Sax Appeal

Question: What nation that fought against the U.S. in World War II came to embrace jazz—an art form that originated in Black America?

Answer: Japan

If you had to pick a musical style furthest apart from traditional Japanese music, it would have to be American jazz. Yet, if you've ever witnessed a headlining performance from legendary jazz pianists like Toshiko Akiyoshi or Hiromi Uehara, visited a cafe where jazz records are spun all day and night, or read just about anything by author Haruki Murakami, you begin to get a sense that Japan loves jazz. Actually, it’s closer to a national obsession. Where did this passion for such a uniquely American musical genre come from? 

Japan’s first exposure to jazz came from traveling orchestras aboard the great ocean liners of the early 20th century. Wealthy Japanese who could afford passage were entertained by the proto-jazz and foxtrot swings that were popular at the time. This was when Japan was in the throes of the Meiji era and adopting many Western cultural hallmarks into their society. This strange, bewitching style of music soon made its way ashore, and since emerging technology allowed the music to be reproduced without a live band, some jazz standards with Japanese lyrics added began circulating. Soon, Japan’s emerging middle class, who were distancing themselves from traditional sounds of the shamisen and taiko drums, began dancing to songs like Walter Donaldson’s “My Blue Heaven” in the music halls of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe.

Just as jazz was becoming wildly popular in Japanese society, the political turbulence and rise of nationalism in the 1930s slammed on the brakes. Viewing jazz as a symbol of Western decadence, the Japanese government began imposing restrictions on its performance. And when war broke out, the government banned it entirely as “enemy music.”

After the war, Japan surrenders to the allure of jazz music

Jazz returned to Japan in a big way following the country’s defeat in World War II. While the end of the war brought an occupying army, that army all brought their jazz records with them. The postwar years would eventually turn into boom years both for Japan’s economy and for jazz. After a decade of suffering the consequences of imperial rule, ordinary Japanese soon rekindled their love affair with the West—and especially with jazz. While economic prosperity was a distant dream for most Japanese citizens, Japanese musicians were able to secure work in bands at officers’ clubs and dance halls that entertained the occupying troops. Precursors to the jazz cafes that would soon spread through Japan in the 1960s, the venues became places where American and Japanese jazz musicians shared their love of the music and jammed late into the night—and it wasn’t long before the American art form took on a uniquely Japanese character.

Musicians like celebrated pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and saxophonist Sadao Watanabe rose to prominence during this time, especially in the Black officers’ clubs where bebop jazz was the latest rage. Akiyoshi, Watanabe, and others were creating new sounds that would define and differentiate Japanese jazz for decades. There’s a certain irony in how postwar Japan embraced the music of its former enemy—and remade it.

Jazz comes of age in the 1960s

The turbulence that marked the decade of the 1960s wasn’t just confined to the United States. Student protests and anti-government rallies were taking place around the world—including in Japan. In the U.S., while the anti-war movement and social upheaval was inseparable from rock music, jazz musicians were engaging with the Civil Rights Movement, exemplified by Max Roach’s “Freedom Now Suite”; Nina Simone singing her powerful “Mississippi Goddam”; or John Coltrane letting his sax do the talking in “Alabama”, his response to the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

But while jazz was growing in cultural significance throughout the U.S., the musicians themselves—from Blakey and Coltrane to Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis—were consigned to the margins of “polite” society. Because of the color of their skin, they were not welcome to perform in major venues and had to travel long distances to play in dingy basement speakeasies just to pay the bills.

Meanwhile, similar student protests were taking place across Japan—and American jazz music spoke to Japanese youth culture the same way. The music inspired them as they took to the streets to exercise their freedom of speech and enforce societal change. But with no Jim Crow laws, Japan received these American jazz giants with open arms. When Art Blakey and his band played in Japan in 1961, they were so overcome with emotion at how they were welcomed, they wept the entire way home. Shortly before his death, John Coltrane played 17 concerts in Honshu in just four days. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald all brought their iconic music to Japan during this time.

As interest in jazz surged in Japan during the ‘60s, it gave rise to a uniquely Japanese innovation—jazz kissa. Since records were expensive in those days, jazz kissa—derived from the word kissaten, meaning “café”—began springing up across Tokyo and beyond, giving people an opportunity to hear recordings of the newest jazz music. Mostly frequented by students, they were relaxing, dimly-lit places to drink coffee or beer while listening to transcendent jazz melodies from across the Pacific. But they were not exclusively for leisure: jazz kissa also made ideal meeting spots to plan the next protest. In many ways, Japan took Thelonious Monk’s sentiment that “jazz and freedom go hand in hand” quite literally.

James Catchpole, who’s been chronicling the Japanese jazz scene for more than two decades, had this to say about his time in jazz kissa: “Being in these places reminds me that this country loves jazz more than any other country in the world,” he said. “It’s not even close.” But like many business establishments, Japan’s jazz kissa are struggling to survive. In the 1970s, there were some 250 kissa in Tokyo alone. But as owners passed away, or had trouble finding successors, many have played their last Coltrane. Let’s look at one former jazz kissa owner who has never lost his love for American jazz ... 

Haruki Murakami and all that jazz ...

A globally recognized literary icon, Haruki Murakami is one of the world’s most admired—indeed, most beloved—living novelists. Even the most casual reader of his works will pick up his passion for jazz—it makes an appearance in almost all of his novels (cats do, too, but we won’t get into that). In an interview in the New York Times, Murakami said he had his first encounter with jazz in 1964 when he was 15. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers performed in Kobe that year, and he got a ticket for a birthday present. It was the first time he really listened to jazz, he said, and “it bowled me over. I was thunderstruck.”

The experience inspired his early dream, which was not to be a writer, but to open a jazz club. So, in 1974, he and his wife founded a jazz club in Tokyo. Called Peter Cat (after the couple’s pet), they ran the jazu kissa together until 1981—cooking, cleaning, serving drinks, hosting live music, and playing selections from Murakami’s personal collection of 3,000 jazz records deep into the night.

Running the club wasn't easy, and they struggled to pay the bills. But Murakami explained to the New York Times why they stuck it out: "We had records playing constantly, and young musicians performing live jazz on weekends. I kept this up for seven years. Why? For one simple reason: It enabled me to listen to jazz from morning to night."

After the success of his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, Murakami eventually sold Peter Cat to pursue writing full-time. There is still hope for Peter Cat’s return, however, as Murakami has been hinting at opening another jazz club in Aoyama when he retires from writing. It would probably be a good idea, since one of the world’s most prolific album collectors now has more than 10,000 records and counting.

But until Peter Cat’s return, all is not lost for fans of Murakami. In Murakami’s Portrait in Jazz, his book of essays on jazz legends (not yet translated into English), he includes an extended playlist of personal jazz selections. And if you find yourself in Tokyo one day, you can pay a visit to Cafe Rokuigen—a jazu kissa where Murakami readers congregate to read their favorite author’s books while listening to the music that Murakami claims “taught him everything he needed to know to write them.”

A few more fascinating facts about the origins of jazz

• Music theory—Nobody knows for sure where the word “jazz” comes from. The New Orleans Times-Picayune made the first reference to “jas bands” in 1916. Some think this was a reference to the sheer energy and speed of jazz music, and came from an African-American slang term, “jasm,” which means “vim” or “energy.” Others say that because early jazz came from  music played in brothels, it refers to the jasmine perfume popular with the prostitutes in New Orleans’ Storyville red light district.
• The final word on the word—Just before his death in 1983, legendary jazz pianist Eubie Blake cleared up the mystery between “jazz” and “jass” during an interview with National Public Radio: “When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z.’ It wasn't called that. It was spelled 'J-A-S-S.' That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies."
• Band aid—The Original Dixieland Jazz Band started out as the Original Dixieland Jass Band. Tired of pranksters scratching off the letter “J” from their posters, they officially changed their name to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
• That’s just how he rolls—Early jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton, who published jazz’s first sheet music in 1915, lived a rather wild life. He was playing piano in brothels while still a teenager and replaced a front tooth with a diamond. To get extra tips he’d peek at a prostitute and her client through a peephole and time his piano playing with the pace of their amorous activity.
• Who knew?— Listening to jazz activates theta brain waves which are the most highly creative brain waves—the ones that inspire new ideas and provide solutions to problems or challenges. Listening to jazz for 30 minutes also has the same anxiety relieving effect that a massage does.
• It’s wise to improvise—According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, when jazz musicians improvise, the part of their brain that is linked to self-censoring, inhibition, and introspection is turned off, and the area of self-expression is turned on. Listening to jazz music is thought to produce the same results, causing your brain to mimic the pulsating rhythms of the improvisation while in turn stimulating your mind.
• You thought In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was long?—When it was released in 1961, John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” made history as one of the only jazz songs to find major commercial success on the pop charts. In 1966, Coltrane also recorded a live version of his hit in Japan that lasted an hour and featured a 20-minute solo.
• Sounds like a hip-hop feud—An infamous jazz “beef” took place at the 1986 Vancouver Jazz Festival, when an apparently jealous Miles Davis told rising star Wynton Marsalis to “Get the f*** off the stage!”

Ask your Trip Experience Leader where you might seek out some live jazz music on a free evening during Japan’s Cultural Treasures.