J JAZZ and Japanese Culture
A unique new book explores Japanese jazz and cultural shift
In recent years, there has been a surge in interest in archive and contemporary music from Japan. Several Japanese record labels now explore electronica, ambient, soul, psych, folk, funk and, of course, jazz.
Since 2018, St Leonards resident, DJ and record collector Tony Higgins, along with his friend Mike Peden from Bournemouth, have worked with the BBE label to reissue the very best and rarest Japanese jazz across a series of compilations and albums under the tag ‘J Jazz’.
Now, to complement those releases, there’s a book that delves deeper into this fascinating and rarefied world. J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz Albums from Japan 1954-1988, presents 500 albums over 400 pages that explore the rise of modern and free jazz in Japan during a period of radical social, political and cultural change.
“Mike and I decided it was best to arrange the albums chronologically and it’s interesting to see the sleeve designs change over those years, reflecting the shift in musical style,” says Tony. “The impact of rock and pop on the jazz scene is increasingly obvious from the late 60s and not just in the music itself – the use of electric guitars and keyboards, and psychedelic effects like phasing, ring modulation and echo became increasingly common – but also in the album art and even the clothes the artists wore.” If there is a figure who best represents that shift, it’s trumpeter and J Jazz icon Terumasa Hino, who provides a foreword to the book.
Although the core of the book is the full-colour gallery of rare record sleeves, it also delivers an in-depth narrative history across an extensive 40,000-word introduction that delves back into the pre-history of jazz in Japan. It also covers the introduction of Western music, and developments in technology, dress, and general cultural mores.
The book also includes interviews with musicians and photographers, record label and artist profiles, a feature on obi strips (all explained in the book!), as well as J Jazz charts from figures such as DJ Gilles Peterson, a longtime friend of author Tony.
J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz Albums from Japan 1954-1988 is published by BBE Music on 21 May.
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