man tells all

a column by bass player and musicologist Hans Mantel, on his current state of mind

maestro mantel

One on the Kissa

During a recent visit to Japan where I was making a television documentary on the Tokyo jazzscene,

I found out how crazy the Japanese really are about jazz.

I knew, of course, that jazz record sales in Japan are the highest in the world

and that Japanese audiences are among the best a jazz musician (or any other musician)

could wish for. The Japanese take their music and the consumption thereof as

seriously as they do anything else, from the preparation of that glorious food

and the art of origami to clothing and drinking tea.

All with that incredible concentration that’s central to everything they do.

I marvelled at the incredible level of aesthetics that is so evident in everything you see.

From the way they packed my sashimi lunch at the counter of a local supermarket

to the way the colors of the various textiles in my hotelroom were matched by the maid

who made my room every morning. There was a dark brown band accross my blanket

and the soft yellow night shirt that the hotel supplies lies on the bed perpendicular to the band.

Off-center with one – fifth of the shirt on the band...... For someone who has a sensibility

for that kind of detail Japan is a sheer delight.

I was pondering this when I walked into a Japanese tea house, a Kissa, somewhere on the

egde of the very centre of this 36 million people metropolis.

I had heard about the Eagle Kissa. It is a basement club that seats about 35

people with a typical Japanese interior with all the wooden walls.

Dark wooden blinds seperate the various tables, there's a polished wooden

floor and, of course, beautifully polished dark wooden tables.

Originally a tea house, the Eagle Kissa now also serves alcohol.

But that’s not the surprise.

That comes as soon as you walk in:

it’s a jazz tea house.

Next to the bar is a very tiny cubicle packed with 10.000 vinyl jazz records

(and yes, they’re the best jazz records you could possibly find and they’re all originals)

where a young man plays these all day long.

And here’s the thing.

A superior speaker system plays these records for the customer

and as the sign by the door says:

Speaking Is Forbidden.

You can’t talk!!!!

Business men and students sit at their tables by themselves with their eyes closed

and their heads back against the wall while their tea cools or their ice cubes

melt into their drinks. Others read the newspaper or scribble something

in little note books. I sat in a corner just as a great John Coltrane record came on.

Because of the situation I sank straight into the music to a deeper level than I

normally achieve in a public place. I heard every detail and nuance in the music

and it made me feel great!!

I didn’t want to leave and I had the feeling I could have stayed there all day and

just immerse myself in the music. I came back on the street feeling elated and rested

(althoughI had only been inside for half an hour).

As I climbed the steps back into the sunlight I thought: Why don’t we have this at home?

Imagine a place like that around the corner from your work, where you can go

for lunch or after work and to let, as Longfellow says, 'the cares that infest the day

folds their tents like the Arabs and as silently steal away'.

Hans Mantel

man tells all

One on the Kissa

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