Jazz Cafés & the Art of Sound
Japan embraced American jazz the way it embraced American denim, with an obsession that inspired iteration and evolution. Today, both Japanese denim and Japanese jazz are unique genres with a thriving scene that extends beyond the island country's borders. But unlike denim, which is centralized in Okayama, Japanese jazz was birthed by a disparate network of domestic cafés.
These Japanese jazz cafés are the subject of a lush 336-page book, Jazz Kissa: The Soul of Japanese Listening Culture.
Jazz kissa is the Japanese term for jazz café, a portmanteau of the Japanese term Kissaten that itself refers to a casual café. Photographer Katsumasa Kusunose is an authority on these listening spaces, having first experienced a jazz kissa in 1976, aged 17.
He's since spent the past 15 years documenting these spaces, publishing several books and magazines dedicated to jazz kissas and the culture they facilitate.
And it's a unique culture, to be sure, a blend of live music and exhaustively curated vinyl records that demonstrate a sense of true devotion to the craft.
As much as Jazz Kissa documents the homely interiors of these cafés, their walls lined with records and aged wooden tables stained with countless drinks, it dives deep into the rare vintage audio systems that define the truly nerdy side of the subculture.
From the horn-loaded Altec A7 loudspeaker, created around 1946 and still worshipped by audiophiles, to the bespoke amplifiers created for specific café, Jazz Kissa explores the audio engineering that defines each café’s sound. Even the paper the book is printed upon references the texture of the Altec A7.
At a time when listening bars and listening rooms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, this book, available now for $140, offers a timely exploration of a musical café culture that has existed for over a century.
The jazz kissas aren't merely a cornerstone of contemporary jazz appreciation, but a representation of authentic devotion to the art of sound. They just so happen to look quite beautiful, too.
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