Clubs & Venues
Morgan Salon is a unique venue featuring a variety of music curated by the inimitable Morgan Fisher.
A few blocks from the center of Roppongi, on a quieter street, Keystone Club is just the right size club.
Absolute Blue is a lovely club close to Ikebukuro Station, about one minute away from the west exit. That location makes it easy to drop by for a set or two, but you’ll want to stay longer.
An highly unique space, Guzen Gekijo is a community resource, an experimental music venue, and a living room all rolled into one.
The Jazz Union Café is truly an oasis in the heart of Harajuku. This cozy jazz cafe is an ideal space for healing mind and soul.
It is not much bigger than the Apollo that carried men to the Moon, but it sure is much more cozy!
Eagle is one of the longest running jazz kissaten in Tokyo. The cool, sleek interior has been there since 1967. The sound system is spectacular...
Samurai is the most unpretentious, otherworldly space you can imagine, which makes it easy sinking into the great sound system and unique vibe.
DUG is a very well-known place, which is just as it should be. It should be a stop on every jazz fan’s list.
This classic old-school (since 1976) jazz club features the best musicians from Japan. Though it’s housed in a shopping mall-like area, once you get inside, you get inside the heart of jazz in Japan.
Though many jazz lovers head into the very middle of Tokyo or Yokohama for their jazz fix, the jazz clubs outside of the center are often a great delight. Harbor Light is that and then some.
Salt Peanuts is one of the best additions to Ekoda’s vibe. Presenting the best of up and coming jazz musicians, the club focuses on music, pure and simple.
One of the most sleek and elegant clubs in the city, the Boozy Muse is a genuine escape into a fully considered jazz space.
Apple Jump is an easy place to like. Unpretentious in design, its simple, focused and box-like interior is all that is needed.
Giee is a cozy room--literally a room--that happens to showcase great music from across the spectrum of genres every night.
With one of the best acoustic interiors in Tokyo, Una Mas is more of a recording studio than a club. The master, Sawaguchi san, was a sound recording engineer at NHK for years before retiring to set up the club and another recording and mastering facility nearby.
Strings is a lovely little gem of a club nestled into the lively, hip spaces of Kichijoji’s backstreets. It’s a small club, and a bit small, but never feels anything less than warm and friendly. A counter curves around the piano, high tables fill the back,
An intense dynamo of a club, Ko-Ko has expanded from its long-ago spot, Sonoka, in Meguro and the smaller-sized first space, upgrading, enlarging and nice-ning things up bit by bit to the just-right form it is in today.
The wood-lined walls of Jazz Club Klavier form the perfect resonating board for the small-group jazz and intimate atmosphere showcased there. The wood really creates its own superb acoustic setting that make the “live” seem much more alive.
This lovely club is like stepping back into the 60s: curry, Asian beer, warm wood tables, Indian cotton cloths hanging on the walls, a whiff of incense, and a very cool artsy handwritten schedule.
