Japan+Trip

During the beginning of our IAH 211b section I was fortunate enough to be a part of the MSU Jazz Studies Area tour of Japan. MSU Jazz Band I and MSU Octet I were lined up for a tour of Japan, and although I wasn't a part of those bands I was able to tag along. It was an amazing experience, one that I won't forget anytime soon. We were there for two weeks, and played at different high school, universities, and clubs around Japan. The fact that I was one of the few who weren't playing for the tour put me in an intersting position to hear both our MSU bands and the Japanese bands as an audience member. In general the cultural experience and exchange that this trip offered was incredible, and I'm happy to incorporate my expereinces into this course's content.

I'll start with the historic and religious aspect of the Japanese culture we saw. I was able to two temples while in Japan, one in Sumiyoshi and one in Kyoto, and they were amazing.

A group of us found this temple in the middle of a nieghborhood in Sumiyoshi we were wandering through. It was a great find, and cool to see the nieghborhood temple in the middle of a busy urban place.





These kinds of fountains were just inside every temple grounds. The idea is to cleanse the outside of your body (your hands) before you enter the temple to cleanse the inside of your body.



I like this picture since you can see the contrasting architecture of the modern city and the older temple.



Now for the temple in Kyoto. Didn't get to go inside this one either, but this one is a beautiful place. The grounds were very large as well, and it took a long time to reach the temple higher up the mountian. We got to see lots of sights along the way though.



Prayers were written on pieces of paper and tied to racks like this one in every temple.



This is, first of all, not Buddha. This is part of a shrine dedicated to the fallen soldiers of WWII. Unfortunately, I don't remember who this statue is.



The temples at the top of the grounds.



From the temple looking out over the city of Kyoto.

Those are the highlights of the two temples I was able to visit. There's a great movie clip I took of a processional of a traditional Japanese wedding, but I'm having trouble uploading it at the moment. Also, the musical aspects of the trip will be added soon. Until then, this is a great snapshot of the religious and cultural experiences I had on the trip.

Now for the musical portions of the trip. We were, first of all, very well recieved in Japan. The students and audiences loved us and the music we played. In general, Japan is much more into jazz music than Americans are (which is extremely ironic). I was also very surprised by the level of musicianship I found in Japan. Throughout the tour I met many students that studied and played jazz, and all in all thier level of musicianship and musical influences were amazing. Despite the fact that universities in Japan do not have jazz degrees of curriculum, the students we heard at the universities were excellent. Here are a few pictures and thoughts of these experiences.



It was great to get to talk to students both back stage and afterwards at the scheduled parties, which were after many of the shows. I was surprised by how excited they were about the music. Many of the students listened to the same musicians that we did, which include many of the jazz legends like Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, as well as Wynton Marsalis. You could hear many of these influences in their playing as well, meaning that they sounded a little like Sonny Rollins or Miles Davis. This was an encouraging surprise as well, since that is one of the MSU Jazz Department's philosophies. It was great see young students in a completely foriegn country checking out the history (via recordings) of jazz music and talking about it with them.



All of the big bands we heard on the trip were so great. There was one middle school jazz band that could beat many college jazz bands here in the U.S.! One characteristic about the big bands there was that they were all very tight. That is to say, that the lengths of their notes, which might be long, short or accented, were always together across the band. All of the band's hits (accented notes that are played strongly) were clean and very nice, and their groups were well rehearsed and excited about the music. Also the way they phrased different melodies was very good. It seemed that in each band, the trumpet section always stood out as the strongest section, and the trumpet players were all extremely good lead players and/or trumpet section players. The bands were also swinging, except there was something missing from their swing that I couldn't put my finger on. That question was answered later on in the trip.



In this picture the MSU Jazz Band I is battling the New Tide Jazz Orchestra (the jazz band pictured above). This was really fun to see and hear. As mentioned above, when I compared the way MSU swung to the way students did in Japan, there was just something missing in the way Japanese big bands swung. I got my answer to this mystery while I was talking to a student at a party after one of the gigs. He was telling me about a group he played with at different clubs, and that they played mostly Maynard Fergison charts as well as other jazz fusion charts. He said that they did this because its what they could do, and because they couldn't swing. I looked at him questioningly, and he explained, saying that swing was an american thing. It grew in America, and was a part of American culture, and therefore no one in Japan could swing because they weren't American. I was blown away by this notion, because I certianly didn't know how to swing before I came to MSU. It was one of MSU major philosophies and goals to teach students about swing and how to do it. So, the mere conception that they couldn't learn how to swing was stopping them from swinging to their full potential. Many of the bands we heard were swinging, but just lacked a certian attitude in their swing.





Two things that Japanese students weren't lacking were technique (on their instrument) and the blues. I was amazed by the technical proficiency of many soloists in Japan. Many students were so young ( in middle school or high school) and could play and improvise very proficiently for their age and in general as well. The other aspect of "the blues" was very apparent and present in many student's playing. What I mean by the blues is not necessarily the use of the blues scale, or the musical style of the blues, but the blues influenced inflection a musician plays with. Its the feeling and emotion they put into their playing that makes it so good. Its how they play what they play, not what they play. This was present throughout many students in Japan, and showed a sign of real musical maturity. These students, despite a lack of jazz programs at the university level and a lack of encouragement from parents to become musicians, have a real love for jazz music and a drive to learn it.







This was a master class the MSU saxophone section gave to all the japanese saxophone students pictured above at the community center. We gave masterclasses a few different times throughout the tour, both as a big band and as the various big band sections (trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and rhythm section). In this one we talked about doing mouthpiece exercises and long tones to work on their sound, and also on how to listen to and feel swing as well as actually swing (on their instruments).



Some of the students waving good bye to us after we gave a masterclass at their university. We had seen and played with them for a day or two prior to this, and would see some of them again later on the trip in Kyoto at a jam session in a club called The Rag. They were very excited about the music and to interact and exchange ideas with us.

And with this picture, I think its appropriate to end my presentation of the expereinces I had in Japan. It was an incredible thing to experience so much culture, history, jazz music, and people in two short weeks. The cultural exchanges between the jazz students there and ourselves were amazing, and I would gladly keep in contact with them over the years (and will in some cases). To share something you feel so strongly about with people who you can barely communicate in a culture that is foriegn to you is an amazing thing. I would gladly go back and do it again, provided I took some Japanese lessons! The country, culture, people, and musicians of Japan were so amazing to experience and interact with. I'm very happy that I was able to be a part of this trip.