This year’s Summer Jazz Party at Taipei’s National Concert Hall got off to a rootsy start several weeks ago, with performances from New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band and American guitarist John Scofield and the Piety Street Band, whose sound draws from blues and gospel.
But tonight the annual jazz festival, now in its sixth year, shifts gears with Japanese fusion band T-Square, whose style some will recognize as a combination of jazz, rock and pop. The four-piece formed as The Square in 1976 and changed its name to T-Square when it started touring the US in the late 1980s. Earlier this year they released their 35th studio album, Discoveries.
Those unfamiliar with the fusion jazz genre might think T-Square’s music sounds like sound tracks for television programs or video games, which isn’t far off the mark. Their jams are tightly orchestrated and full of rock verve and melodrama.
The band has left a few footprints in popular Japanese culture: saxophonist Takeshi Ito appeared in a Suntory whisky commercial in 1984, and more recently the group’s composition Islet Beauty was featured in a McDonald’s commercial for iced coffee. Guitarist and bandleader Masahiro Andoh composed songs for Sony PlayStation games Arc the Lad and Gran Turismo.
T-Square creates its sound with a palette full of pianos, electronic keyboards, electric guitars, saxophones and bass guitar.
But one particular instrument to watch for live is Takeshi Ito’s EWI, or electronic wind instrument. Designed and played like a soprano saxophone, the EWI is basically an electronic synthesizer for horn players. The keys do not move but have sensors that respond to finger movement, which allows for lightning-fast playing.
The Summer Jazz Party concludes on Sept. 25 with the UK-based American singer and Grammy nominee Stacey Kent.
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