I finally meet Mr. Inoue and the signature Japanese jazz musician, Sadanori Nakamure after the long wait of 2 years!
There is a long story about my encounter with Mr. Inoue. I met Ron Ng (The famous jazz guitarist in Hong Kong) at a jazz vocal workshop in Hong Kong, he strongly recommended me to watch Mr. Inoue's performance after I resided to Tokyo. At that moment I wasn't familiar with noted Japanese musician, then I found out Mr. Inoue was the only Asian apprentice of Jim Hall, the iconic Jazz master. Unfortunately I missed the chance to watch the concert because of huge workload.
Unexpectedly, Ron met this talented Jazz musician one month ago, and he was thrilled to encourage me to watch his show again. I discovered Mr. Inoue had a live show at Ikebukuro when I searched from Facebook. Therefore I rushed to Ikebukuro after finishing my work, with an hour journey to the train and a 10 mins walk. The venue was a bar called Jazz Bar Montgomery Land, which is located at a desolate place with a nearby police station (without anything even streetlights). The bar is hidden at the basement, and the board wrote 井上智, Sadanori Nakamure. The show had a full house, I was lucky to be the last audience to squeeze inside.
The tiny bar did not offer a convenient space for standing or sitting, but everyone was silent and closed their eyes — concentrated to listen the music. When I listened to the song “Body and Soul”, I gazed at the strange hand movement of Mr. Inoue — it looked like playing with water spray, but every note was displayed powerfully and clearly.
Most of the people might not familiar with Sadanori Nakamure (84 years old , but still look healthy), who graduated inAoyama Gakuin University, is performed frequently with Sadao Watanabe, Norio Maeda and Inomata Takeshi. The iconic jazz guitarist has witnessed the development of Japanese jazz music. Besides the admiration of the elite and profound music talent, the conversation between Sadanori and Mr. Inoue was similar to a show of American jazz and Japanese jazz. Their arbitrary were as matched as the dancing of two guitars.
Although both performers are respectful masters, they were so approachable. I was nervous to ask Mr. Inoue to sign on my CD, then I was at cloud 9 when he wrote my name as well! Mr. Inoue will perform at this bar in August. Please don’t miss the show if you want to admire his show closely (The ticket is around 3000Yens, attractive!).
等了兩年與井上智老師邂逅，還遇上日本爵士音樂史的國寶中牟禮貞則!
和井上智老師的相遇是有段故的。兩年多前在香港的jazz vocal workshop 裡認識了Ron Ng(香港有名爵士結他手)，談到我要搬去東京時，他說我一定要看老師的演出。當時我對日本有名的樂手不太認識，自己做了一下功課，原來他是殿堂大師Jim Hall唯一一個亞洲人徒弟！因為工作忙就打消了要立刻去看的念頭。
怎料一個月前Ron在香港和老師見面了，興奮的又叮囑我一定要看他演出，我好奇在FB搜了搜竟給我搜到他在池袋有演出！當晚我一下班飛快從趕去池袋，路程要一小時，到火車站還要步行10分鈡 。酒吧叫Jazz Bar Montgomery Land,在池袋一個附近除了警局什麼也沒的地方,街燈也沒有，它就隱藏在地庫 ；看板上粉筆字寫著井上智，中牟禮貞則。當天全場爆滿，我是最後一個有幸可以擠進去的觀眾。
酒吧很小，坐好或站好的人都不能動；全場鴉雀無聲，閉眼聽音樂。聽Body and Soul時,我一直瞪著井上老師的手，動作好像很怪,像彈著水花一樣 ,但粒粒音符鏗鏘有力。
很多人可能不認識中牟禮貞則。他今年84歲但是一點也看不出來。他畢業於靑山學院，與日本殿堂爵士音樂人如渡邊貞夫、前田憲男、豬俁猛等一常常一起演奏,見證著日本的爵士樂發展。除了兩人高深的音樂操藝，大家看著他和井上老師的對話，好像看了一個超棒導賞美國和日本爵士樂的節目。他倆的演出隨性也合拍，像2支結他一起跳舞。
雖然他們都是大師，但卻很親切，我緊張地拿出CD給井上老師簽名時，他還把我名字寫在CD上，我開心死了！這酒吧在八月也有井上老師的演出，如果這樣近距離看大師演出，你不要錯過呀（門票才3000円左右，真的超值）。
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Jazz Bar Montgomery Land
東京都豊島區東池袋1丁目47-13第2岡村ビルＢ1Ｆ8月11日
http://montgomery-land.net/?page_id=13
