A History of Blues Reception by the Japanese

2023/06/09

Blues! What comes to mind when you hear the word? "St. Louis Blues?" (born in the early Showa era); for younger generations, it might be asserted as "It's Eric Clapton." Recently, it might be "Wages aren't rising, and what's with this decline of Japan?"—that too is the blues.

The pre-war "St. Louis Blues" was a pioneer of Japanese kayokyoku blues, so to speak, and Clapton greatly expanded the blues-listening population. However, music called "the blues" must first and foremost be Black blues. This is because it is a foundational music with a tradition distinct from both jazz and rock.

It seems the blues is at the foundation of jazz; some folk songs include folk blues, and there is the concept of the "blues impulse"—then in the 1960s, rock music that had thoroughly digested the blues also became popular.

At the time, even if you walked all over Tokyo, there were almost no blues (or R&B) records. I would place a special order, wait about three months for it to arrive by sea, and pay over 2,000 yen (at an exchange rate of $1 = 360 yen) for a $3 or $4 LP record that I finally got my hands on. It was a world away from "one-click" shopping. Without understanding the system or history of the blues, I pieced together fragments of knowledge. I even remember handing out flyers for record concerts on the Mita Campus.

From that era until around 1980, when the blues became established, I started a company with "Blues" in its name in 1975. I wrote and edited this book with Akira Kochi, collecting reviews that reflect the reception of the time from "The Blues" magazine we published—full of misunderstandings, prejudices, and major discrepancies in evaluation—retaining some of the original mimeographed and typed characters. It looks back on the blues as it was discussed with extraordinary fervor while illuminating its future. On every page, the pounding pulse toward a vast, unknown music throbs.

In an era when the unwavering king B.B. King was disparaged as a "servile entertainer," and we sought what shone in the darkness fifty years ago, many young listeners also asked for a record to be kept. Mixed with my hobby of Black folk art and featuring many color illustrations, it has become a book as heavy as the blues itself.

A History of Blues Reception by the Japanese

Yasufumi Higurashi

P-Vine

368 pages, 4,620 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.