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Noisy Thoughts

Jazz

8/24/2020

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This is a very dumb idea for a Jazz club in Tokyo(or anywhere else for that matter, including Korea) and obviously a joke. You may not share my sense of humor, but if anyone thinks it's not dumb, then that's even dumber than this dumb page. The fact that I feel the need to iterate that last sentence is quite revealing already.
Jazz is holy ground. No serious practitioners of Jazz in their right minds are thinking about the glory of their nation while they're blowing over the changes of 'Giant Steps'. Jazz is mentally and viscerally challenging work. You have to stay present in the moment or you risk missing a beat or the form. But the best part about it is that it taps into the fundamental and universal mind in each of its practitioner. And that's what's conveyed in their works when successful.
Japanese Jazz musicians, like most any other types of musicians, often express their distaste for politics, simultaneously implying their purist ideals which are often laudable and noble. Yet most of them seem not to hesitate for a second, labelling their greatest players and their works as being 'Japanese Jazz', immediately inciting, injecting and instigating nationalist politics into an otherwise friendly Jazz hang at the bar that happens to be run by a foreigner. So which is it? Say what you mean, mean what you say. Or are you utterly incapable of being straight? And all of this got nothing to do with those great players or their actual music at all. Once again, no one in their right mind engages in Jazz playing in order to bring glory to their nation. But it's the act of calling and projecting onto it the label, 'Japanese Jazz', after the fact, of years of hard work by these musicians engaged in the creative high mind, that brings down Jazz from the status of a universal art form to the level of trash politics. (And of course I'm not calling Japan trash; do not take things out of context, these are very specific sets of erratic and illogical behavior within the very specific community of Jazz in Japan. And 100% of the great host musicians I hire are Japanese currently.) Hey, if you need to boost your own insecure morales by encouraging nationalism amongst each other and instigating yet another small version of an empirical wet dream, do it in your own time and space that's devoid of any foreigners. What, Jazz isn't good enough a medium to build camaraderie, is that it? Or do you just "naturally" feel the need to alienate all foreigners? Often the common sentiment goes something like, 'if you got so much problem with Japan, then get out'. Among many counter arguments that can be made for this truly idiotic puke of a statement, I'll stick to the one most relevant at the moment; if you're so married to nationalism, quit Jazz and get into politics.
Jazz happens to be my business at the moment, quite literally. Don't bring it down to the gutter. It truly speaks volumes on the overall culture that absolutely will not allow its people to see the egregious inappropriateness of antagonizing/alienating the owner at his own venue on the basis of nationality/ethnicity.
Here are some Japanese classical music, or Japanese Mahler(?), Japanese Beethoven(?). Does majority rule, or does every member need to be Japanese? How bout Japanese composer and French performer? Labels are sometimes necessary but once again, get your shit together folks, know when is when.
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And here's  a 'Jewish' film then(?). A horrifyingly depressing, traumatic and of course, in equal parts moving, cinema experience especially because it's based on actual events/people, unless of course you don't believe it. Oh well, to each his own, I guess. What is magically brilliant about this film, is that its plot unfolds largely through the eyes of two Germans(one, the protagonist, the hero, and the other, the villain, a psychopath murderer), instead of taking the victim's perspectives, which would've only functioned as a propaganda intended to vilify the whole race of Germans. And as a result, Spielberg was able to delve deeper and reach wider into all of humanity rather than just the race of his own. That is the unifying and influential power of this film. It has directly or indirectly inspired and spawned some excellent variations over the years such as 'The Reader' as well as one from Germany, 'Downfall'. And of course, one horrifying and equally horrible one from Tarantino, 'Inglourious Basterds'. If you need to make a case for the existence and negative influence of postmodernism in contemporary cinema, Tarantino may be a good starting point.
Anyway, make it a blockbuster night and give 'Schindler's List' another go. 
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    CJ Kim- Owner/Manager at Cafe52.

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