Forming a jazz big band in this day and age is a somewhat insane undertaking. Scheduling the right musicians, writing elaborate arrangements and hiring a studio with the right equipment to record 16 players at once are headaches big enough to hold back even the most inspired leader. The bottom line for many jazz musicians in Tokyo's competitive jazz world is that it's easier to find regular gigs playing standards and feel content just to survive.
Junko Moriya, though, has recorded a big band project, not once, but twice. Last month, her second CD, "Points of Departure," was released on Spice of Life Records. For the second time, she gathered 16 of Tokyo's best jazz musicians, wrote new tunes, arranged all the charts, brought in American directors and producers, Don Sickler and Jim Anderson, and patiently guided the entire process from idea to actuality. The results are a stunningly modern recording, which was released last month, with a live concert in Tokyo next week.
Why and how she did all this, instead of the more comfortable option of playing in piano trios or small groups in Tokyo's live-jazz scene warrants some explanation. Last month, after the recorded was completed, Moriya took time over coffee in Shinjuku to talk about her work. Before then, she was so busy she barely had time to say "hello."