066: 銀界

Jazz Appreciation Month – I like the tune of that! I’ve been a jazz dj for 5 years now, mostly on @wtjuradio where I co-host an avant-garde jazz show “Point Of Departure” with buddy @adbuiemoltz . This week I’m also launching a new podcast in mandarin that does a record-by-record review of Blue Note 1500 series and more. I’m very fortunate to get to travel and catch lots of live jazz actions since moving to US. I even took my English name “Freddie” due to all the goods the Freds has done in jazz – Hubbard, Redd, Roach, Waits, Hopkins, Jackson… (what a stellar sextet this would be, btw!) I guess it’s safe to say that jazz has completely changed the way I listen and think. For that, I always feel I owe jazz so much. If there’s one more thing left for me to do, it better be sharing good jazz music!

While jazz is considered an American art form, especially a crucial part of the black experience in this country, it did find its way to almost every corner of the world. Being a powerful economy, Japan started as an important overseas market for American jazz since the early days, and quickly embraced jazz to an extent that many own cultures were developed here: jazz kissa, imports and reissues, cutting-edge studios and hi-fi equipments… It even became a haven for many artists after jazz’s heyday was gone and they couldn’t find gigs in their backyard. Above that, also what we are really looking into today, is the exciting domestic Japanese Jazz scene whose charm and mystery is gaining world attention greater than ever. So this April, Banji Kaicho is all for jazz. I’m using my visual instinct to program four shows for you around four colors. Coming up this afternoon is the first volume「銀界 = Silver World」, named after Hozan Yamamoto’s legendary LP in 1971. Join me 1pm EDT on WRIR LP 97.3FM Richmond and wrir.org to kick off our grand celebration of Japanese Jazz!

Photo: Christie’s