Not even a global pandemic can keep jazz musician Haruka Kikuchi from her trombone
Japanese jazz trombonist Haruka Kikuchi is coping with COVID-19 restrictions by streaming live performances from her home in New Orleans.
Ron Carter: A record-breaking jazz legend returns to Tokyo
"I think people still want to hear the old man playing on an antique,” says Ron Carter. “And as long as they want that idea, I’m kind of available.” Carter, 82, is one of jazz’s most prolific figures. In addition to recording dozens of albums ...
Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, known for work with John Coltrane, dies at 81
The influential jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, known for his work with the John Coltrane quartet, has died, his family announced Friday. He was 81 years old. One of the most revered jazz pianists in history in an elite class with the likes of Herbie Hancock, ...
Free jazz veteran Yosuke Yamashita marks 50 years of his trio's 'reckless' playing
The pianist brings together past members of his Yosuke Yamashita Trio for celebratory Tokyo show.
Hiromi Uehara drops the band and steps out alone
The pianist returns to solo work for her latest album, "Spectrum," 10 years after her last solo release
Quake-hit cafe in Miyagi port city of Kesennuma connects people through jazz
Located in the port city of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, an old jazz cafe hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which has offered coffee and jazz to local residents for more than half a century, is evolving into a venue connecting people through the ...
Charles Lloyd: 'Looking for the one note that can say it all'
Few musicians in any era, in any genre, have had such lengthy and varied creative journeys as saxophonist Charles Lloyd. The longevity of his 60-year career is honorable enough, but the unpredictability of his path and the ebb and flow of his musical ideas ...
The spirit of Satchmo survives in Tokyo
Yoshio Toyama and his wife, Keiko, have spent most of their lives as unofficial musical ambassadors between Japan and the American city of New Orleans. In New Orleans, Toyama, a trumpeter and singer, is known as the "Satchmo of Japan" for his skillful ability to ...
Sadao Watanabe, Japan's godfather of jazz, passes on his wisdom
Before he became one of Japan's best-loved jazz musicians, saxophone player Sadao Watanabe was one of the first Japanese musicians to study in the United States. As a young man he studied at Berklee College of Music, in Boston. "Back then, the journey was long. ...
The jazz cafe offering sounds of the 1960s in a Shinjuku basement
For many Tokyoites, Shinjuku is inextricably linked with the 1960s and '70s and with jazz. "There used to be jazz kissa (cafes) everywhere," says Dug cafe owner and jazz photographer Hozumi Nakadaira. During these decades, the district came to be known as a Mecca ...
Yusuke Ogawa: The man in Japan giving jazz fans their rare record fix
'There are just so many records in Japan," says Yusuke Ogawa, owner of Universounds, a used record shop selling jazz, soul and funk in the Western suburbs of central Tokyo. Now, with the rise of internet sales as well as the increasingly interconnected music ...
Delving deep into the Kanto jazz bar scene
The tourist boom in Japan shows no sign of ending, with the number of visitors only set to increase in the lead up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Whether for bulk shopping, temple visiting or sushi-counter hopping, Tokyo and surrounding neighborhoods have endless ...
