A devastating earthquake and tsunami are an unlikely origin story for a jazz ensemble, but there’s no quartet quite like Otonowa.
The group, created by Bay Area drum maestro Akira Tana, began as a one-off project for a fundraiser at Fairfax’s Elsewhere Gallery several months after natural disaster struck the people of northern Japan on March 11, 2011. Since then, Otonowa has taken on a life of its own, on and off the bandstand. Bringing together four musicians with deep ties to Japan, the group focuses on an unusual body of tunes, interpreting traditional Japanese melodies and pop songs via jazz arrangements that open up space for improvisation.
“We started going to Japan in 2013, and before the [COVID-19] pandemic, we were going every year to do these outreach charity concerts,” said Tana, a first-call accompanist who spent years on the New York scene recording with jazz giants such as Zoot Sims, Art Farmer, J.J. Johnson, and the Heath Brothers. “What’s happened is that [Otonowa] has its own sound and has gone beyond the origins of why it got together.”
Featuring the Palo Alto-reared Tana, San Jose bassist Ken Okada (who was born in New York and grew up in São Paulo and Yokohama), pianist and San Jose native Art Hirahara, and flutist and saxophonist Mas Koga (who was born in Chiba, Japan, and grew up in the U.S. and several other countries), Otonowa reunites for a series of gigs around the Bay Area in the coming week.
The run starts on Jan. 9 with two shows at Keys Jazz Bistro in North Beach. The quartet also plays on Jan. 10 at Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland and on Jan. 11 at Meyhouse in Palo Alto (where Tana returns on Jan. 17 for an engagement with veteran pianist Larry Vuckovich). Otonowa, which means “sound circle” in Japanese, concludes with two shows on Jan. 15 at Mr. Tipple’s in San Francisco.
After 14 years, three albums, and numerous trips to northern Japan, “our relationship with the people there has changed,” Tana said. “At first it was more in service to them, and now it’s more that we’re good friends and family. Those elements keep the music and band going. There’s still a reason to do it, even if the reason has changed.”
Otonowa’s strikingly beautiful music is reason enough for its continuing existence. What sets the group apart from other jazz combos is its relationship to a mostly overlooked body of music. With Koga on various saxophones, flute, and end-blown bamboo shakuhachi, the quartet’s arrangements hew closely to the source material’s original melodies. Some are familiar, like “Ue o Muite Aruko” (better known as the pop hit “Sukiyaki”), but most are new to American ears.
For Japanese people who grew up with many of the melodies, “there’s a feeling that comes with hearing them that gives a sense of peace, a sense of home, a sense of longing,” Koga said.
For Hirahara, the melodies connect to his Japanese heritage with visceral power. “The very first Japanese song that I arranged, long before I played with Otonowa, was a lullaby my mom sang to me, ‘Akatombo,’ or ‘Red Dragonfly,’” he said.
The pianist sees his arrangement as part of an unfolding history. “It’s a piece of music that left the country, was interpreted by someone who grew up [in the U.S.], and returned to [Japanese audiences] in a version they wouldn’t have otherwise. Playing it in Japan, people were really moved. A lot of these songs were suggested by my mom and my mom’s sister.”
Otonowa has become the primary vehicle bringing Hirahara back to the Bay Area. Since leaving San Jose for New York City in 2003, he’s become one of the most recorded players on the scene as the house pianist for Posi-Tone Records, a label dedicated to building the careers of rising young straight-ahead jazz artists. His relationship with Posi-Tone grew out of his work with saxophonist Sean Nowell, which led the label’s owner and producer, Marc Free, to realize that Hirahara was also a brilliant composer.
Hirahara started recording his own albums for the label — in August, Posi-Tone released his eighth project as a leader, Good Company, an unusual trio session with guitarist Paul Bollenback and trumpeter Ron Horton — but he’s made his widest impact as a house pianist and arranger there.
“Marc had this idea of a stable of musicians to collaborate with [the artists headlining the album], similar to the Blue Note model,” said Hirahara, referring to the great modern jazz label that documented many of the music’s greatest artists in the 1950s and ’60s. Working most frequently in a rhythm section with bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Rudy Royston, the pianist has appeared on dozens of Posi-Tone albums by artists like trumpeters Josh Lawrence, Alex Sipiagin, and Farnell Newton; saxophonists Alexa Tarantino, Diego Rivera, and Patrick Cornelius; and vibraphonist Behn Gillece. Hirahara also tours and records with vocalist Stacey Kent and saxophonist Don Braden (the latter’s recent albums have focused on the music of Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire).
“It’s been a great experience learning other people’s music — different genres and styles,” Hirahara said. “Working steadily with the same rhythm section has created a vibe and a sound that’s pervaded [Posi-Tone]. Marc is constantly pushing us to play new material. He’d much rather record original material than covers and standards. Each session he’s saying, ‘Keep writing. Bring something new.’”
Otonowa puts its own spin on that prime directive, developing new material from songs not conceived with any relationship to jazz. For Tana, it’s the longest-running ensemble he’s helmed since TanaReid, a band he co-founded with bass master and composer Rufus Reid. Over the 1990s, the group toured internationally, released six CDs, and helped boost the careers of brilliant young improvisers like tenor saxophonists Mark Turner and Ralph Moore.
Tana is quick to point out that the idea of turning Japanese songs into vehicles for jazz improvisation is nothing new. Trumpeter Lee Morgan arranged the folk song “Desert Moonlight” for his hit 1965 Blue Note album The Rumproller, and of course, pianist and composer Toshiko Akiyoshi, now 95, found a career’s worth of inspiration in Japanese folk idioms.
“This body of music has become a standard repertoire on its own,” Tana said. “Even in Japan, some of these songs aren’t performed very often, so we’ve been reintroducing them to Japanese audiences. Some older listeners start singing along when we’re playing. It’s pretty deep. The younger generation realizes we have some cultural history that’s important.”
Otonowa, the sound circle, keeps looping back and forth across the Pacific, binding artists and audiences together with healing sounds of love and remembrance.
