My Japanese Debut

Last night we went to see a Jazz trio at this tiny place in Saitama prefecture called Club Kuest (like quest, but with a k). The band played some classic Jazz standards. The singer had a really cool voice and her English pronunciation was so good that it was actually a little jarring when she spoke to the audience in Japanese between numbers.

The highlight for me, though, was the cellist. He was frickin' sweet. It was the first time I ever heard the 12 bar blues played on a cello.

After their first set they started jamming with the owner of the bar and some audience members. Just as they were getting warmed up, a friend of mine ushered me up on the stage and asked me to play a song. It was pretty rough.

The band seemed to insist on playing with me, so I decided to play "I Know" because it's a simple song. I showed them the chords and seemed to follow me, so we started the song, but I was playing an acoustic that wasn't plugged in and they didn't know the chords so it just kind of stuck to G-D the whole time. It basically sounded like shit and wasn't that fun, but hey, at least I got a chance to perform one of my songs in a Japanese Jazz club.

Cello? You gotta bass.

Later I picked up an electric guitar and attempted to initiate a freestyle jam, but that kind of went nowhere. The other guys just seemed confused and didn't know what to play so I just kind of cranked up the volume and whaled away. I don't think it went over very well.

At the end I got on the drums and finally found my niche. It was the first time everybody seemed to appreciate the fact that I had a slightly different approach to playing. At least things ended well.