Behind The Scene Story of a Japanese Lady On Tokyo Blues by Horace Silver
Yes, the album I am talking about this time is
Tokyo Blues by Horace Silver
As you look at the front cover, 2 beautiful ladies are featured right? They are Japanese and one of them is a kind of celebrity. The lady on the left hand side is called,
Masako Idemitsu
One of the daughters of a Japanese tycoon called Mr Idemitsu. His company Idemitsu Kosan is one of the biggest oil companies in Japan and the father of Masako was the founder.
Masako used to love Jazz in those days but his father was really strict not allowing her to go out and listen to the music. The father was really conservative and thought women should not go out to work or mingle with people. Further more, the Jazz music at that time was considered as a rebellious music that young ones should not listen to!! There was a lot of pressure by the parents at that time for you to listen to the Jazz! Can you believe that??
Well, Masako was rebellious sneaking out of the house and went to Jazz Kissa (Japanese Jazz Cafe) to listen to Jazz she liked.
Thereafter, she went to the US to study, that is where she met Horace Silver and the picture on Tokyo Blues was shot in NY - Japanese Garden - in the US not Japan.
Horace Silver came to Japan for the 1st time in 1961 as a member of the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey and the rest. He instantly loved Japan, people and culture. Since then he came to Japan many times, and there was a Japanese Jazz drummer called, Hideo Shiraki who used to accompany Silver every time he came. He took Silver to Clubs and touristy places and his father owned a Brewery of Japanese Sake. Shiraki brought many types of Sake to Silver and his band members.
One day, Shiraki found Silver and his members really drunk with Sake in a hotel room and told Silver,
Oh, that is too much Sake!
Silver took that phrase and put it as the 1st track of this album.
The 2nd track is called "Sayonara Blues" but they somehow misspelled it to "Sayanora" instead of "Sayonara", haha...I don't know...they did it by mistake or intentionally...Anyway, Sayonara means Good Bye in Japanese.
AH! So is another interesting title in this album. At the time of release of this album, the phrase "AH! So" was a popular phrase in Japan. That is the phrase our Emperor Hirohito used to use at his speeches. It seems that Silver noticed that and used it as his title. What a unique approach! haha.
