The time has come the Walrus said…
Not to talk of sealing wax but rather to wax on about BoPoMoFo’s ‘Claiming Our Oyster’ tour of Japan.
The tour title might at first blush appear to over-state the case a bit but as this was BoPoMoFo’s first sojourn to the Land of the Rising Shun to preach the gospel of the Blues, it could be said that this trip was an historic one and so deserves a grandiose title. We’re talking personal history, here, naturally but every little story is a part of the larger cosmic epic. Om Shanti Om. Cosmic consequences aside for the moment, the trip was an opportunity for the band to play for a tried and true, Blues-knowledgeable audience in Japan and a chance for our resident sons of the Chrysanthemum Throne, Aki and Dafu to strut their stuff before the home crowd.
We headed to Nagoya, Dafu’s home turf on Oct 30 where we played a great little juke-joint called ‘Slow Blues’. http://www.slowblues.com/ The gig was set up by Dafu and had been where Dafu got called to the stage by our good buddy, Shogun of the Blues Guitar, Shun Kikuta, to sit in on a couple of tunes. This immediately established some serious cred for our boy with his homies, as you can imagine. Now, here we were putting his cred on the line. As the place started to fill up on this Thursday evening, we could see our own expectations mirrored in the demeanor of the Slow Blues staff and clientele.
No brag, but we did not disappoint.
The opener was a sweet duo called ‘Red Dirt Boogie Sisters’ who picked some very tasty country Blues and sang tantalizing duets in clear young voices. They’ve really got it going on and are as charming in their innocence as they are dedicated to their craft. Check ‘em out if you get the chance.
BoPoMoFo took the stage and broke forth with our trusted opener, Jimmy Reed’s ‘Baby, What You Want Me to Do?’- our guaranteed good ju-ju tune. It never fails to set the tone and the tempo for a night of fun. Without going song by song, the energy generated in Slow Blues that night could have blown out the walls of Bob’s Country Bunker. Walking in, we’d been an unknown commodity; hired on the strength of Dafu’s credibility with Shun. Walking out after the second set, we had made ourselves known as an electric Blues band of passion and quality.
This was no time to get cocky, though. We had a jazz festival and two more club dates to play in front of audiences that Aki and Dafu had confided and warned would be much more critical of our performances than the folks at Slow Blues.
On All Hallows E’en, we bullet-trained our way from Nagoya to Aki’s old stomping grounds, Utsunomiya, a city of over half a million, about 100 miles from Tokyo. Utsunomiya is also the hometown of the Bluesman who has become our patron saint in Japan, Shunsuke-san. We were to meet up with Shun later that day at the BeatClub, a live-house that also served as a recording studio.
That evening Shun performed with some traditional Japanese musicians playing the Shamisen (三味線) – a three-string banjo, the shakuhachi (尺八) - vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation, various percussion instruments and a vocalist. The performance was, in a phrase, transcendently ethereal. Costumed in formal traditional court dress, the trio of classical performers was stunning in appearance and mesmerizing in their performance. (The shamisen is an exquisitely hand-crafted instrument that is played with a plectrum that looks like a windshield ice-scraper made from tortoise shell. It would be best, for the sake of feline-lovers, to forgo disclosure of the composition of the resonating head of the shamisen’s frame. Poor kitty.)
Adding a modern, solid-body electric guitar to this ensemble was an anomalous marvel unto itself for it worked beautifully. Shun and each of the brilliant performers that evening flawlessly integrated the sound of the pentatonic Blues scale, bent notes and all, in to a wonderful musical mélange.
Our cross-cultural experiences continued the next day when Aki’s mom opened her home most hospitably to us, setting a very delicious spread of sushi, sashimi and assorted other traditional Japanese comestibles. This was a delightful experience for all of us; most especially for those of us who had never before had the honor and pleasure of visiting a Japanese home. We ate and drank and drank and ate for hours, enjoying every minute.
Sunday, Nov 2nd was our center-piece gig; the one around which our tour had been built by Aki and Dafu. The Miya Jazz Inn, a long well-established festival hosted by the city of Utsunomiya that features great players from all over Japan. http://www.utsunomiyamusic.jp/jazz/index.html Aki had finagled this gig as a hometown boy and we were truly psyched to show the folks what we had to offer in the way of tried and true Chicago-style Blues. Although we weren’t on the main stage, the energy of our music drew a very substantial crowd of young and old music fans dancing, clapping and feeling the good times roll. (We were told later that we drew the largest crowd ever for that venue. )
One venerable senior patiently waited until we’d stowed our gear to greet us with deep respectful bows of gratitude, touching his heart with tears in his eyes. When presented with a BoPoMoFo name card, he held it as if it were a temple offering and repeated his deep bows. Here was a moment to treasure; one that epitomized the universal language of music and the power of the Blues.
After reflecting briefly on the emotionally moving scene, we headed over to the main stage to hear Shun, who entranced the capacity crowd with his most exquisitely artistic guitar-work, mixing jazz, Blues and rock. Shun shows himself as a master whenever he picks up a guitar, not only as a soloist but also as an accompanist. Then, his skills as a rhythm guitarist serve to elevate and enhance the performance of the soloist whoever that may be. Possessing this tandem of talents, brought to full fruit by discipline and dedication, is what make Shun such a remarkable guitarist.
Since the BeatClub is a working recording studio, we took the opportunity to book a couple of hours to lay down some basic tracks on Monday, the 3rd of November. We chose two original numbers; first was ‘Her Name Was Ruth’ penned by Klaus ‘Mr Fixer’ Tseng – a song that is always requested at our club gigs in Taipei. We also laid down a tune written by DCR, ‘Late Night Drive’, the first instrumental we’ve ever recorded, and Junior Wells’ ‘Messing with the Kid’. ‘Messing’ is very special to us as it was taught to us by Shun who had learned it himself from the late, great master of Blues harp, the man who wrote the song. To us, this was another instance of the Blues torch being passed along; from Junior to Shun to us. To make it even more poignant, Shun sat in on the session and ripped off a beautiful solo.
That night was our turn to take the stage as performers at BeatClub. http://www.beatclub.jp/ We were the opening band for Shun and he would do us the honor of joining us for a couple of tunes at the end of our set. As good as all this was for us, our portion of good luck was enhanced by the fact that Shun had arranged for a professional video crew to tape his shows at the BeatClub with 5 remote-control cameras. As a result, they also taped our set from start to finish. This thrilled us to no end, because we’d also have a choice digital document of our gig at BeatClub. (We’ll get that posted online soon.)
The house was packed once again with Shun fans and fellow musicians curious about hearing a Blues band from Taiwan. Also in attendance were members of Aki’s family including his lovely mom, who had never seen him perform before. They were in for a treat as Aki, our ‘Flame’, burned a bright acetylene blue all night, inspired. Our set was a mix of standard Blues and originals, showcasing all the styles of Blues in our repertoire. The SRO crowd moved and grooved and ate it up with gusto. Aki’s mom continued in her most gracious efforts to make us feel at home in her country by presenting us with flowers and gifts after our set, making us really feel like VIPs.
Tuesday was a scheduled day off and most of us chose to chill while Aki and Dafu took a sight-seeing trip to Nikko National Park, site of Japan's most lavishly decorated shrine complex, the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate as well as beautiful autumn foliage. As sorry as we were to miss the gorgeous sights, the gaijin members of the band felt the need to rest up for the last leg of our expedition – Tokyo.
How Aki was able to get BoPoMoFo booked at Jirokichi, Tokyo’s oldest and most respected Blues club is a bit of a mystery. http://www.jirokichi.net/ Certainly, our long association with Shun was a feather in our cap but Jirokichi is a place where some of the greats of modern Blues have played; Sugar Blue, Eddy Clearwater, Big Time Sarah, Billy Branch and Lonnie Brooks to mention but a few of the autographs seen on the walls of the club.
The disconcerting query, ‘Were we out of our league, here?’ undoubtedly ran through all of our minds, though it was thankfully never given voice. Jirokichi was a place where we’d better bring our ‘A’ game, mos’ def’. With the pressure on and the room filling up with Tokyo’s Blues cognoscenti, we fired up ‘Baby, What You Want Me to Do?’ and proceeded to put the place into over-drive. The dragon was charmed by our music and the owners and patrons of the club warmed to us as a bona fide Blues band worthy of being asked for a return engagement. Hoo-Hah!
The year before, BoPoMoFo had played BB King’s Blues Club on Beale Street in Memphis as part of the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge. We’d held our own amongst the hi-caliber competition there, finishing respectably in the middle of the pack. Eighteen months later, we knew we’d truly come into our own as a Blues band, judging from the response of the very discerning, very knowledgeable and highly critical audiences in Japan. There’s always more to learn, playing music; it’s a never-ending quest. BoPoMoFo’s brief experience in Japan showed us that we had come a long way from our Memphis shows. We had arrived at a new standard of professional performance. As Dafu so succinctly put it, ‘We exceeded all expectations.’
Amen to that, brother. BoPoMoFo had claimed our oyster, pried it open and found a pearl – the spirited appreciation of our brand of the Blues by the fans in Japan. That is a precious gift, indeed.
Arigato-gozaimas.
