Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2011
Call it wisdom, or call it bowing to the inevitable. For this year’s eighth Tokyo Crossover Jazz Festival, DJ and impresario Shuya Okino is shifting his event from an all-nighter at cavernous bayside club Ageha to an evening affair at the posh Ebisu Garden Hall.
“I changed my target to a more mature generation,” explains Okino, who with his brother Yoshihiro forms one-half of famed DJ collective Kyoto Jazz Massive. “After I released Destiny a more adult audience has come to my events. My monthly party at Bulgari Ginza is always busy.”
As for the change of times, Okino notes that people who pay to see live bands prefer early gigs, but promises that there will still be an all-night after-party for hardcore clubbers at his cozy Shibuya disco The Room.
This year’s TCJF features some of the contributors from Destiny, Okino’s surprise hit album from last summer. Among them, large-lunged Baltimore soul singer Navasha Daya will be on hand to perform their dancefloor filler “Still In Love,” while Detroiter Diviniti will belt out her own contributions to the album including “Sun Will Rise.”
Backing them will some of Japan’s better jazzers, like sax player Motoharu from Soil & Pimp Sessions and percussion phenom Takahiro “Matzz” Matsuoka from swingin’ collective Quasimode. But the bill also extends to some new faces.
“Detroit vocalist Paul Randolph will perform at TCJF for the first time, and the event also marks the Japan debut of Dominican Ezel,” Okino explains. “Tokyo DJ Muro joins for his first time as well.”
Okino says that with the selection, he’s exploring the duel identity of club jazz both as “danceable jazz, and dance music with jazz influences.” He says that’s why he decided to book Randolph from the Detroit techno scene, Ezel from the deep house scene and hip-hop DJ Muro.
Prep for the show with Okino’s new compilation album, Tokyo Crossover Night, which features remixes of “Still In Love” along with a heap of tracks by artists slated to appear at the event including Randolph and Okino himself.
Also released to coincide with the event are two new intriguing sets by regular The Room DJ Hiroko Otsuka, a resident at the club’s long-running Champ events who will appear at TCJF.
The Pieces of DIW mixed by Hiroko Otsuka exhumes the back catalog of Disc In The World, the onetime jazz and experimental label run by domestic CD retailer Disk Union. The label was key in introducing Japanese listeners to new avant-garde jazz sounds emerging from North America in the 60s and 70s from artists like the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra, many of whose tracks appear on the record.
The Pieces of Somethin’ Else Mixed by Hiroko Otsuka name-checks the label Somethin’ Else, a Japanese sister label to Blue Note started by parent company EMI in 1988. The imprint was instrumental in debuting the likes of Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Japanese pianist Junko Ohnishi, both of whom appear on the set among other artists who came of age in the ’80s and ’90s.
The Garden Hall, Dec 16 (listing).
