Seeing Ozone-san for the first time in a while♥
One morning, while reading the Kobe Shimbun from cover to cover (I really do read it cover to cover sometimes), I found a full-page article titled something like 'Hyogo Entertainment This Month,' which listed various events happening in the prefecture by genre.
Art, music, theater, performing arts, talk shows, and so on. Among them, I discovered the name 'Makoto Ozone.' It seemed to be a duo concert with a young pianist named Kento Tsubosaka.
I thought I'd mention this to my husband (he likes Ozone-san), so I cut it out. When I told him, he said he could probably take time off and really wanted to go, so we went.
The morning and evening breeze had just turned autumnal from the day before, and it was cool even during the day. It turned out to be a day that felt like the autumnal equinox, perfect for wandering around outside. I'll write this while also pulling up old memories of how I first came to know Ozone-san.
About the concert
The program was divided into two parts, the first half and the second half. The first half featured three solo pieces by Ozone-san, followed by two duo pieces after inviting Tsubosaka-san on stage.
After a break, the second half featured two solo pieces by Tsubosaka-san, followed by a duo. As a standard number, they played a Gershwin piece, which Ozone-san also enjoys performing, in a long version lasting over 30 minutes. Finally, there was one encore. It was a very satisfying performance that lasted well over two hours.
Songs I thought I liked
First, the third solo piece by Ozone-san, 'Kitano Strut.' The tempo picked up a bit from the first two songs, and it felt like I could hear the crisp rhythm of jazz. It might just be my own perception, but there was a melodic pattern with a bit of a vintage feel—perhaps it was the way he played? He used the foot pedal to create a muffled sound for the keystrokes, and it was a nostalgic song that made me feel like I was hearing wonderful music from a light-up piano covered in a thin layer of dust in a very old jazz bar.
Then there was the duo piece 'Kodomo no Ki' (Tree of Children). Tsubosaka-san mentioned that it was his original song, inspired by Taro Okamoto's sculpture of the same name in Omotesando. He told us that the sculpture depicts many children, but no two faces or expressions are the same, and that this represents us. I see, I could feel that he was trying to recreate that image in the song as well. It's the same melody, but the scale, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics are different. Perhaps that became even stronger during the session with Ozone-san, and the performance continued in a state where we didn't know where it would land or how far it would go, ending when both sides (the performers and the performers, and the performers and the audience) felt, 'This is the place.'
Tsubosaka-san's expression, filled with a sense of accomplishment, was impressive.
The encore was Oscar Peterson's 'Hymn to Freedom.'
When Ozone-san was 12 years old, he heard Oscar Peterson at the Osaka Koseinenkin Hall. That was what inspired young Ozone to pursue the piano. 50 years have passed since then. Last year was the 100th anniversary of Oscar Peterson's birth, and he said he held a birthday concert in New York on August 15th. A Black bassist, a white drummer, and a yellow pianist. Three people transcending skin color were performing live in New York on the day the war between Japan and the United States ended. He spoke about the meaning of playing this song, superimposing it on the various tragedies happening in the world today.
As I listened, the image of young Ozone-san came to mind, and the 50 years since then flowed by, and I couldn't stop my tears. I felt as if the prayers of the people who wrote and performed this song had descended upon us.
Ozone-san said he approached Tsubosaka-san about three years ago. After hearing him play, he strongly encouraged him to pursue a career as a pianist. At that time, Tsubosaka-san was thinking of specializing in composition and arrangement, but he changed his path after being told by Ozone-san. It seems he told him many times that a jazz pianist needs the talent for composition, so he wanted him to make use of that talent. Indeed, their duo performance had almost no parts that followed a fixed score; it was like an improvised, unscripted exchange. I thought that Ozone-san must have persuaded Tsubosaka-san just as he had been looked after when he was young. I'm glad your hearts connected, Ozone-san.
How I came to know Ozone-san
On the way to the venue, my husband said, 'I'm also looking forward to hearing Ozone-san's talk for the first time in a while.'
Talk? Is Ozone-san someone who says funny things?
I felt a little puzzled, but as I listened to the performance (and the talk from Ozone-san, who kept talking, saying, 'Sorry for the chatter, I'm from Kansai'), I remembered. That's right, we first came to know Ozone-san as a radio personality on the Kobe radio station 'Kiss FM KOBE.' My husband especially liked listening to him, and at that time, I also came to like Ozone-san's piano, and before the earthquake, we even went to a 'Christmas LIVE' where he invited foreign vocalists.
What made me like Ozone-san even more was a drama from quite a long time ago called 'Ashita no, Kita Yoshio: Sekai-ichi Fūun na Otoko no, Kiseki no 11-nichikan' (Tomorrow's Yoshio Kita: The 11 Miraculous Days of the World's Unluckiest Man), for which Ozone-san composed the soundtrack. I forget if I saw the drama first or if I heard about him being in charge of the music first, but I watched every episode of the drama in real-time, bought the soundtrack CD, and even ended up buying the drama DVD. The CD came with liner notes that included a sort of essay written by the screenwriter after they heard Ozone-san's piano (it might have been the theme song 'My Tomorrow'), and that writing overlaps with the content of the drama and is very good. Anyway, the whole thing is excellent throughout.
I remember listening to it over and over again while reading them.
Come to think of it, the second song in Ozone-san's solo set performed at the live show that day, 'Friends,' was warm and gentle, but there was a slight sense of loneliness in the resonance of the chords. I don't know how many notes he combines to make those chords, but if it's six notes in total—three in the right hand and three in the left—it's as if just one of them feels slightly off. It doesn't feel unpleasant enough to be called a dissonance, but how should I put it... it's like, 'It's actually creepy if everyone is in perfect harmony, isn't it?' It's a sense of discomfort that you can properly accept, like saying it's okay for there to be someone who is a little bit out of sync. That 'small, pleasant sense of discomfort' was something I also felt in the songs on the 'Ashita no, Kita Yoshio' drama soundtrack. Maybe that's why I felt just the right amount of restlessness when the second song played.
Also, when it comes to Ozone-san, there's 'Welcome to the Living Room.' The STAY HOME LIVE @ Living Room during the COVID-19 pandemic lasted for about 50 consecutive days, I believe. I was enchanted listening to it every night at 9:00 PM via Facebook. I kept requesting my favorite song, 'My Tomorrow,' and although I'm not sure if it was because of me, he played it once, and I was so happy.
It was a fun autumn concert!
Next time, I want to go hear the trio (bass, drums, and piano) as well.