Jazz Culture in Japan

Japan and JAZZ — Another history of jazz nurtured by "listening" to music

It's not just a music history, nor is it just a disc guide.

This is a "jazz journey" that passes through the soul, society and space.

Jazz is not simply a musical genre, but a culture, and is an educational material for the senses that conveys the ideas of the times, the memories of nations, and the atmosphere of cities.

Jazz, which began to be played in occupying forces' clubs, eventually took root as a base for student movements, the roaring sounds of coffee shops, and the record shelves of back alleys.

We will trace how jazz was accepted and translated in Japan, and how it became a unique culture.

An era when the idea of ​​"listening without talking", obsession with sound, and record collecting became a philosophy.

While jazz was an imported music, it was also reinterpreted as "music that sounds like Japanese."

We will explore the appeal of "Japanese Jazz," which has influenced anime and literature and continues to be reissued today, through the voices of real-life locations and people.

🎶 Features

- The teacher-student conversation format makes it easy to understand the social and cultural background of jazz

- Content that closely follows the actual scene, introducing real coffee shops, live music venues, and even DJ culture

- Focus on important Japanese figures such as Masaaki Kikuchi, Yuji Ohno, and Ryuichi Sakamoto

・Analyzing how jazz connects anime with the world as a "language that needs no translation"

-Quizzes are included, so you can deepen your understanding as a "thinking" exercise rather than just reading.

🎻 What you will get from this lesson

・Understand why jazz has taken root as an "ideology" in Japanese society

・Understand the unique jazz culture of Japan, including its relationship with jazz cafes and student movements

・Foster intellectual and emotional interest in jazz culture outside of Tokyo (Kansai, regional cities)

・You can experience the moment when music surpasses "production" through anime.

・Understand the resonance between jazz improvisation and anime direction

🎹Table of contents

[Japanese Jazz and History]

The social history of jazz in Japan and its current local status.

1. Why jazz started to play in Japan and its rebellious roots

2. A space where "listening in silence" becomes a way of thinking: The cultural history of jazz cafes

3. Kansai jazz scene and archive culture

4. Legendary live music spots and memorable sounds

Bonus | Reissues and rediscoveries. Japanese Jazz is playing now.

[Japanese Jazz and Anime]

The world was captivated by the Japanese anime and jazz sessions. Anime born from jazz

1. A monumental combination of jazz and anime: the revolution known as "Cowboy Bebop"

2. Suits, Smoke and Swing: Lupin the Third and the Sexiness of Lounge Jazz

3. A live show called "BLUE GIANT." When anime becomes a stage.

4. The "Lazarus" session is a prayer to ring out the future.

【media】

Reference sound sources and spot introductions

🎺Overview

[Japanese Jazz and History]

The social history of jazz in Japan and its current local status.

After the war, jazz came to Japan along with the occupying army culture, and was eventually "translated" into the passion of the student movement, the silence of jazz cafes, and the real scene rooted in the countryside. In this lesson, we will trace the unique Japanese "listening culture" and the ideological deepening of jazz through the cafes, records, and reissue boom. Japan is a country where the act of listening in silence becomes a culture. We will unravel the landscape where music becomes a way of life through places and memories.

[Japanese Jazz and Anime]

The world was captivated by the Japanese anime and jazz sessions. Anime born from jazz

In Japanese anime, there are moments when the screen hits a groove.
It is not the story or the drawings that drive the work, but the "sound". In this lesson, we will delve deeper into why jazz, which is improvised music, resonates with structured anime through masterpieces such as "Cowboy Bebop", "Lupin the Third", "Blue Giant", and "Lazarus". The "pause" of jazz and the direction of anime. At the moment when sound and pictures intersect, ideas and culture appear.

Featuring not only jazz artists from across the ages, but also cultural figures and intellectuals who have been influenced by jazz.

Introducing a new music teaching material that covers all aspects of jazz culture.

RESPECT FOR:
Ahmad Jamal, Alice Coltrane, Bill Evans, Bonobo, Doug Carn, Floating Points, Gary Bartz, Haruki Murakami, Herbie Hancock, Hiromi Uehara, Kamasi Washington, Masabumi Kikuchi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Shinichiro Watanabe, Shun Ishiwaka, Tomoaki Baba, Terumasa Hino, Yuji Ohno, Yoko Kanno, Yosuke Yamashita, WONK, Kaoru Abe, Akira Sakata (Akira Sakata)

ALWAYS (Umeda, Osaka) Blue Note Tokyo (Omotesando, Tokyo) DUG (Shinjuku) LONG WALK COFFEE (Sakaisuji Honmachi, Osaka) Jazz Flash (Niigata) Jazz Inn LOVELY (Nagoya) Jazz Spot J (Shinjuku) JBS (Shibuya) jam jam (Kobe) MEG (Kichijoji) Peter Cat (Peter Cat/Kokubunji) Pit Inn (Shinjuku) YAMATOYA (Demachiyanagi, Kyoto) Swing/Suiing (Kumamoto) Yacht (Shinjuku) Kiyo (Shinjuku) Mokuba (Shinjuku) Yokohama Jazz Promenade (Yokohama) Nakasu Jazz (Fukuoka) Okayama Lunes Hall (Okayama)