„Never be cool“ is the motto of the Shibusashirazu Orchestra, one of the top acts of this year’s Jazz Festival in Moers, Germany. Never heard about this festival? Soejima Teruto, a Japanese journalist, has been covering the annual event for the past 27 years.
This year more than 30.000 people attended the 4-day-festival which takes place in the castle park of the small town of Moers in the Northwest of Germany. Many of them put up their tents in the park. There were numerous foodstalls selling all kinds of ethno junk-food. During the nights countless parties were took place all over the park. People brought their own sound equipment so there was a lot of choice. Lots of vendors tried to get rid of their hippie trash but there were also people selling genuine hand-made stuff. Not all of the visitors wanted to see the bands on stage inside of the huge festival tent, but this year ticket sales increased more than 20%. Thousands just come for the athmosphere.
Moers seems to be the only place where it is possible to make a band a top act which is as unknown in Germany as Shibusashirazu. George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, the Courtney Pine Band and the David Murray Big Band were the better known top acts this year.
Shibusashirazu consists of more than 40 musicians, dancers and artists. Line-up and concept remind of Sun Ra but they are creating their own universe. Their performance turned the evening into an outrageous party with dancers and a shiny silver dragon-shaped kite floating through the air. Although they are playing traditional instruments like Biwa or the Ryuteki flute Shibusashirazu never sounded like a Japanese band. Turkish influences were audible, there were Gipsy sounds and it was really good stuff to dance along. Reactions of the audience were extreme. While most people loved the show and the music others - the real intellectual Jazz fans turning Jazz into some kind of obscure science - seemed to hate it. There was nothing in between. The next day the local press reported about „go-go girls, little green people and an athmosphere like on a children’s birthday party“. Somebody must have been really disappointed.
So what’s it all about? „When I was young there were stars like the Beatles and I wanted to be like them. What we want to do is to give people the feeling that they are able to do what they want to do“ says Fuwa Daisuke, the bandleader. Many of Shibusashirazu’s members studied arts at Tsukuba University where the band had its first big appearance at an open-air festival in 1992. After that the band toured Japan in ist own tent playing free shows at underground parties and in Kotobukicho, Yokohama’s ghetto for the homeless.
While parts of the Moers audience was wondering about the deeper meaning of the butoh dancers on stage their task is - according to Fuwa- simply to illustrate the music of the orchestra. Some of them are members of the Dairakudakan, the Great Camel Battleship, founded by Maro Akaji who called butoh „the antithesis to the Japanese economic miracle.“ Nevertheless the Frankfurter Rundschau, a leading German daily, was writing about the „zen esthetic of unity of mind and matter“ while describing the butoh performance. Japan is always good for a legend.
Asked what kind of music he likes to listen to at the moment Fuwa answers: „Well, I have no CD player, no record player and no radio.“ „Just a television“ adds his wife „so we sing ourselves“.“We love to go to live shows. Jazz live shows“ says Fuwa. „But there’s a tape deck in our car, so I listen to old enka from the 1960ies. There’s blues and Korean music as well and I love Okinawan music.“ German food is not really his favorite, „so let’s talk about the good things.“ The best thing was that their show changed the audience’s perception of Japan. The members of the band were partying with the people all over the park and it became quite clear that there were no „economic animals“ arround.
Contact:
Shibusashirazu
c/o Chitei Records
#102 2-31-20, Kichijoji hon-cho
Musashino-shi
Tokyo
Tel: +81-422-21-9328.
