Description
Book SynopsisJapan's jazz community - both musicians and audience - has been begrudgingly recognised for its talent, knowledge, and level of appreciation. This title shows how, strangely, Japan's own attitude toward jazz is founded on this same ambivalence about its authenticity. It explores the true and legitimate nature of Japanese jazz.
Trade Review“
Blue Nippon focuses on jazz in Japan but is actually much more far-reaching. It reminds me of The Modern Jazz Quartet—scholarly yet swingin’!”—Phil Morrison, Jazz Bassist and Composer
“This is a powerful gem of a book. Atkins’s mixing of voices is wonderful and his scholarship impressive. Moreover, his complex argument is communicated in language that is straightforward, engaging, and compelling.”—Christine Yano, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prelude: Plenty Plenty Soul
1. The Japanese Jazz Artist and the Authenticity Complex
2. The Soundtrack of Modern Life: Japan’s Jazz Revolution
3. Talkin’ Jazz: Music, Modernism, and Interwar Japan’s Culture Wars
4. “Jazz for the Country’s Sake”: Toward a New Cultural Order in Wartime Japan
5. Bop, Funk, Junk, and That Old Democracy Boogie: The Jazz Tribes of Postwar Japan
6. Our Thing: Defining “Japanese Jazz”
Postlude: J-Jazz and the Fin de Siecle Blues
Notes
References
Discography
Index
