Jam Session at the Strange Library

The Waseda International House of Literature (The Haruki Murakami Library)
July 30, 2025

Jason Moran—piano
Roland Kelts—reading
Motoyuki Shibata—reading

Haruki Murakami might be one of the most famous lovers of jazz. He’s certainly Japan’s most internationally well-known author, one who has long drawn from the deep well of jazz for inspiration, attitude, and in a roundabout way, technique. In an interview in 2007, he noted that almost everything he knew about writing came from music, especially jazz. He had famously been running a jazz café for seven years in Tokyo when he started writing his first novel.

In honor of Murakami’s love of jazz, esteemed pianist Jason Moran, an ardent fan of his novels, joined Roland Kelts, editor, writer, and scholar of pop culture, and Motoyuki Shibata, writer, scholar, and translator for the famed Monkey Magazine, for an evening that blended jazz piano, Murakami readings, and fascinating commentary.  

The evening kicked off with a recording of “The Girl from Ipanema,” which Moran played along with on the piano from Murakami’s original club. And on top of the layers of Portuguese, English, Stan Getz, and Moran’s piano, Kelts and Shibata layered on readings in Japanese and English from Murakami’s work. It all fit so well, you’d think there was some Murakami-ish narrative magic going on.

“Pianos have souls,” Moran noted. He’d accepted the invite to Tokyo in large part to play Murakami’s club’s piano, miraculously preserved, and now housed in the Murakami Library on the Waseda Campus. The downstairs room of the library was the perfect spot for this “trio” or perhaps “quartet” since Murakami’s presence was felt everywhere. Surrounded by books on topics dear to Murakami’s interests, and with art on the walls, the synergy surrounded the audience of Murakami fans.

Shibata commented that it was Murakami’s attending a 1964 jazz show in Kobe by Art Blakey that first fascinated him with how a melody could be “destroyed,” and a new one created. This sense of improvisation seemed to have opened up Murakami’s creative floodgates, Shibata explained. If so, Murakami is not alone. Jackson Pollock and Jack Kerouac, among others, drew energy from jazz’s improvisation-based form.

Moran noted that Murakami’s novels run on metaphysical riffs not so different from jazz. He noted that in his novels, if there are five characters, it’s like having five soloists in a jazz group. They interact with each other as they “take into account the past and edit the future.” Moran also quoted Art Blakey’s famous comment that “if you make a mistake, play it twice,” and said that Murakami often does the same, riffing on happenings, phrases, and characters.

The layering of readings in Japanese, from Shibata, and in English, from Kelts, meshed intricately and lovingly with Moran’s piano. It was a mutual translation of the three languages, starting with jazz, moving to Murakami in Japanese, and then in English. All three languages are essential to Murakami’s life and work.

Moran was fluid and pensive on piano, as comfortable in this setting as with the diverse artists and approaches on his own recordings. But the readings from Shibata and Kelts were just as musical. Their readings impressed not just because the selections from Murakami’s vast oeuvre were well chosen, but because their delivery was thoughtful and heartfelt.

The third reading from Murakami’s book on Thelonius Monk, let Moran, who is as ardent a fan of Monk as of Murakami, play a medley of Monk’s best-known pieces. After the readings and a delightful number of Monk’s open, off-beat pieces, Moran noted how much Monk, like Murakami, leaves space and gives listeners, or readers, time to digest what is written or played. Both artists love the mystery of what they do, Moran noted. And few other artists have made mystery, musically or narratively, so intriguing.

The piano felt like a simultaneous translation of Kelts’ and Shibata’s readings, the interaction like a great jazz group. Following the reading, the spoken comments and insights from all three performers, in response to questions from the audience, and from their own experience with Murakami, felt firmly improvisational. Their keen layering of words and notes in multiple voices and languages blended into a rich and evocative performance.

The “Jam Session” will move to New York City in December with Murakami in attendance to receive an award. A video recording of the entire session will be available soon. Let’s hope the live session might bounce back to Japan again, too.