Jazz taxi

Jazz, swing, boogie-woogie was the music of the US occupation of Japan after World War II. Its sound and attitude blasted and seduced its way into the fabric of a defeated society that was both fiercely proud and deeply ashamed, its people physically and mentally exhausted and hungry. The spontaneity and joy that was jazz wiped the slate clean. Think of the scenes in Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru where the hero first tastes freedom and new life in the underworld of jazz joints, dance floors and striptease. Or watch Shizuko Kazagi cut loose with Tokyo Boogie in 1947.

It isn't surprising that the Japanese stars of that era--Frank Nagai, Yujiro Ishihara, Hibari Misora--took the plunge and recorded the jazz standards in the original English. It was an act of homage, but there was a pride, in artist and listener alike, that they could take on and equal the masters at their own game.  

Tokyo skyline with Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower (Photo: Gussisaurio, Wikimedia Commons)

Toshiyuki Anzai, a Tokyo taxi driver, grew up during the postwar occupation and the music stuck. Last Saturday night I was his paying guest as he drove us around the glittering Tokyo superimposed on the ruins of World War II, to an eclectic musical accompaniment that included a generous helping of 50s Japanese jazz. Anzai is proud of his city and clearly relished showing it off with an apt soundtrack. We took in the high and low city, the waterfront and of course Tokyo Tower, that culminating statement that postwar Japan had come of age and was back on the world stage.
 
As the ride was ending, I requested Hibari Misora's Stardust again. Jazz standards like Stardust were only familiar melodies to me, but listening to Misora I realized that of course they are about something, and of course it's love, in this case with the ache of nostalgia.

And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago....
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by

As she sang, we happened to be passing behind Hibiya Park. It's one of the handful of places in Tokyo with corners that retain a flavor of the immediate postwar years. The dim park lights and shifting shadows in the trees added one more sweetly painful layer to the timeworn melody and lyrics.
 
Japan's love affair with jazz is woven into its modern resurgence. Anzai is of the last generation to live through the transformation. His jazz taxi cruise, with its cityscapes and the music of the years gone by, keeps the bittersweet memories alive. 

--Julian
This post is dedicated to Corky Alexander and Donald Richie.

A 90-minute jazz taxi ride for two costs 13,500 yen, plus 1,500 for champagne should you be celebrating. Request your music or leave it to driver's choice. jazztaxianzai(atmark)gmail.com  Write in Japanese, but Anzai will do his best to cope with English emails.

Comments

[Only a Blockhead]

[いいですね] It sounds like you had a wonderful experience.  You might want to follow it up with a book on my shelf called "Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan."  It's a fascinating look at the history of the form in this country, beginning with the prewar years and extending (almost) to the present.  I reviewed it for the Asahi back before they decided books were, like, so twentieth century.  Unfortunately all traces of the piece have disappeared from the world on-line. 

One of the more interesting arguments he makes (as I recall) is that it was actually during the war that Japanese jazz had the greatest potential to do something new as, for obvious reasons, it wasn't a good idea to follow the Americans too closely in those days.

Let me know if you're interested in borrowing it, or, if you want the short version, filtered through my jaundiced eye, I'll try to dig up a copy of the review.

[Only a Blockhead]

Both, please! (The book, and your review if you can find it.) I'd like to learn more. Many thanks, David.
--Julian