Through a friend from school, I was given a small but all-out rewarding taste of bohemian swagger in Kobe. A place inhabited mainly by older suits who look so hungry to return to their younger days, which given their connective taste in music, must have been beating with heart of the underground Japanese culture. It's not nearly as dramatic as this, but it's hipper than any hipster knows. It's the kind of place that would give a lot of the little Starbucks-generation wanna-be beatniks a waking wet-dream. The lighting, the arrangement of the tables and seats, the posters on the wall, the hundreds upon hundreds of jazz records stacked in a mountain behind the bar... this isn't a place where you go to pretend to like Jazz, a genre of music I cannot claim to have any knowledge or passion for, it's a place that does the work for you: anyone with any rhythm or beat in their soul cannot help but move to the records being played. The Jazz music is top-notch and it's all available for no cover charge at the "Jam Jam Cafe" in the Sannomiya-Motomachi area.
I had originally heard about the place from my seminar professor, the same French-loving, sweet spot for the girls professor that hosted the seminar "konpa" at his place, which if you've been paying attention (and with the minimalist manner of my posting, it'd be hard to miss) was mentioned in a previous post. He mentioned it in class, directing it toward the prettier girls in the seminar, if they knew of "Jam Jam" in Kobe. He explained that half the cafe is divided into a regular area and a listening-only area, meaning making no noise save for the tapping of your feet. I had been interested in it, but had no idea where it was located in the still-sometimes perplexing area of Sannomiya-Motomachi in Kobe.
Last Friday, however, I was determined to go to a club for the first time in Kobe, and was aware of the "Troop Cafe" which caters to electronic dance music. I spoke to the aforementioned friend from school, a former-Folk Song member who I think I talked about in a past post, about any events going on Friday night. I asked if the event at Troop was worth the 3000 yen cover charge, and he looked up the headlining DJ online and said "definitely". So we decided to go, but before that I asked him to show me some other favorite spots in Sannomiya. We agreed that one good cup of coffee was a necessity for the long night ahead, so he took me to Jam Jam. Apparently, he's a regular there, judging from how the master and presumable owner of the place greeted him, as well as the greeting from the cute young waitress. We ordered the cheapest blend of coffee and sat and listened. A record by Pat Martino came on and I was blown away, and the reactions of my friend to the shifts and changes in the band playing helped bring out the individual instruments in my untrained ears. Listening to Jazz in Jam Jam is a truly transcendent experience. As I had said before, not really any young people, just the baby-boom generation and some older ones, sitting and enjoying the grooves. As I said, the atmosphere of the place really adds another level; even the bathroom feels loaded with ambiance.
I went again today and will go tomorrow. Really, it's a relaxing place, but a place that can also be enjoyed with more excitement. There are even occasional DJ events and live band performances (mostly non-jazz related). The menu even contains an explanation of the cafe and demands customers to not think of the Jazz as background music but to "feel it with your body!" Hopefully I can see some younger Japanese in there too, because even from being at school I know a lot of young Japanese are into Jazz. As I said before, though, individualistic places aren't always popular in a trend-driven society like Japan. The individuals that to frequent these places, however, are often so individualistic that they find it hard to connect with regular Japanese- the case with the friend who showed me Jam Jam in the first place. His passion with music, especially Jazz, is likely off-putting to a lot of the pop-manufactured minds of Japan. Just like the regular customers of spots like Jam Jam, the spots themselves are isolated from the majority- making them either safe havens or like lonely ghost-towns. Jam Jam clearly fits the former, luckily, as it provides an enjoyable and unforgettable experience in the coolness of Japanese underground culture.
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