Tokyo is a city filled with secret jazz fanatics. Theres always a chance that the non-descript, suited salaryman sitting next to you on that train has a room in his apartment thats packed to the ceiling with old Miles Davis and John Coltrane vinyl LPs.
To cater to this demand, jazz clubs, coffee shops and bars are scattered across the city like dandelions. The Blue Note Tokyo jazz club, an offshoot of its New York City counterpart, is the reigning grande dame of the scene here.
So it came as something as a surprise when the entrenched Blue Note hosted a performance recently of winners picked from a YouTube contest. Last November, musicians uploaded their performances on YouTube and 27,000 jazz buffs in Japan voted on their favorite set. Call it the democratization of jazz in Japan.
To cater to this demand, jazz clubs, coffee shops and bars are scattered across the city like dandelions. The Blue Note Tokyo jazz club, an offshoot of its New York City counterpart, is the reigning grande dame of the scene here.
So it came as something as a surprise when the entrenched Blue Note hosted a performance recently of winners picked from a YouTube contest. Last November, musicians uploaded their performances on YouTube and 27,000 jazz buffs in Japan voted on their favorite set. Call it the democratization of jazz in Japan.
