A live show report. May 21, 2017 — a jazz gig at Bar W in Yoyogi, Tokyo.
Contents
The Lineup
I was reunited on stage with two musicians I’ve known since I first got into jazz: guitarist Tsutomu Onogi and vocalist Akiko Konno. That was about seven years prior to this show.
Tsutomu was the first person who ever hired me for a jazz gig. Akiko came to visit when I was studying in New York. Playing with both of them again after so long — I was genuinely fired up going in.
Our schedules rarely line up, so we ended up doing everything — rehearsal, run-through, final tweaks — the same day. Rehearsal started at 4:30 PM and ran practically up to showtime. It was hot. We were tired before we even started.
I don’t usually do much rehearsal before gigs these days, so the process of working things out together as a group — deciding on intros, endings, specific hits — was actually fun. We figured things out through group messaging and then settled it in the room.
The Show
First set: five tunes including “Stella by Starlight,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and some originals by Tsutomu. We started as a guitar-bass duo, then Akiko joined for the second half.
I was nervous at first. We hadn’t played together in years. But once we started, it came back quickly — muscle memory, the familiar way of playing together, the little cues that old collaborators pick up without talking about them.
Second set: four tunes including “I Hear a Rhapsody” and “Street Life.” A session segment was included. By this point the room was warm and I felt like I could play more freely.
After the Show
Seven years ago, I wasn’t thinking about what the music would look like seven years later. And honestly, I can’t picture what it’ll look like seven years from now — or even next year. But seeing the same people still at it, still serious about it, and being able to share a stage with them — there’s something in that I don’t have words for.
I’ve been playing live since high school. That means more than half my life has been spent doing this. I still doubt myself. I still have nights where I think I played terribly. I still get too loose after a good set.
But I want to keep caring about the people I play with and the notes I put down. That’s what I’m trying to hold onto.
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