{"id":979,"date":"2024-08-25T20:25:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T00:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlylove.art\/?p=979"},"modified":"2026-01-12T19:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:30:33","slug":"back-to-the-garden-at-jazz-live-candy-in-kyoto-april-17-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlylove.art\/ja\/archives\/979","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Garden at Candy Live Jazz in Kyoto (April 17, 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On my second night in Kyoto, I went to Candy Live Jazz<\/a> in Gion to see the trio of Kotono Nishimura \u897f\u6751\u7434\u4e43<\/a> (alto and soprano sax), Yuka Yanagihara \u67f3\u539f\u7531\u4f73<\/a> (piano), and Ayuko Ikeda \u6c60\u7530\u5b89\u53cb\u5b50<\/a>(percussion). I was not familiar with any of them, but from the start, I found their music infectious, rhythmically adventurous, and uplifting. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candy Live Jazz is an intimate yet comfortable and classy-looking club with a reputation for booking quality musicians. Like many jazz clubs in Japan, it offers a variety of alcoholic beverages and a selection of snacks. Admission was \u00a52300 with the purchase of a small appetizer (\u00a5500 minimum) + drink (\u00a5600 minimum). Even without the favorable exchange rate, the fee is extremely reasonable for such a nice club in a major city. I arrived early and had my choice of seats. Later, it filled up, a good sign. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kotono did most of the speaking between songs, most of which were written by her or Yuka, and was evidently the trio\u2019s leader. They exhibited a relaxed camaraderie, and I could tell they were quite familiar and comfortable with one another and delighted in playing together. If forced to classify their style, I would call it smooth jazz, enlivened by the creative choices each brings to it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At times, most notably during Kotono\u2019s number \u201cMilky Way\u201d from her album \u201cFavorable Move,\u201d I felt as if I\u2019d been transported to a landscape untarnished by humans, where dawn is breaking over mountains in a river-fed valley of verdant splendor where you can hear birds singing and take a breath, like in a Thomas Cole painting, a place where you can look up on a clear, moonless night and be awestruck by the majesty of the Milky Way, so far away and yet seemingly so close. Yuka\u2019s piano confidently paints the terrain, Kotono\u2019s bright tone invokes the energizing sun, and Yuka\u2019s wide-ranging pallet of organic sounds steep us in birdsong and fragrant earth. I think of Joni Mitchell\u2019s refrain from \u201cWoodstock,\u201d where another new\/old world was invoked, \u201cWe are stardust. We are golden. And we\u2019ve got to get ourselves \/ Back to the Garden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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