A night of Japanese Jazz

Erin Hansen, Gleaner Writer

When two small-framed Japanese women dressed in traditional Kimono garb stepped onstage at the University of the West Indies' Mona Chapel on Monday night, it seemed an impractical scenario that they would be playing Peter Tosh and Bob Marley songs on flute and piano for the evening.

However, the Embassy of Japan and Japan Foundation managed to organise such a situation with great success and approval from its listeners.

The event, 'An Evening of Japanese Jazz', featured pianist and composer Eri Yamamoto and flutist Yukari performing jazz compositions alongside popular Japanese and Jamaican songs.

Co-performances were given by the great Jamaican saxophonist Dean Fraser, the University Singers and the Kingston College Chapel Choir.

Eri Yamamoto introduced one of her own sunny compositions called Sparkle Song, a piece she developed when inspired by a cloudless day in New York, her present place of residence since she entered New York University's jazz programme in 1995.

Yukari exercised virtuosity as a flutist in her piece For Glenn Gould, a technically challenging piece that showed not only her attention to the works of the Canadian pianist, but her own proficient orchestration.

Dean Fraser joined the two ladies on saxophone for a rendition of Lotus Blossom from American composer and alto saxophonist, David Sanborn.

Fraser took the stage with a confident stride and delivered a performance that proved his mastery at his craft.

The crowd sat at seat's edge while he carried his notes from smooth to blistering, leaping between scales and then finishing with a smile just before he took his last breath for the final bar.

Fraser later revealed to The Gleaner that he had improvised much of the piece. Yukari appended the performance with a solitary, "Wow."

Fraser had equally warm words for the two Japanese musicians whom he had been introduced to a day earlier at a luncheon for the event.

He said that while he'd never heard of them before now, he feels that "they are really fantastic musicians."

Despite the event's title, the content of the show gave more than just jazz. The event was closed with a familial arrangement among the Kingston College Chapel Choir, the University Singers, Dean Fraser, Yukari and Yamamoto on the organ performing Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry.

The performance became a communal rendition when the crowd started to join in, clapping their hands and singing along to the iconic song.

Fraser and Yukari played an improvised duet for the tribute, accenting each other's styles over the chorus line, "Everything's gonna be all right."