Concert Preview by MICHAEL PRONKO Several nights of jazz is just the thing to clear out the spring allergies, Golden Week hangovers and dread of the rainy season. Here's a roundup of some picks for the week.
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The Tokyo Leaders Big Band provides perhaps the best collective intro to Tokyo's jazz scene and the new-style big band there is. All 16 players are leaders of their own groups, so when they get together at Someday in Kagurazaka once a month, the accumulated talent, experience and ideas form a critical mass that combusts with creative energy. With original charts and a great love of paired-off jamming, they trade fresh licks and coveted new techniques with driving spontaneity.
Yosuke Yamashita schedules shows at Shinjuku Pit Inn when he's not playing bigger halls in New York or Paris. Popular and acclaimed, this pianist's technique astonishes, whether he's digging into standards or kicking out too-nice harmony for postmodern exploration. April 30 with Nao Takeuchi on sax and Tomonao Hara on trumpet should be especially lively.
Haruhiko Takauchi, better known as just Haru, could be called the Pat Metheny of Japan if his style was not so uniquely individual. He plays guitar with a wide-open improvisatory sense that crafts elegant, complex solos that move between edgy and refined with equal ease. His guitar trio will play midweek at Someday and at the ever-popular Sometime in Kichijoji.
At Ochanomizu's Naru, drummer Masahiko Osaka will lay down his frisky, heartfelt rhythms with a revolving cast of his favorite players for six nights. Each of these nights there will be great jazz, especially in Naru's very comfy, sleek interior, but May 5, when Osaka is joined by Tetsuro Kawashima, one of the very best tenor sax players in Tokyo, is perhaps the top pick.