<<Back Page Next Page>>   Naoko Terai(Violinist) She started playing the violin from the age of four and performed in "Lesson of Violin" on the NHK educational channel at the age of six. At the age of twelve she was awarded the "Encouragement Prize" at the "Student Music Competition - East Japan Selection," hosted by The Mainichi Newspapers. At the age of fourteen, she suffered from tenovaginitis in her left hand and sacrificed her chance to pursue a career in classical music. However, at the age of sixteen while listening to "Waltz for Debbie" by Bill Evans, she changed her life path to jazz, made her professional debut as a jazz violinist in 1986, and her CD debut with "Thinking of You" in 1998. Since then, she has been taking an active role as a heroine of the jazz world. Not only was she selected as No. 1 in "MISC. INSTRUMENTS," a Japanese jazz men's popularity vote in a magazine, Swing Journal for 8 years in a row, she was awarded in 3 categories, including "Jazzman of the Year" and "Album of the Year" and established herself as the first lady of the jazz world. In February 2006, she released her 8th album, "Night Flight." Having Herbie Hancock as a music producer, she also performed in the 1st "Tokyo Jazz 2002" held in the Tokyo Stadium. With eminent members of the "Super Unit" such as Michael Brecker and Wayne Shorter, who boosted the end of the program, she specially joined the performance as the sole Japanese artist. I'm looking forward to an exciting "Tokyo Jazz." For me, "Tokyo Jazz" is a jazz festival in which I performed at every turning point of my music life. There are no other events where so many artists from all over the world get together. Since musicians play individually throughout a year, even if they can go to listen to other artists' performances, it is difficult to have a chance to perform together with other artists. Not only could I meet these artists, but I could also listen to their performances in the wings of a stage or I could perform together in a super unit. That was really exciting. I can never forget the "conversation of music" of the super unit. This time, I will join the Japan Australia Jazz Orchestra (JAJO), which was organized in commemoration of the Year of Japan-Australia National Exchange. This will be a performance composed of a mix of musicians of Australia and Japan. This is not the first time that I have seen Australian members in "Tokyo Jazz." We experienced collaborative stages twice in Shimanami Music Festival, held in Setouchi in March. I'm looking forward to performing together with them in "Tokyo Jazz," being in total synch. As we experienced a "conversation of music" in the past, I'm really looking forward to performing with them, jamming together by trying to perform from another angle. This will be the best chance to feel jazz. There will be 4 concerts in 2 days in "Tokyo Jazz" this year, but the contents will differ. I think I want to go listen to all of them. If it will be difficult, first of all, I would like you to feel the performance with your body. The venue Hall A is a large one with the capacity of 5,000 people, but it is a good hall with good sound, having firm acoustics. Therefore, it will be enough if you could feel the sound that will just fit your body or just feel comfortable. There may be many people who think jazz is difficult, but there won't be another wonderful event like this where artists from all over the world will get together and where you can feel their live performance. I would like people to put difficult matters aside and judge the performance just by feeling whether you are comfortable or not. This is exactly the message that I always try to communicate to people. The "Tokyo Jazz" this year will be a good chance for beginners of jazz. The appeal of jazz, in a word, is freedom. To be more specific, there are some rules, but jazz is improvisation. Ad lib is the appeal of jazz, so how one number of music would be performed is not known even to me who is performing the music. Our music will change rapidly depending on the members' condition, season, temperature and appearance of the audience and atmosphere of the venue. That's the interesting point, I think. The music I wanted to express was jazz. I think I just want people to listen to my music rather than think I'm performing jazz. When I started my current style I was 16 years old. While I was listening to a record by Bill Evans, the image that I'm freely playing the violin with a piano trio behind me suddenly came spilling out. I sensed that this was exactly what I wanted to express. I thought I could play the violin to realize this. Violin doesn't go ahead. Regardless if the genre was classical or jazz, what I wanted to express and what I wanted to sing was jazz. I want to express things that freely emerge, in my own way. I think that's why I play the violin. When I joined the super unit in "Tokyo Jazz" in 2002, I experienced the same feeling that I felt in the image, "conversation of music," when I was 16 years old. As it was a unit of totally 16 artists, nothing could be decided in advance. I asked Herbie (Herbie Hancock, the music producer) what to do, and he answered that he would call every artist's name so that everyone could go home after playing their instrument. I went up on the stage first and while I was playing the violin, like one in a dream, I heard the sound of a piano and wonderful music flowed toward me. When I glanced in the direction of the sound, Herbie was playing the piano in a crouching position. This is exactly what jazz is. I realized this could be done because of "Tokyo Jazz." Please come to see "Tokyo Jazz." This time, not only will the world's musicians get together in my favorite place, Tokyo, but I think it would be wonderful if we can communicate the jazz made in Japan to the world. In order to realize this, I would like as many people as possible to encounter jazz in Tokyo. Encounter is very important. As I could encounter jazz at the age of 16, I am what I am today. I think there are many adults who have been looking for their favorite music but haven't encountered it yet. I always seek music which can be enjoyed by adults, cherishing the importance of encounter. Please encounter "Tokyo Jazz." It would be wonderful if you could feel something expanding from there.     TOKYO JAZZ 2006 [Summary] Date : September 2 (Sat) and 3 (Sun), 2006 Performance : 2 performances/day, 4 programs in total (Daytime: 13:00 - Evening: 18:30 -) Performing Artists : Chick Corea, The Great Jazz Trio by Hank Jones (with Omar Hakim & John Patitucci), Los Van Van, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Austin Peralta Trio, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Japan Australia Jazz Orchestra, Hitomi Uehara and other great artists will gather! Ticket Information : To be released on June 9 (Fri) - Kyodo Tokyo Tel: 03-3498-9999 and others Contact : Hello Dial: 03-5777-8600 Venue : Tokyo International Forum Hall A Host : Tokyo Jazz Planning Committee (NHK, NHK Enterprises, Inc., Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc.) http://www.tokyo-jazz.com/