Beyond Katrina

It's Mardi Gras time in New Orleans.

By: Yoshio and Keiko Toyama

It's Mardi Gras time in New Orleans. It is sad that  once in a while we get emails or letters from some of our friends from New Orleans telling us that they have moved to some other town, that the levees aren't right and they can't risk the safety of their family. I hope they all are having a big Mardi Gras this year  to have fun and forget the hardship for a while.

This blog, Beyond Katrina,  had a little article on Martin Luther King Charter School. Last year in August when we visited New Orleans with Japanese Jazz fans, we brought with us many instruments for school and musicians who lost instruments in the hurricane. One of the alto saxes belonged to a late father of a Japanese gentleman.The  Late father was a jazz musician and the son decided to donate his father's instrument to the Wonderful World Jazz Foundation. This story was featured in an article at Asahi.com. Here is an excerpt from the article:

"The Wonderful World Jazz Foundation held a series of charity concerts, at which they asked  members of the audience to donate musical instruments and money in response to the [Hurricane Katrina] crisis. They were given about 60 instruments. Four, in beautiful condition, came from a man in Aichi Prefecture. He also included a note that read: "My father, a bandsman, passed away last year. His saxophone and flute need to be played to be kept alive. Please place these instruments in the holy land of jazz--a place that my father used to dream of." Once in New Orleans, Toyama plans to approach a radio station to share the story of the Aichi bandsman, and to find new homes for the man's musical treasures. '"We want to encourage not only the children but also the city itself to help recover from the damage from the hurricane,' Toyama said".

 

A musician who received this instrument is a band instructor for M L King Charter School, Mr. Alonzo Bowen. And from Mrs. Miki Rohbock we found out he is wishing to have their children participate in Mardi Gras 2008. Miki is a beautiful Japanese lady and a very,  very capable tour guide who has a
tour company MIKAZUKI CONNECTION. She is married to Steven Rohbock, a Jazz Pianist of New Orleans, and unfortunately their home in Lakeview was totally damaged by Katrina and they are now living in Chicago. But Miki is in good spirits and she comes down to New Orleans all the time to guide delegate groups from the Japanese Government along with members of the  Japanese Press and Media/ She is now famous among the Japanese media as "Hurricane guide Miki"! By the way, Miki and her husband Steven were featured in an article at The Daily Texan, Making a New Life from Chaos.

Miki  is originally from the town of Sendai, Miyagi  a prefecture,  in northern Japan. After Katrina she went home for a visit, and appeared in many TV and Radio programs of her town's local stations. Also right after Katrina, a gentleman in Sendai, Mr. Takao Sasaki got in touch with us and told us he'd  gotten Jazz Band Dolls like the ones you see see in the souvenir shops in New Orleans at very low prices. He suggested that he'd like to sell them for New Orleans and donate the sales to our Wonderful World Jazz Foundation to send it to the musicians of New Orleans. Our activities along with  Miki's  media appearances brought the hurricane damage to the attention of the people of Sendai. As a result the Town of Sendai's famous Jazz Festival, Jozenji Street Jazz Festival 2006,  had a big Save New Orleans Campaign in cooperation with Mr. Sasaki and his Jazz Band dolls!!

Above, Mr. Alonzo Bowen and Mr. and Mrs. Kaname Nishimura of Aichi who donated instruments

Another town Utunomiya ( which is also famous for Jazz due to the fact that a couple of jazz musicians were born or grew up there) has been continuing a Save New Orleans Campaign as well.  Utunomiya advertises their town as "Jazz Town Utunomiya" as Mr. Sadao Watanabe was born there and I grew up there also. We have been told these two cities, along with another town, the ski resort Madarao,  (where up until a few years ago they hosted New Port Jazz Festival, Japan) want to support our foundation's wish to help the children of Martin Luther King Charter School Band, and Mr. Alonzo Bowen's desire to participate in Mardi Gras 2008.  They  have indicated a desire to help us at the upcoming festivals. We do not know how much help we can get right now, but there will be some help from Japanese Jazz Fans for the children of New Orleans Ninth Ward! We've decided to donate $ 5000 from the Wonderful World Jazz Foundation for the M L King Charter School Band for the instruments, and it will be sent to Mr. Bowen soon.

Mr.Sasaki's Jazz Band Dolls

 

The two Photographs above are of  Miki Rohbock's home town Sendai, Jozenji Street Jazz Festival

Last year when we visited New Orleans ,we brought 54 instruments for donation to  schools and musicians, and we received an email from my friend from the 1970's, band instructor and fabulous jazz musician Mr. Joseph Torregano of East St. John High School of Reserve, La. To the school we donated 37 instruments and $2000 for their goal  to attend the Cotton Bowl 2007. I received an email from Joe, who said the band made it to the Cotton Bowl! An excerpt of the email is as follows:

"The East St. John High School Marching Wildcat Band has returned from Dallas after participating in the 2007 A. T. & T. Cotton Bowl Music Festival.   Our first day was a horrible weather day with very intense rainstorms, and several tornadoes in the Texas-La. area.  Our field competitions were cancelled and re-scheduled for the next night.    The band won an award in every entered event:
 

Field Show Marching Competition - 3rd Place
Concert Band - Honorable Mention
Parade Competition - Honorable Mention
Drum Line Competition - 3rd Place.

The kids got a nice reception from the citizens of Dallas at the parade, and got to enjoy themselves at the Six Flags Theme Park .  They also performed in a pre-game and half-time combined band made up of over 1,600 high school musicians.    Thanks to all of you for assistance. 

Joe Torregano

East St. John High School Band with Mr.Joe Torregano

We would like the People in United States to know, a lot of Japanese Jazz Fans want to say  a Big Thanks to New Orleans and to the USA for giving us and the world such a beautiful present called Jazz. We all are wishing New Orleans and all the hurricane devastated areas will get back swinging strong , like the New Orleans Jazz Beat again. We are also hoping our help from abroad, however small, will  call some attention in the United States for the help that is needed in the devastated areas  in a way.

Wishing you a Swingin' Mardi Gras,

Yoshio and Keiko Toyama

To view other articles and stories by Yoshio Toyama, follow this link.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

Copyright, Yoshio Toyama.

Satchmo & New Orleans Changed the World (Part 3)

Pops and the Christmas Tree

By: Yoshio Toyama

Satchmo Christmas Photo

Jazz is often referred to be one of the most important art forms of the 20th Century that America has given to the World. In foreign countries like Japan where I live and was raised,  it is even more so. Sometimes the view from outside gives you clearer vision. Having lived in Japan surrounded by  the culture the USA gave to my country  after World War II, the appearance of jazz in Japan  seemed like an  invasion by the USA, but what a happy go lucky invasion it was!

I was born 1944 so I do not know anything  about the Occupation Army, General MacArthur and all that, but the young Japanese kids then (who are a little older generation than me and my wife Keiko) sure were glad when then the  war was over and the Americans took over the Japanese Military, bringing in Jazz and the American Culture. As a result there was a big jazz boom in Japan around 1950 and many jazz musicians started playing there.

Looking from the perspective of one who lives abroad,  when I think about how great Louis Armstrong's influence was on music, (having  developed a brand new jazz rhythm and style which was 100% influenced by the New Orleans Jazz tradition,  and which impacted both classical and popular music in the United States and Europe), I feel  the citizens of New Orleans - and indeed the whole state of Louisiana - should be very proud of Satchmo's contribution to world music.

As you can read in his autobiography,  My Life in New Orleans,  written in the 1950’s, Armstrong was born in poverty. He grew up in a slum called the "battle field" because it was surrounded by so much crime. But the turning point of his life was  he was  arrested and placed in a home for wayward boys for shooting a pistol  to ring in the new year during a New Year's eve celebration. Armstrong met  met his horn while living in the boy's home and this was the beginning of  his great career.

Besides being one of the greatest musicians of all times, Pops had an interesting private life. In his auto-biography he wrote about an old folk remedy for getting rid of the common cold. He said,  “when I had a sore throat, my mother would boil water and put a cock roach in it and we used to sip the hot water out of the pot"...Wow! Since it's Christmas time, I thought I'd share another interesting  story I heard about Pops and his Christmas tree.

Pops got married to Lucille Wilson, his fourth wife in 1942, and this marriage lasted for almost 30 years until 1971 when he died. Lucille bought a house in Corona (an area in Queens, New York) for her and  Pops to live in and this became  their HOME!! This house is now a Museum, Satchmo House, open daily to the public.

When they were newly wed, Lucile went with Louis on his band tours. It happened to be Christmas time when she stated traveling with Pops so she came up with an idea to buy a Christmas tree  to put in their hotel room. While Louis was out playing a concert she went out secretly to buy a little tree and decorated it  before Louis came back to the hotel room.When he found the tree in their room he became filled with the wonder of childhood. He flopped down on the  bed, put his chin in his hands, and kept looking up and down at the tree, over and over again, as if he was mesmerized by it! Pops kept looking at the tree and would not go to bed, so Lucille asked him why. He told her it was the very first Christmas tree he ever owned. When he was small the family was too poor to have one,and later on he was too busy traveling to have one I guess.

The next day when the band left town to head for the next concert in a new town,  Pops insisted the tree had to go with them. This went on and on as they moved from place to place. When the  tree started to die, Lucille finally succeeded in "talking him in to" throwing it away but not before the tree had traveled with the Louis Armstrong band for several weeks!

In February of 1971,  five months before his death, Armstrong recorded a recitation of "A Night Before Christmas" at his home and it’s on some CDs now. My good friend Jimmie Smith, a fabulous drummer who has many records now on CD recorded in 1977 at the Montreaux Jazz Fest and who played with Ella, Count Basie, Dizzy, Sweet Edison, and Oscar Peterson) has a great saying about Pops. By the way Jimmie  now lives in Japan and plays with our band! He's with us every year when we play for the Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans. His recording with Count Basie is here. As Jimmie puts it "Pops is great. You know you have to pay dues to play real good music". Pops sure paid his  DUES all right!  No Wonder his "Wonderful World" is so great

To Be Continued...

To view Part I &  II  of "Satchmo & New Orleans Changed the World" and other stories by Yoshio Toyama, follow this link.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

New Orleans Jazz Club: The Second Line (Part 4)

To Be Continued...

To view Part I - 3  of the "Second Line" story & other stories by Yoshio Toyama, follow this link.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

Courtesy, Yoshio Toyama. All Images and sound files are property of Yoshio Toyama and may not be linked to another website, copied, or reproduced without permission.

 

The Next Best Thing to Being at a Real New Orleans Jazz Funeral

While laying out Yoshio Toyama's wonderful story about his (and wife Keiko's) first experience of a New Orleans jazz funeral in 1968, it suddenly occurred to me that something vitally important was missing from the story---it was the experience of the music he was describing!  Toyama is indeed a masterful storyteller because while I could picture the jazz funeral in my own imagination,  I found myself  eager to get more into the experience of  the music.

I  wrote to Yoshio (who is living in Japan now) and presented the idea that he should embed sound clips into this story if possible. He was very excited that I had offered this, because he had  been having the exact same thoughts. Actually we were both a little amazed at the synchronicity.  I never dreamed though that he would have in his possession the actual sound clips from that first  jazz funeral in 1968.

Now for you  younger readers  keep in mind there was no such thing as digital in 1968, blogging wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's mind yet,  and recording devices were fairly primitive. That Yoshio and Keiko were at the jazz funeral in 1968 carrying around a recording device to document their experience is just amazing. I told Yoshio how inspired I was by his foresight   - and because he thought ahead we can now experience a little bit of jazz history in real time.

So in case you haven't perused Toyama's latest story it's a good read - and for those of you who already have, it's worth revisiting to listen to the new sound clips we've added. In this way, you can experience the  "rough, very local, earthy sound "of a real New Orleans jazz funeral as it actually happened in 1968. Yoshio says that to really understand the music people need to experience the beauty of a jazz funeral up close and personal. However, for me his story with images and sound published here at Beyond Katrina is the next best thing.  You can catch it here. Enjoy!

Satchmo & New Orleans Changed the World (Part 2)

Our First Jazz Funeral in New Orleans

By: Yoshio Toyama

When I was in high school, getting interested in Jazz and Satchmo, I happened to buy a book in second hand book store, "Satchmo, My Life in New Orleans" by Louis Armstrong. Louis wrote it in 1954 and it is about his life growing up in New Orleans, from 1900 to 1922. July 4th, 1900 was believed to be Pops'  birthday - and he even believed it until  he died. But later in the mid 1980's, jazz historian Tad Jones of New Orleans found a church record of Louis' christening, and found out he was born in 1901, and not in July but  on August 4th.

The  book had fabulous stories written just as Pops talks and it was filled with information of how he grew up in poverty but surrounded by great New Orleans music and great New Orleans musicians much older than him. I had a Japanese-English dictionary in one hand and managed to read it all. Thanks to Pop's book, I learned so much English while struggling with that book! 

In this book, along with his interview in Life Magazine (issued April 15, 1966), the CBS movie "Satchmo The Great", ( Ed Morrow's documentary program on TV later which was later released through United Artist for movie theaters) and on Pop's tour around the world as the Ambassador of Jazz, he always talked about how beautiful music at a Jazz Funeral was, and how he learned so much music from the old time jazz men of New Orleans. He would say, "Talkin' about beautiful music, you should witness a funeral in New Orleans. On the way to the cemetery the band will play funeral marches such as "Flee as a Bird", and guys like King Oliver and Manuel Perez, the trumpeter, will play a melody and express themselves like opera singers. It's real beautiful. Then at the cemetery when the body is buried, the snare drummer will roll up and start playing jazz. And all the raggedy guys and people from the neighborhood starts dancing. They've been waiting for the Onward Brass Band with Joe Oliver and Manuel Perez to play it all ragged".

I'll never forget the first time my wife Keiko and I really saw, heard and marched with a band at a New Orleans funeral. That was in January, 1968 - only about a week after we came to New Orleans for the first time. As I've written before, we got off the immigrant boat "Brazil Maru" at Los Angeles. Jazz Club members there took us in as special guests (simply because we were on our way to New Orleans to learn Jazz), and treated us like a royal family of jazz!! It was sad to leave Los Angeles a week later to fly to New Orleans, but we were so anxious to see the "Birthplace of Jazz" ourselves.

Mr. Allan Jaffe, who came to Japan with the George Lewis Band told us he would take care of us. After Los Angeles we were expecting an even bigger welcome! When we got into New Orleans, Jaffe was out of town, but he left  us a note telling us to see a guy who would take us to a place where we could stay. We found out it would be $60 a month from the first day we occupied it. We were a little spoiled after the BIG treatment we received in L.A.  And when we saw the apartment, on 624 Bourbon, it was terrible ---the window was broken, there was a big pile of garbage in the center of a room, it had roaches and the bed was damp because of the window being broken. There were no working lights in the place and so I had to wait until they could find us a new lamp stand. My wife became quiet and the she started crying. But soon at 8:30 PM,  a joyful sound of real New Orleans Jazz came in to our room through the broken window. Yes! Jaffe had gotten us a room right around the corner in the back of Preservation Hall, our school!  That's how we found out what REAL SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY is all about.

Preservation Hall had authentic jazz every night from 8:30 PM  to 12:30 AM. Many musicians the same age as Pops, and sometimes even older than Pops, were playing their hearts out.  Many players were very primitive but they sure played the strongest swing beat from their whole hearts, and  with all that New Orleans guts!! Sometimes we'd meet people who could not read letters or notes, but they sure played beautiful, soulful music so well!   You'd never believe they couldn't  read music!!

About a week after we came to New Orleans we learned about an upcoming jazz funeral from  Kid Sheik, a trumpet player, who we  later discovered would  always brings us news about parades and jazz funerals happening in the area. The funeral was happening uptown in an area right before you get to  Tulane University, around 9:00 in the morning. At the bar where the parades start, musicians in black brass band uniforms and instruments wrapped up in paper bags (easier than carrying around a heavy case) were starting to gather. With trumpeters signaling "tata tata", members of  the Brass Band gathered and started a parade to the church where the funeral was being held. It was so exciting  to really hear and experience the brass band jazz sound we only had previously listened to on  records!

Sound Clip: Download jazz_funeral_fallen_heroes_1968_jan.wma

The band played hymns such as " Just a Little While to Stay Here" and "We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City" in jazz tempo, until they got to the church. As we went into the church we heard the preacher "shouting the gospel", the  sound of the Hammond organ,  and the moaning humming sound of the blues. We just were over whelmed by the spirit of "the blues" all around us!

Sound Clip: Download new_orleans_church_service_1968.wma

Once the service was finished the casket was brought out of the church and the band started playing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee". The church bells were ringing and you could hear the sounds of the family crying.

Sound Clip: Download wjf_36.wma

(The song playing in the above sound clip is "Nearer My God to Thee". You can hear the sounds of the family crying in the background)

To Download Windows Media go here...

The band started a funeral procession and there we more funeral marches. Now we understood exactly what Louis Armstrong was trying to express about the beauty of the jazz funerals. The funeral was so sad and so moving that tears started rolling down on our cheeks. The trumpets, tenor sax, and clarinets - the music these jazzmen were playing was their way of expressing their feelings in the roughest, simplest, humblest most "bluesy" way.  By the time the procession reached the cemetery, the band was surrounded by two hundred to three hundred African American people, young and old, from little children to  people eighty years old. And after "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" performed to the the jazz beat of the bass drum, they all started dancing the "Second Line" -  A crowd of several hundred were bouncing to the real New Orleans beat played by the band!

Booker T. Bass Drummer

The above photo depicts the Second Line at a Jazz Funeral...

To Be Continued...

To view Part I of "Satchmo & New Orleans Changed the World", go here. To view other stories by Yoshio Toyama, follow this link.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

Copyright, Yoshio Toyama. All Images and sound files are property of Yoshio Toyama and may not be linked to another website, copied, or reproduced without permission.

Japanese Musician and Jazz Lover Gives Back to New Orleans

"Beyond Katrina" Contributor Donating instruments.

Baton Rouge, LA (PRWeb) December 5, 2006 -- While most children are waiting for Dec. 25 to unwrap Christmas gifts, the students in New Orleans public schools have been receiving gifts from half-way around the world from a fellow musician who once lived in New Orleans and grew up a Louis Armstrong fan. In his featured entries on" Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery," Yoshio Toyama recounts when he met Satchmo in Japan in 1964. That meeting and the music of the great jazz musician helped shaped his life. He and his wife are currently sending musical instruments and donations to students and displaced musicians from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

"When we moved to New Orleans in 1968 I found the neighborhood that gave birth to Louis Armstrong and Jazz," explained Toyama at www.hurricane-katrina.org. "This area also happens to be the community that was totally wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005."

Trumpeter and vocalist Yoshio Toyama, 62, has been making a living playing Classic Jazz in Japan and elsewhere for over three decades. Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed from 1968 to 1973 at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, hanging out with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret." Toyama's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong.

The Foundation has been in existence for the past 12 years, but after Katrina devastated New Orleans the Toyama's ramped up their efforts to aid impacted musicians. Most of the more recent work is covered in a recent post at

http://www.hurricane-katrina.org/2006/11/visiting_new_or.html. They have provided more than 600 instruments through the Foundation, many of the schools they supported no longer exist after the storm.

Since the storm, Toyama has donated about $84,000, including the musicians' funds of Lincoln Center Higher Ground, Jazz Foundation for America, Preservation Hall's NOMHRF (New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund), and Arabi Wrecking Krewe.
    
"It was puzzling to me that kids living in the birthplace of jazz had either beaten up instruments or none at all," added Toyama. "In the year since the Katrina disaster, jazz fans and amateur bands from all over Japan held benefit concerts and sent donations and instruments to us, hoping to get them to New Orleans musicians."

Margaret Saizan, creator of www.hurricane-katrina.org, has moved from her day-by-day accounts of the storm and its initial effects to an international, online discussion to inspire recovery, transformation and new vision through the deeper wisdom of crisis.

"I've been amazed at how this storm continues to generate international interest and charity," said blogger Margaret Saizan. "I hope that featured contributors like Yoshio Toyama and the others making a difference post-Katrina will prompt the hundreds of thousands of visitors to my blog to get involved and make a difference long term for any community who experiences crisis."

Since Saizan's first posting on Aug. 28, 2005, hundreds of thousands of readers from more than 172 countries have connected with "Beyond Katrina." The blog was recently awarded the Society for New Communications Research Professional Award. The award honors innovative organizations and professionals who are pioneering the use of social media (i.e., blogs, wikis, podcasts, collaborative tools and other forms of participatory communications) in the areas of marketing, public relations and advertising, politics, entertainment, academics, and community and cultural development.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history - Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

# # #

To view this press release online at PRWEB go here.

Other Releases by Big Vision Media:

• Beyond Katrina Wins National Award 2006-11-09
• Louisiana Photographer Joins Blogger's Online Community, Beyond Katrina, The Voice of Hurricane Disaster Recovery 2006-10-13
• Louisiana Woman Documents Katrina Experience Online 2006-08-25

New Orleans Jazz Club: The Second Line (Part 3)

(courtesy Yoshio & Keiko Toyama - click images to enlarge)

To Be Continued...

To view Part I & 2 of this series along with other stories by Yoshio Toyama click here.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

New Orleans Jazz Club: The Second Line (Part 2)

(Courtesy, Yoshio & KeikoToyama)

To Be Continued...

To view Part I & other stories by Yoshio Toyama click here.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

(Courtesy, Yoshio & KeikoToyama)

To Be Continued...

To view Part I & other stories by Yoshio Toyama click here.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

New Orleans Jazz Club: The Second Line (Part I)

(courtesy, Yoshio & KeikoToyama)

To Be Continued...

To view other stories by Yoshio Toyama click here.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation. 

Satchmo & New Orleans Changed the World

My First Experiences with Pops

By: Yoshio Toyama

Sign in front of the theater advertising Satchmo's first appearance  in Japan. I was too young to attend that concert, but he came back twice afterwards and I attended his second concert in 1963.

My wife and I were in New Orleans from 1968 to 1973 living on 624 Bourbon Street and then on 924 Orleans Street, right in the heart of French Quarter. We feel a strong tie to the city, and a sense that New Orleans is a part of our destiny. We just recently finshed our long term playing engagement at Tokyo Disneyland.  We were 23 years playing Jazz, and for the last 8 years, we were the Dixie Band at the New Orleans Square right in front of Pirates of Caribbean.

I fell in love with Jazz and Satchmo just like many people here in Japan, through records and also Hollywood Movies, such as The Glen Miller Story, The Five Pennies, Jazz on Summer's Day, Satchmo the Great, The Benny Goodman Story, A Song is Born,  and  A High Society, to name a few. For us Japanese the whole American culture was so beautiful, and Jazz was number one!

My fascination for Louis Armstrong began when friends my age were "going for" Modern Jazz. The more I fell in love with Pop's music, the more I wanted to find know all about his life. I discovered he was born in the poorest part of New Orleans. He was arrested for shooting a pistol at age twelve, and as a result he was sent to the Waif's home for Wayward boys (Municipal Boy's Home) - and it was there that he learned to play the trumpet (cornet).

Louis Armstrong learned  his new musical style from the old timers in New Orleans such as Joe "King" Oliver, Bunk Johnson and many local musical geniuses. Louis developed a NEW STYLE of JAZZ and science of SWING that people in the USA  fell in love with and eventually the rest of the world did too!

Many people only know Louis Armstrong as an entertainer and as a big star, but his contribution to jazz is his true legacy. He was influenced by the old New Orleans jazz tradition when he was young and he went on to make many important contributions to jazz. He is credited for laying the foundation for a new style of jazz in the early 1920's.  His influence on jazz music not only changed the tradition forever, it also left lasting impressions on music as a whole. The fact that he was able to accomplish this was so fascinating to me and it was the reason I decided to move to New Orleans with my wife to study jazz. I wanted to see what kind of town gave birth to Jazz and to Satchmo!!

Around the time I discovered Satchmo's music,  George Lewis, a legendary clarinet player came to Japan with his band, along with the manager of Preservation Hall, Alan & Sandra Jaffe. Louis Armstrong came in 1963 and 64. (And also Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Harry James, Ella,  and Art Blakey in the period between 1963 and 1965.)

I will never forget 1964, the year Louis Armstrong came to visit Japan. Between the shows, I sneaked back stage and knocked on the door of his break room. His answer coming from the other side of the door sounded something like gggg...coming from his raspy voice. I opened the door and there he was, The King of Jazz! I said, "hello", and Louis answered with another "gggg". I was so excited I couldn't speak!

I looked around the room and saw his GOLDEN trumpet laying on the table in  his trumpet case with the lid open. I asked if I could see it and he answered with another "gggggg". I was excited and I little bit overwhelmed but I gathered my courage and asked him if I could play his horn. He answered with another "gggggg". That could have meant "no", but since I couldn't understand what he was saying, I went ahead and blew his trumpet! He let me play for a minute or two, then another "gggg" and then he took his trumpet away. As I look back on it I feel embarrassed about how rude I was but he was smiling the whole time I was playing his horn.  Perhaps he was thinking of the past when he was a kid hanging around Joe "King" Oliver, his tutor, and tooting on his horn once in a while.

Pops 1953 in his break room in Japan eating Chinese Ra-men noodles which are very popular in Japan. (copyright, Yoshio Toyama)

To me it is a miracle and so fascinating that the poorest neighborhood in New Orleans produced a child, Lous Armstrong, who went on to create such a new, creative, fun-filled, music and art form that was so loved by people all over the world. Louis, and other great jazz musicians, never went to the conservatory or had any formal musical training. Their music school were the street parades, jazz funerals, neighborhood churches and street cries. Louis himself would shout from buggies, "Ol'  Rags and Bones!", and from coal carts going through the red light district - "Stone coal, 5 cents a bucket!!" The shouting is what developed his strong speaking and singing voice. This musical education was much more vital than any education he would have received from a conservatory or through a formal music school as is typically the path for most American musicians.

When we moved to New Orleans in 1968 I found the neighborhoood that gave birth to Louis Armstrong and Jazz - and it was was still right there in the poorest area of New Orleans. This area also happens to be the community that was totally wiped out by hurricane Katrina in August, 2005.

To Be Continued...

To view Part II of this series, along with other stories by Yoshio Toyama click here.

Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

Copyright, Yoshio Toyama. All Images are property of Yoshio Toyama and may not be linked to another website, copied, or reproduced without permission.