KULTURA / CULTURE
UNIQUE JAZZ FUSION SOUND IN BELGRADE
Blakey), and my brother and I became interested in jazz. I at- tended a set of DJ Gilles Peterson in London when I was 20 and was shocked that we had similar tastes in music despite living thousands of kilometres apart and having grown up in different cultural milieus. That was the precise moment I de- cided to become a DJ in Japan.” Various types of Japanese music have begun attract- ing attention at an international level in recent years. Apart from obvious quality, why do you think this had happened? “Of course, some DJs discovered that Japanese music is good long ago, but S.N.S./Instagram/Discogs pushed Jap- anese music to international listeners. The focus of Japa- nese music is on the melody, and strong melodies will al- ways find an audience, which is why I’m not surprised by this phenomenon. Japan is also the most popular travel desti- nation at present. And it’s not only music that’s aroused en- thusiasm for my country in people all over the world, but also the success of Japanese writers, film directors and football- ers. I grew up with both Japanese and Western culture, so I’m happy that international audiences are finally recognising the value of our music.” Do you get the impression that jazz is losing impor- tance in today’s music world? “I think jazz must get more involved with fashion, art and films, for it to be less detached as heavy or retro music. We know that our great predecessors, like Miles Davis, were en- gaged in all aspects of art and culture.”
Led by Shuya Okina and Vanessa Freeman as lead vocals, the Kyoto Jazz Massive is this time backed by the powerful sound of the band Echoes Of A New Dawn Orchestra, thus expanding its unique vision from jazz-funk, broken beat to soulful house, cosmic groove and everything in between. The genre-defying project that is Kyoto Jazz Massive, found- ed by brothers Shuya and Yoshi Okino, is finally returning to the European scene after a 15-year break, in order to cele- brate its 30 th birthday with fresh material and a complete- ly new line-up. One of the stops on this mini-tour of Euro- pean jazz clubs will be Belgrade, which has the opportunity to hear this collective live under the scope of the Musicolo- gy Sessions series at the city’s BitefArtCafe club on 29 th No- vember. Ahead of this exciting concert, we took the oppor- tunity to ask Shuya about the music his massive is bringing to our city... How did you get acquainted with jazz and what in- spired you to transform it in such a way? “I was introduced to this music when I was 11 years old, through the Yellow Magic Orchestra. The guest musi- cians were fusion guitarists (Masayoshi Takanaka, Kazumi Watanabe and Yoshiaki Masuo) who were members of the fusion jazz scene. They piqued my interest in Japanese jazz musicians, which enticed me into playing the only jazz re- cord that my father had (A side - Miles Davis, B side - Art
58 | Muzika » Music
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