Nabuko Kiryu / Jazz Singer / New York, USA

The "Listen to Musicians" section is a section where professionals who usually play music on the stage can go down the stage and speak in words.This time, we will interview the guest of jazz vocalist Nabuko Kiryu who is active in New York. I would like to ask you to talk about "being active in New York as a vocalist".

Nabuko Kiryu
After graduating from Shobi Junior College, Department of Composition, he graduated from City University of New York, majoring in jazz vocals.Completed the Graduate School of Jazz Vocals at Queen's University.Strongly influenced by jazz pianist Barry Harris, who is known as the evangelist of Bee Bop, he also participated in his jazz chorus corps.The group performed at major theaters such as "Town Hall" and "Symphonic Space" in New York. Since moving to the United States in 2002, he has been regularly active in New York jazz clubs such as "Lenox Lounge" and "Copeland", and has also appeared on New York TV programs. In XNUMX, he performed with Terumasa Hino (Tp) at a concert by Toshiko Kiryu at the Asahi Hall in Yurakucho. Performed at Queen University with Lovelace (dr) and David Gilmour (tap).He will also perform as "J-Jazz Sisters" at Blue Note in New York.Albums include "Thinking Love".

Both of my parents are musicians (*), and music has been overflowing all over the house since I was little.So music was in my unconscious environment and I wasn't conscious of doing it so hard.If anything, when I was a kid I was doing theater and I always wanted to do theater.So my dream when I was little was to become an actress.
*) Mother is Toshiko Kiryu and father-in-law is Kanji Ota.

I auditioned for the NHK theater company when I was 10 years old, and since then I've been doing theater until I was in the third year of high school.I really love acting, and I did performances every summer.However, I felt that music was superior to other people even if I didn't do my best.For example, I felt like I would accept an audition if I sang one song (laughs).Of course, I like to sing, and when something happens, I sing and get people's attention.After that, the same thing happened, and after graduating from Tokyo College of Music, I used to work for a company related to the media, but I think I passed the interview test for that company by singing a song. (Lol).What are your special skills in company interviews?You will be asked.If you say you're singing jazz, what can you do?I was asked.You probably bought a courage by singing a song with a cappella as it is.That's why I accepted it.For me, music feels like singing is a last resort.
 
Very popular CD "Singing Love"
I went on a trip to India when I was about 19 or 20 years old.It happened that my mother was going on a trip with my father-in-law.However, he was late for work and couldn't go on the day he was supposed to go.As a result, my mother invited me to travel to India with my parents.After that, after my father-in-law came, I split up on the way and finally returned to Japan alone.At that time, I was on a train alone from a city to New Delhi (Note: the capital of India).There was an Indian woman who happened to sit next to me.Of course, I was a student at an ordinary music school at that time, and I couldn't speak English.However, the woman was very kind, and she listened to me even in this one-word English, and had various conversations such as "What are you doing?"When I told him that I was studying music, the woman suddenly sang an Indian song at that place.I was really surprised.From a Japanese perspective, Japanese songs are like this just because foreigners are traveling and studying music, don't they sing?That's why I was really impressed and impressed by the song.Can you sing to her many times?I asked him to sing, and I hurriedly wrote it on the score, wrote the rhythm and the words I was singing exactly as I heard them in katakana, and while singing all the time, I learned the song.That's why we sang together.Then that person was surprised this time!Of course, a child who doesn't know Indian language and doesn't understand English suddenly wrote an Indian song in a character that I had never seen, such as Japanese Roman letters that I couldn't understand, but I could sing the song together. It became something like.That's why I hit it off.The two of us sang the song all along the way, and it made us feel like we were one.It's amazing to sing at that time!I thought.That's why I thought that singing has magical power, rather than crossing the walls of people.That's why I wanted to make use of my experience of knowing the wonderfulness of songs and become a "singer who conveys a message" that conveys something to people rather than trying to become a so-called "good singer".In the Japanese sense, if you don't sing well, you feel like you're not a singer.Until then, I liked singing, but I'm not a complex, but I never thought it was particularly good.Especially since I'm growing up in a music environment, I know I'm not good at it.I never thought that I was good at special songs or had a talent for singing, but at that time I knew the meaning and wonder of the song, so I thought it would be okay to sing.If you sing a song well, it's your job.I don't think singing is just about technology.I think it's not good or bad, but if there are 100 people, just as everyone talks in 100 voices, there is a drama for each person and it's okay to sing it.I think that was a big reason for me to become a singer in India.Perhaps music is so popular in Japan that karaoke is so popular that everyone can get along while singing, applaud when someone is singing, and share the singing voice with everyone. I think there is.That's not a good thing, it's in the song.Of course, good people will be pleased (laughs).So, of course, you should do your best and get better (laughs).

Yes, my mother used to play classical music, but my mother likes jazz, so I think that's the continuation.For example, my father-in-law taught me the piano, and maybe I was 16 or 17 years old.So I didn't know what jazz was or anything like that.I don't know if kids like it or not, but if you go to kendo for the time being, you'll have a bamboo sword, and jazz is inside me. I came in.

But of course, before that, I was learning classical music and piano, and since I was a kid, when I was 2 or 3 years old, I was learning the piano, and my grandmother was also a piano sensei. I used to play recitals, play a band when I was in junior high school and high school, play the piano, write original music, and play music normally. It's like a music activity.That's why I played it when I saw the codes such as "Mediocre" and "Myojo" written on it.Music is the same as, for example, a child of a greengrocer who is familiar with vegetables, and it felt like I could understand various knowledge and information without thinking normally.The reason why I turned my attention to jazz is because I played the jazz piano first.Jazz is still sung as a standard song from the 1930s and 40s.For example, the standard song "My Fanny Valentine" is well known and popular in Japan, and everyone sings it, but each singer sings his life down in his own interpretation.That's why the atmosphere is different, the tempo is different, and the way of cooking is different.I'm singing the same song.For example, if it's a white world, it's different, or if it's a black world, it's black.Not only is everyone different, but depending on the content of the song, when it's a sad song, everyone says it's painful and heavy in their life, or it shows the moment of life. Rather, the song itself has a history of being sung by various people, and it has a lot of dirt on it.And this time, by singing myself, I infuse the soul (spirit) into the story of the song.I'm just singing, but the mysterious charm that the song has, or the weight that has been handed down to various people, this time I will tell the story using my body and voice Like.In that sense, is that the fun of jazz?

I usually worked at a company for about three and a half years, but my work was so tight that I broke my body and was hospitalized. It was.I was wondering what I was doing while looking at the flowers of the sympathy I received from the president of my office.If I spend so much time and energy on the company, I wonder if I should try it for myself.I think that is one of the big reasons.Also, everyone said that NY is okay, I should go to NY, so I went on a trip to NY once, but it was obvious at a glance, such as grandma singing at a bar that I entered a little. The level of singing jazz is so high that it's different, isn't it?Then, like a scale from my eyes, I was already moved and a lot of tears came out.I wondered why I was singing jazz in Japan until now.This shouldn't be the case.I wonder how I was playing jazz.It's a baptism at home.I think this is bad.So, I wondered if there was a way to come here somehow, and then I looked up specific schools and visas, and searched for an English school and went to study abroad first.

At the very beginning, I was pushed by the feeling that "New York is the best, isn't it?" I'm thinking of going to NY.

I think it's just about putting your environment in relationships and musicians.Of course I think I should go to school.I majored in jazz at university and learned a lot of music theory and the history of jazz, but that's not enough.That alone is not a living experience.It's really a lot of things to go to a jazz place, talk to the people who are there and sing, talk about what kind of life they have lived, eat together, and learn a lot in those places. I think there is.
 
At a club in New York
I'm trying to absorb it, but it's not just about learning techniques, but because jazz is an American culture in particular, so is the history of black people and the path they have taken. And, of course, church songs, and I don't know if it's connected to jazz, come here (NY), live like this, and sing with them.I think it's completely different if you just do it in Japan.After all, I would like to emphasize the part of jazz that comes out of the view of life that I have followed, rather than being well refined by practicing.

Of course, I think there is technology.After all there is nothing I can do if I am not good at it.At that point, there was a technical knack for Japanese people, and I had to do it here, but I think it's useless if there isn't something that people can't see. I don't think the taste of jazz will come out just by doing the other parts.

I think so.It's really different.I live in Harlem, but when I go to bars around there, I hear jazz that people like, for example, in downtown, where there are many white people, the lyrics are sung in English. It may be different.You don't know that just because you really learned the language, listening to the lyrics and looking at the score, English, etc., regardless of who is singing that song of the American jazz standard. You can tell that this is a song made by a black person, a song made by a white person.It's that different.With wording.But it's different, but since I'm a human being, I sing the same song with the same spirit.It's like a woman is gone and a man is drinking.I'm singing with the same content, but the tone of the story is different between blacks and whites.In that case, it would be impossible to learn English at so-called school.Knowing that and feeling the peculiarity of singing jazz in the United States in Japan.It's the same as a black man making his debut as an enka singer in Japan.But if a black person was born and raised in Japan and had no accent in Japanese and sang with a gospel-like spirit, I might be quite impressed. Similarly, I am in Japan. I'm a person, but after all I have a respect for jazz, and expressing what I thought was good in my life was when I was a kid. There is a deep connection with the play I was doing.

Theater expresses your feelings.You'll write the lines.The song tells the story in the same way as the dialogue.When I'm singing, the words I'm talking about shouldn't be lying, so I have to feel like those words.The moment you play a play, it's very sensuously similar.

It's like telling the story of a song.It's more like telling a song than playing a role, but it's similar to playing a role.

When singing, it may come out quite naturally, for example, remembering that the song was a friend's experience rather than based on my own experience, and singing it. There is also.

I agree.After all it is a message.
 
Active in a club in New York
After all, the interesting part of jazz is the place where I don't decide much.Suddenly my name was called, I went up the stage, said nice to meet you, and I'm going to lead this song in my own way.I met people there for the first time, but that's why I suddenly make music.I'm really excited when we become one there.I'm very sensitive to the moment.Human beings live, wake up in the morning, sleep at night, and so on, but as I often say, that moment is gone.You happened to be on stage with someone who happened to be there at that moment, and that moment will never happen again.It's very warm and open-minded, and I'm very happy to say it well.For example, if this is another music genre, I think that you would practice it over and over again, and the same members would improve and reach it, but jazz is completely different from that.To do that, I have to polish myself.When everyone hone themselves and ride together, each one tries to make a circle while listening to people, not who they are.

Of course, so is the technical aspect.Of course, you have to be familiar with jazz rather than knowledge.Otherwise, I don't know what people are doing.Jazz is improvised, so when everyone gets on the stage, two is like a car.If you don't know the two, you can't put out a car.I have to know a lot of two.To do that, I hone myself, listen to the music of various people, study, and communicate with each other at that moment.It's like this, if you play music in response to what you're told, you can communicate, and it's amazing to understand each other.For example, if a Japanese comedian says something that everyone knows, for example, if it's a drifter, say "It's eight o'clock," then say "everyone gathers." There is a lot of fun in jazz that everyone would say without saying it, and that's what makes it interesting.If you understand that, you can understand it, and jazz is more interesting.That's why I want more people to know about it.

Well, after all this is different from Japan.After all it is English first.I think there are a lot of Japanese people singing jazz, but those who only know Japan have little knowledge, and of course everyone is studying hard. But that's the first thing that people say that they live here and help singers in their workshops.All Japanese people are dexterous and know music, but I don't use English everyday, so I can't convey my feelings.The difference in feelings is always pointed out when such people sing.If you do your best a little more, it will be closer to the real thing.

As a Japanese, you have to change things like the peculiar humility and the beauty of modesty.If I don't change that, I'll have to work harder and go out in front of myself for a long time.On the other hand, in Japan, if you go forward, you will be hit, but if you don't go forward, you won't be able to catch your eye.I think it will be difficult if you don't think that it is different.

After all, as a world-class jazz singer, I would like to do it as a representative of Japanese people.

Just keep doing it.If you keep doing it without giving up, there will always be a future.