Arturo's Debut
in Greenwich Village.
I can't depict well but this Italian pizza place has a good old NY vibes
which I don't know really. (It's my imagination.)
They have a grand piano in the bar counter and they have
a live jazz music entertainment almost every night.
A veteran pianist Harry Whitaker usually plays here but he couldn't make it so I got a call. The band was Jimmy(Voc), Pat(bass) and Franky(drums). They're all probably in their 50's. I was the youngest one in the group. It was my first time playing at this joint.
There were many singers who came down and sat in.
Like Japanese eat sushi and Italian eat pizza,
American singers sang American old songs.
I must confess I, a Tokyo-born pianist,learned those standard songs from the chord changes.Not from the lyrics.
Hearing they sing, I was like, Oh, they sing a song.
I need to learn words. It must be rude to
accompany singers by playing chord changes not really understanding what they sing about.
There are other issues.
It's about my niche.
Last couple years, I had chance to perform
at some of big venues or festival in foreign countries
through SOMI or other artist's group.
That made me more ambitious like
I want TORU DODO's music to conquer the world
like Napoleon did.
But when I play at places like Arturo's which could be
a symbol of NY local jazz scene, singers acclaim my
accompaniment, I feel like I don't have anything against it.
I don't dislike this situation at all.
I know I just do my best on any gigs
wherever it is, whatever it is. But sometimes I'm wondering what is my goal.
It could be simple that the thing is just about a pianist plays piano,
Like Japanese eat sushi, Italian eat pizza,
and American sing American standards.
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Japan's loneliness
Myspace technically made people all over world be friends, under one condition.
You have to understand English.
If you write your page in Japanese, your chance to make friends are limited. Your friends would be Japanese or some people who can read Japanese.If you write it in French, you could be friends with people in some part of Canada,some part of south America, some part of Caribean, Africa or South Asia. If you write it in Spanish, you could connected to people in most of south America. But if you write in Japanese,you have a very slim chance to win in the How -many -friends- can-you- make competition.
I'm making music without using words. I believe instrumental music can be universal and have a chance to be loved by people all over the world.Trying to spread my music by internet, however, I confront this reality that 19th Century's Imperialism still rules in this cyber world.
If Japan could colonized most of countries in the world in the past, there would be more chance for Japanese musicians to tour all over the world.It would be easy to negotiate with club owners, MCing on the stage....Don't get me wrong.I'd never support Imperialism and I'm deeply sorry about the tragedy that that countries got colonized by some other army- strong country.
But sometimes I 'm a bit jealousy when I see South American musicians do tours all over the south American countries or even in Spain. Look at American musicians! They can go almost anywhere besides some Arab countries they still haven't conquer for last 4 years or so.
I'm just pondering on the Country of Japan's loneliness and a huge challenge Japanese musicians have to deal with in this 21st century's globalization and why my CD is not selling like Madonna ,,,,while I'm checking myspace.
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