This event is scheduled to occur on April 20th, 2018 in room 704 from 4:30 to 6:00pm. The reason why I wanted to organize this event was because I am a jazz musician myself. Even before I decided to latch onto Japan for my Capstone project, I knew a lot about Japanese music. I am taking this opportunity to share both my love for music and get a better understanding of Jazz in the context of Japan's American influences.

The relationship Japanese jazz has to my project is that it is a specific aspect of Japan's culture that borrow and builds upon an American art form. I originally thought that Japanese jazz was a unique style of jazz, but upon my own listening and research, I found that there are two types of Japanese jazz: the jazz aimed at westerners and the jazz aimed at the Japanese. For the most part, the goal of jazz made for Japanese audiences is more to emulate American styles. Dixieland, swing, bossa, bebop, and fusion are all styles that were marketed to American audiences at one point. 

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At this event, I will go through a playlist of videos I have curated that I think best sum up Japanese jazz in less than an hour. The plan is to listen and watch first, and then go into a brief discussion or lecture of what we listened to. I think that this is the most effective way to teach people about not just Jazz, but the connection it has to Japanese culture in a global context. A research paper cannot make people listen or appreciate fully the elements of music. This event will also be, for lack of a better word, fun.

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My main source for putting together this playlist was the former music teacher of Watkinson, Luke Nelson. He gave me a list of names to check out which now comprise of the list. However there is also a great deal of modern Japanese jazz that I have chosen from my own music playlists and listening. The total running time is 1:03:20.

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