review

Also in this section:
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Training Squadron Band
Books, Whittington
Cool Internet sites

Play it again, Isao…

photos and review by Eric Jackson

The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Training Squadron has been through here again, and on July 26 their band gave a concert at the Curundu Dome. Two years ago, when we last heard this military institution’s musical expression at the same venue, they brought a larger group of musicians, including traditional drummers, and the Banda Republicana was on hand as the show’s co-stars. That previous performance was when school was in session, so all sorts of high school marching bands, plus police and bombero bands, were on hand for the show. This time it was during the schools’ mid-year break, and although as in the past a number of serious musicians attended, the only band we’ll see in the November parades that was there was the National Police’s. In addition to the Panamanian musicians and music lovers, this country’s Japanese community and the National Maritime Service were also well represented in the crowd.

What we were treated to this time was a selection predominantly jazzy and primarily American tunes. After the band opened with its theme that quotes “Anchors Aweigh” and some very modern-sounding Japanese compositions, they got soulful with an interpretation of Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Faces,” highlighted by some amazing guitar playing.

Then, to “Mambo Inn,” and a Japanese tune that Ray Charles interpreted, sung excellently in English with a Japanese accent, “Elly My Love.” Then the clarinetists and the trombonists sequentially played jazzy numbers designed for those sections of the band.

After that, back to the Latin-influenced US jazz, in the form of “Manteca,” a Dizzie Gillespie tune on which Charlie “Bird” Parker originally shone, and in this rendition featuring rotating, guitar, sax and piano leads. Following was a classic from the “Casablanca” sound track, “As Time Goes By.”

The next number, “Beguine for Band,” had the feel of something the Boston Pops might play. Then the Japanese sailors returned to a purer jazz expression with Chuck Mangione’s “Legend of the One-eyed Sailor.” With a redux of their theme, that was the main concert.

The first encore was a Panamanian march that I recognize as such having heard bombero bands play it since I was a little kid but can’t name. Next came some things both familiar and unfamiliar to these ears without formal musical education.

This time there was nothing stereotypically or traditionally Japanese, at least not recognizably such to most occidental minds. Understand, however, that in its role as a leading industrial power, Japan is also at the top level of manufacturing musical instruments first invented in the West. This concert was yet one more of the occasional demonstrations that the Japanese Embassy here organizes that the Land of the Rising Sun also produces a lot of very good musicians to play those instruments.