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CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY

Aug 11, 2002

A jazz life to the fullest

By Michael Pronko

It used to be that the jazz life followed a relatively set pattern. Young players joined the bands of older pros, learned what they could, went on to become a leader themselves and, maybe, if they were lucky, got a recording contract. Nowadays, however, jazz players are as likely to get their education...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 7, 2002

Kevin Mahogany: Pride and Joy

By Michael Pronko

Kevin Mahogany's stunning new CD, "Pride and Joy," puts his rich baritone to work on a brand-new source of tunes -- Motown. Even though other jazz vocalists, such as Cassandra Wilson, have reworked everything from Son House to The Monkees into fresh jazz hybrids, why Motown -- with its incredibly well-crafted,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 7, 2002

Sonic Youth: Murray Street

By Jason Jenkins

Jim O'Rourke is on a roll. First, post-rock's poster child released his best solo effort, "Insignificance," late last year, and now he's on two of the best albums of 2002. As well as having produced Wilco's breakthrough album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," O'Rourke has become producer for -- and a member of...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 7, 2002

The Streets: Original Pirate Material

By Philip Brasor

Following hard on the heels of drum 'n' bass, U.K. garage (or two-beat) was already the hippest thing in urban Britain by the time the rest of the world had even heard of it. Critics called it the purest form of dance music since '70s disco, while practitioners made much of its up-from-the-streets credibility,...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 7, 2002

Scientist at Work

By Tom Bojko

The music of trumpeter Frank London could be characterized as a product of "Radical Jewish Culture," a term coined by John Zorn that refers to post-Holocaust generations of Jews discovering on their own terms the meaning of their faith. London has spent the past couple of decades at the ancient intersections...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM

Aug 3, 2002

Solstice weekend under the fog; Camping with the aliens

By Jeff Ogrisseg

I knew it was going to be an interesting weekend the moment my press armband arrived in the mail marked No. 13, though I'm not superstitious enough to turn my back on an event like the Solstice Music Festival.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

Charanga Habanera

By Michael Pronko

It says alot that Charanga Habanera were voted most popular band in Cuba in 1999; there, music is more important than even politics. The group's salsa is not the cheek-to-cheek, swing-around kind familiar to many dancers and listeners, but a rougher, more frenetic style called timba.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

Eddie Palmieri: "La Perfect II"

By Michael Pronko

Once upon a time, in a dance hall called the Palladium, in a city called New York, jazz bands vied with each other in all-night contests to see who could play the hottest, fastest and wildest dance music possible. Among those bands, Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta was one of the most popular. But, with...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

By Philip Brasor

Arto Lindsay's age (49) and bespectacled appearance make him an unlikely sex god, but few musicians fuse carnality and spirituality with such seamless grace. "All my visions crowd down to one bead of sweat," he sings on his new album, "Invoke." Lindsay's voice is soft, knowing, sensuous; attributes that...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE

Jul 31, 2002

Rock 'n' roll is here to stay

By Steve McClure

The silly season -- when the midsummer heat engenders a sort of benign lunacy -- is well and truly upon us. And you can't get much sillier, in the nicest sense of the word, than The Yellow Dogs and The Bunnies, two resolutely retro bands who have recently issued albums whose primitive musicality is more...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 31, 2002

New and improved Pops!

By Dan Grunebaum

How can anyone market one of the world's great orchestras in an era when orchestral music is growing ever less essential to the cultural fabric and the recording industry itself is ailing?

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

Tabla Beat Science: "Live in San Francisco"

By Tom Bojko

On Aug. 12, 2001, Tabla Beat Science, a multinational collective of forward-thinking musicians founded by the tabla player Zakir Hussein and the bass player and producer Bill Laswell, played a free show in the Stern Grove section of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. For many of the 12,000 people who...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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