On Tuesday afternoon I got an email from my friend Lisa asking me if I was interested in going to the Blue Note to see a band called the SF Jazz Collective. She is friends with Eric Harland, the drummer, and he was giving her 2 guest passes. Kinda a big deal at the Blue Note, where tickets are usually around ¥9 - 10 000 ($90 - 100). Always up for an adventure, I said yes, despite my disdain for over-priced, uptight, unfriendly, stuffy, pretentious venues and their clientele, and for the cliquey Jazz world in general [hmmm, does that make me a snob in reverse?]. I figured these guys would probably be pretty good, and I needed a dose of something western.

They were great. They played their own individually composed pieces, based on/inspired by Thelonious Monk, and it was some very cool, kick ass jazz. The drink prices weren't as scary as I'd expected (I paid around ¥800 for a glass of house white), and the sound was excellent. Afterwards, we went drinking with Eric, his cousin - the trombonist Andre and the bassist, Matt (A NZer) at the Blue Note and then some other jazz venue nearby called Body and Soul.

The Mama-san there fell over herself to provide the guys free booze and food and managed to not look at me or Lisa once, and the other J-women who joined us there were kinda the same - interested only in very loud and blatant self-promotion and flirting with the hot band dudes. One was a kind of jazz promoter and the other an aspiring singer. Neither of them could take their eyes off Eric. It was funny, and was oh, so eerily familiar [life before Japan]. I left that place after one beer and made my way to the last train, and then got a phone call from Andre, Eric and Matt (via Lisa) asking me to come back and hang out coz "I was so nice”. I declined. But it was nice to hear, since they were such nice fella's themselves. I couldn't have coped with any more of the fawning they were being subjected to.

What is it about Jazz dudes that they always have to shave their heads and grow goatee's? The entire band, except for Matt the bassist and the female pianist, had shaved heads...

A fun, interesting night indeed.

Technorati Tags: events, friends, japan, music, jazz, tokyo