up with the idea of adapting motifs from 'Le Sacre du Printemps' for a series of improvisations," says Burnt Sugar's Greg Tate. "Given how many sick bass lines there are in his writing, Stravinsky makes perfect sense for a band that ...
The booking policies of club owners have long had an influence on music. Generally speaking, this influence has not exactly been a nurturing one as those with a financial stake in a venue prefer safe bets to adventurous outings. As such, musicians, especially young ...
In 1959-1960, three albums crossed boundaries in three different ways and sent jazz reeling. John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" packed so many chords into its explosive tunes that it forced be-bop to an abrupt harmonic conclusion. Meanwhile, Ornette Coleman's melodic inventiveness on "The Shape of ...
