As the world economy continues to spiral downward, jazz fans in Japan worry that jazz may be one of the ‘luxuries’ to be sacrificed. Though Japan’s jazz fans are passionate, their enthusiasm may not be enough to keep jazz afloat in the current economic storm. Like jazz scenes elsewhere around the world, Japan’s situation may be reaching a crisis point, or more hopefully, a tipping point from which new directions and conditions will emerge.
According to one independent record company producer in Tokyo, CD sales are already down 30 percent since from the same time last year. However, this producer said his own impression, and that of his artists, is that sales are much lower than that. This downward shift already accounts for the shift to direct downloads, and means a major bite out of incomes. For less-established musicians, who rely on CD sales at their live shows much more than down loads, sales are even more greatly minimized. A few musicians do not even bother to carry their CDs with them to gigs during the week.
However, most Tokyo jazz clubs continue to offer live jazz every night. One club owner in central Tokyo said that customers are fewer since the fall, but this is true for all entertainment. The worry is that they will increasingly be forced to offer jazz as background music for dining and socializing. For musicians who play every night, fewer customers means a lot less take-home pay on a daily basis. What’s more, schedules are now booked months in advance, according to one foreign drummer who has been in Japan for many years. He said that club owners how book as far ahead as possible. One saxophonist complained that he spends most afternoons just trying to schedule his group!
That tightening of schedules means that new groups have a much harder time breaking in to regular monthly gigs. Japanese jazz players used to floating among several different groups now need to stick with their regular partners. With fewer chances to jam with old friends on off-nights or sit in with other groups, the focus is on performing for customers more than exchanging ideas and creating new music. These days, one of the busiest jazz nights of the month is the ‘no-charge night’ of jazz club B Flat in the ritzy Akasaka area of Tokyo.
One A&R man at a record company in Tokyo laments that the jazz business was ill prepared for this recession. In Europe and North America, summer jazz festivals have long helped support and promote the music. But already during the 90s in Japan, the festivals greatly reduced in number and size. And in liberality: promoters now rely on mainstream jazz to bring in fans to the few festivals that remain. Without an ongoing network to promote the most innovative music, “greater marketability” may become the most decisive factor on the business side of jazz. According to other A&R representatives, the entire system of economic and social relations will soon be changing dramatically.
Whether that change means a reduction in freedom or more positive stimulus is hard to say. Jazz musicians have long been good at fugitive strategies to keep the music, and themselves, alive. While the romanticism of suffering is only a myth, jazz is no stranger to difficult conditions. During the Japanese economic bubble years, when clubs were thriving and jazz at its peak of popularity, the image of jazz become a music for middle-aged businessmen drinking whisky, chain smoking and paying with corporate expense accounts.
It took a decade after the bubble burst for Japanese jazz to re-establish its progressive, cutting edge and youthful credentials. The future of Japanese jazz will depend on how well not only musicians, but also fans, promoters, club owners and everyone in the jazz world can improvise on the economic changes now being imposed.
