Jazz As Pure Spirit
- Akira Ando contrabass
- Han Sato ts, ss
- Izumi Ose piano, voice, dance
- Felix Komoll fl. , shakuhachi
- Shiomi Kawaguchi shamisen
- Zam Johnson dms
Special Guest: Susanne Wegener (voc)
The JAPS are a group of artists who, looking at the past, are striving for a better future.
During my stay in New York City between 1984 and 1998, I had the opportunity to play with great loft jazz musicians
such as Billy Bang, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, etc. who of course expanded my range of musical expression.
Since 1998 I live in Berlin, organizing and playing in a number of projects (Jazz and Latin bands, theater).
All those years I have been composing different styles of music, be it Jazz, Latin, Funk, Blues, …. then some years ago, I realized that a lot of my compositions sounded very Japanese. I did not intend to write Japanese music – it just came out naturally. I founded “The JAPS” with all Japanese musicians who understand my music spontaneously. We play my compositions and also some Japanese folk music in the style of Jazz.
Lately other artists – some of them not Japanese – have joined us , and the JAPS are evolving their style according to the input of all the members. If it has to be categorized at all, you may hear our music as „Japanese Jazz“ , with the emphasis on improvisation, freestyle and other features as they occur naturally in our combined performance.
February 2017 Akira Ando
