After an onslaught of metal at Formoz 2001, the Taiwan Rock Alliance decided to add a little diversity this year. The headliners invited from Japan all belong to different genres: Brahman -- hardcore, Mono -- post punk alternative, Exias-J -- experimental jazz, and Jack or Jive, well. ...
"In Germany these days people listen to Jack or Jive with eyes closed, like meditation," said Makoto, whose part in the band is musical arrangements and mixing.
"We think our music is of no genre," he said.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TRA
In European music shops, Jack or Jive CDs are often put in the Gothic category. Reviews have also associated the band's music with a rather esoteric genre known as "heavenly voices."
Founded in 1989, the band only has two members, Chako and Makoto Hattori. They've been married since 1992. While Makoto remains mostly behind the scenes handling technical aspects of the music, Chako acts as a sort of oracle for the music. As a stage presence, she is a visual spectacle of wild or spikey hair, flowing priestess gowns, strange talismans and heavy, morbidly styled makeup. It's a look which certainly presents overlaps with Gothic or Japanese visual rock.
As part of Jack or Jive, Chako composes the songs and performs them in a kind of improvised, trans-lingual vocal style. She once described it, saying, "there are no lyrics at all in our songs. No words at all. I don't sing in Japanese or English. It's just a kind of fantasy language."
According to Makoto, when she performs, she is in something of a trance-like state. "Chako, [she has] concentration in the performance, so she cannot see the people, what they are doing," he said, then adding that the effect was a "ritual feeling."
Jack or Jive's live performances have a heavy visual element, which Makoto said springs from the same source as the music. He described Chako as conceiving of both at the same time -- a process which dictates what kinds of lighting or effects will be used in performance.
Conceptually, he described performances as a "new type of opera without a story." But because both images and story elements are delivered in the performance, the viewer is free to take his or her own images and story from the performance.
The band's largest project to date culminated in the 2000 release -- one of about 20 CDs they've recorded in the last 13 years -- of a complete opera composed by Chako. Legend of Biwako was the result of a commission by the Japanese opera singer, Noriko Yamamoto, who was terminally ill with cancer. The opera told the story of a sacred lake in Japan's Shiga prefecture, impressionistically painting a picture of the coexistence of man and nature.
Though Jack or Jive admits to few influences -- Makoto said that Chako "usually doesn't listen to music much" because she's afraid of "bad influence" -- some connections are admitted. Other than Western opera, Makoto mentioned kabuki dance, Noh theater and strains of Buddhist thought, though he went on to say that they weren't really religious and he doesn't consider Jack or Jive to be interested in adapting those classical forms.
So in the end, what is Jack or Jive all about? Are they weird and new agey and spiritual in a non-specific religious kind of way? Well yeah, maybe. But all Makoto will say is that in a successful performance, "People listen to the music. Not loud, very quiet. And when it was over, big hand clap. It was great for us."
Perhaps its best to see for yourself. Jack or Jive is scheduled to perform at Formoz on Sunday at 6:50pm in Chungshan Hall.
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