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 and manipulator of electronics Otomo Yoshihide, pianist Yosuke Yamashita and, on Thursday night, a rare appearance by the legendary electric trumpet player Toshinori Kondo.
Laswell and Zorn have been playing in Japan since the early 1980s, but their relationship with Kondo dates back to 1978, when they encountered him, horn in hand, prowling the music scene in New York City.
"I left Japan because I wanted to play with international musicians. Very simple," recalls the gruff-sounding Kondo. "Other Japanese musicians -- Sadao Watanabe, Terumasa Hino -- these guys also had been in the States. But the difference between those Japanese jazz musicians and me was I didn't want to copy jazz. I wanted to play my own music."