Jazz Culture①

Cultivating sensitivity through music: an introduction to jazz as a philosophy

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.

We will delve into the culture and sensibility of jazz from every angle, from slavery to student movements, jazz cafe culture, improvisation and Eastern thought, and its influence on hip hop.

🎶 Features

・The book is written in the form of a conversation between a teacher and a student, making it easy to read and learning at a good pace.

・Quizzes are included, so you learn not just the knowledge but also the ability to think.

-Digging deeper into why a certain sound was made, something that can't be found in chronology or music theory

- An on-site experience that covers real locations, records, and DJ culture

🎻 What you will get from this lesson

・Develop the ability to "think with music" rather than just "listen to music"

・Rediscover the depth and breadth of jazz from both a cultural and life perspective

・A new axis is born in your "ears" and "daily life"

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🎹Table of contents

[JAZZ and History/Society]

JAZZ Before Music: Jazz before it became music

1: It didn't start with sound. It started with soul.

2: For the first time, that sound was called “jazz.”

3. Jazz dances with the times and resonates with ideas.

[JAZZ and Fashion]

Jazz is read through clothing, and fashion is answered through thought.

1. Fight in a suit. Jazz style of resistance against the times

2. Stylist from Saturn: Sun Ra

3: Gardenias in the hair, revolution in the breasts: the struggles of the "jazz women" as told through their outfits

4. Runway improvisation: Fashion's choice of "jazz spirit"

[JAZZ and Music]

1. These men continue to be sampled, even if they aren't remembered.

2. People who changed the history of jazz with their “B-sides.”

0: The aesthetics of the “jazz in-between” who relays the times

1. Listening to the Universe: Between the Pharaoh and Alice

2. When silence becomes a beat: Ahmad Jamal and Bob James' "Designing white space"

3. Shiny Black Soul: Roy Ayers and his friends' soul groove rebel army - dancing philosophy, funk message -

4. Thoughts are put into sound: Between the universe and reality, Sun Ra, Gary Bartz, and Doug Cahn. Myth, society, church... the moment when everything became sound.

5: Dancing Kalu, Praying Mulatu. Another story of jazz given to us by Latin and African artists

[JAZZ and Thought/Religion]

1. Sing to survive, improvise to speak, play to become nothing

2. The current state of spiritual jazz that connects Africa with the modern world

1. Music as a survival tool born out of slavery

2: Music that speaks of "I" and the existence of "individuals" reflected in jazz

3. Jazz meets Eastern philosophy, Zen and the universe

4: African Music and Jazz: The Roots of Afro-Spirituality

5: What lies beyond sound? Can music become a prayer?

[JAZZ and Wellness]

Sound for a harmonious mind, body and space

1: Adjusting the sound. Music as retuning

2: Playing Prayer: Mantras and Alice Coltrane

3: Sound spatial design, wellness and branding

[JAZZ and Spots]

These are spots imbued with memories of jazz.

1: Jazz began in a place where prayer became sound

2: Japan's JAZZ Cultural Heritage - JAZZ Cafes

3. Legendary live shows and the places where jazz ignited

【media】

Reference sound sources and spot introductions

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🎺Overview

[JAZZ and History/Society]

- Explaining the "origins" of jazz from the perspective of thought and society rather than music.

Slavery, mixed culture, the port city of New Orleans - the "crying" and "praying" that existed before becoming music were eventually named "jazz."

In this lesson, we will unravel the story of the time before jazz was established as a genre, from the perspective of social background, race, and ideology.

How does music represent "freedom" and by whom did it shape?

A journey through sound that continues to infuse ideas while changing with the times.

[JAZZ and Fashion]

- The spirit of jazz and the aesthetics of resistance interpreted through fashion.

"Music is not just something you hear with your ears. Sometimes you can see it with your eyes."

In this lesson, we will explore the resistance of the zoot suit, Sun Ra's cosmic philosophy, the struggles of female jazz musicians, and the spirituality of jazz reconstructed by high-end brands through clothing.

"What you wear" is "how you live." Let's take a journey through another history of jazz as reflected in fashion.

[JAZZ and Thought/Religion]

- A soul-shaking lineage of sounds from Santeria to Shabaka

From spirituals during slavery to blues and improvisation, music became a means to seek "freedom" and eventually deepened as it encountered Eastern thought and cosmic spirituality.

In this section, we trace how people who lost their voices turned "music" into a weapon, and unravel the lineage of "silence, prayer, and thought" that continues to this day in jazz.

To listen to sound is to listen to yourself and the world within yourself - jazz leads us to that essence.

[JAZZ and Wellness]

- How sound creates "atmosphere" and "memory"

In this lesson, using spiritual jazz and mantras as clues, we will explore the power of sound to harmonize people and spaces. The mechanism of sound resonates with breathing, shakes emotions, and unconsciously creates a place you want to return to. With examples of BGM consulting by Yurasta, let's feel the possibilities of "space designed by ear" with the body and mind. Music will change from something to listen to to "designing the atmosphere."

[JAZZ and Spots]

- A journey through the sounds, memories and history of each place

In this lesson, we will look at the places where jazz has "sounded". The Prayer Plaza in New Orleans, an underground cafe in Tokyo, a legendary club in New York, a lakeside in Switzerland, and a jazz cafe in Kobe. We will explore the "memories of the atmosphere" that cannot be conveyed through recordings, and take you to places that you can still "go to" even today, but cannot find on Spotify. Music lives on in space.

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, Billie Holiday, Bob James, Brad Mehldau, Buddy Guy, Cal Tjader, Carlos Niño, Chick Corea, Cleo Sol, Delfeayo Marsalis, Don Cherry, Doug Carn, Esperanza Spalding, Ezra Collective, Gary Bartz, Herbie Hancock , Hiromi Uehara , Joe Armon-Jones, John Coltrane, Jon Batiste Junko Onishi Kahil El'Zabar Kamasi Washington Keith Jarrett Kenny Garrett Lee Morgan Leon Thomas Ma Rainey Mahalia Jackson Makaya McCraven Manami Kakudo Mary Lou Williams Masabumi Kikuchi Matthew Halsall Miles Davis Mulatu Astatke Naoya Matsuoka Nala Sinephro Nduduzo Makhathini Nina Nina Simone, Pharoah Sanders, Quincy Jones, Robert Glasper, Roy Ayers , Roy Hargrove, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sadao Watanabe, Shabaka Hutchings, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra, Teruo Nakamura, Terumasa Hino, Weldon Irvine, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, Yuji Ohno, Les McCann , WONK

MEG (Kichijoji) /DUG (Shinjuku) /JBS (Shibuya) /YAMATOYA (Demachiyanagi, Kyoto) /jam jam (Kobe) / LONG WALK COFFEE (Sakaisuji Honmachi, Osaka) / Village Vanguard (New York)

African Jazz Village (Addis Ababa) / Blue Note Tokyo (Omotesando, Tokyo) / Montreux Casino (Montreux, Switzerland) and more…

*All A to Z