Know the Difference!

Somehow, lately, I’ve been getting into Japanese jazz, so allow me to help you not make the big mistakes.

For example, Hiromi is a jazz pianist with clear classical influences:

Note to self: There’s a Blue Note in Tokyo? I shall have to add that to my travel plans.

Harumo plays the saxophone, sometimes with Tokyo Groove Jyoshi, but sometimes independently:

Hiroshima is an American band with many members who were Japanese-American or Japanese and who get a lot of play on WSIE:

I have mentioned once or twice before my favorite Hiroshima song is “311”.

If you’re keeping score as I am, know that I own several Hiroshima albums on CD and vinyl and two Hiromi CDs. But I only have the one Tokyo Groove Jyoshi EP upon which Harumo appears–she does not seem to have any albums or EPs of her own available yet.

(Further public service posts explain the differences between Nazes and Misa/Maysa and also Misia and Messa; only two of these are Japanese.)

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2 thoughts on “Know the Difference!

  1. Yoko Kanno is about the only Japanese jazz artist I know, and that’s primarily because of the “Cowboy Bebop” soundtrack she wrote and performed with her band Seatbelts (I think the name is different in Japanese, but “Seatbelts” is how I’ve always seen it). I’ll now have to explore these suggestions; thanks!

  2. You’re welcome. I’ll have to look into Yoko Kanno.

    I’m definitely in the debt of some of the blogs I read for musical selections.

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