Stu, Bob, Joshua

The first interview I interpreted after Lasik is Stu Hamm. One of truly great bass players who has a great sense of humor. It was only 3 days after my surgery. My eyes were okay but I got a headache every time I looked at the computer screen more than 1 hour so I ended up asking my friend Aki to transcribe it for the magazine. She did a great job. Thanks, Aki!

Stu told us his 10 year old daughter Charlotte read Japanese when we gave him the latest issue of Bass Magazine right before his interview. I asked how come and he said, the public school she goes to is one of the best schools in SF, has a great education system and the Japanese class is a part of that system. Wow! He says she communicates easily in Japanese with Japanese Sushi chefs. She played in a marching band at Sakura (cherry blossom) Festival in SF while her father was in Japan. He wanted to bring her to Japan this time but decided not to because of that festival.

I'm always amazed by great players when they capture the right timing to speak after I interpret what he/she has said. Stu is one of the best interviewees I have worked with. It's like he understands my Japanese. He just knows where to speak again without my giving him a signal. I find many bass players and drummers are good at it. Lead instruments... I rather wait for them to finish trying not to insert my translation in between. Isn't it interesting that the way they talk shows the way they play?

The next interview is with Bob Brozman, 2 days after Stu. A great steel guitar player who has amazing techniques and plays interesting guitars. I don't know much about technique but his guitar sounds so good, so comfortable. It was breathtaking when he started playing in the studio to record a couple of songs for a magazine.

I met him for the first time a couple of years ago and he talked a lot about his approach and philosophy to music then. It was very interesting and had a great time listening to him but eventually gave me a hard time to transcribe it later. It was long and so much information in it. This time, it wasn't difficult at all because I knew what he would answer to certain questions. Plus he now knows how Japanese people speak English. As the interviewer understands English, my job was pretty easy although he needed my interpretation when it came to something related to human brain function and philosophical aspects of playing music.

I love those subjects but many of Japanese music journalists don't. They are more into techniques, tones of instruments and how players play them. One of my favorite answers I often hear from players is, sound comes from your fingers, not from the instrument nor great techniques you have, they help you but they don't create your sound. Truly true, right?

Yesterday, it was Joshua Redman. The funny thing is he said, " Have I met you before? You look so familiar," right after I introduced myself. I'm 100% sure that I hadn't met him but strangely I felt the same. Maybe in our previous lives? Or maybe because our birthday is same? Anyway, it was a good interview. I only had 4 basic questions from the interviewer and we only had 30 minutes for both of interview and photo shoot. I actually interviewed him based on the interviewer's questions. This works well especially when we don't have much time. 

Many of the answers to what I asked Joshua can be found on his website but he kindly answered to them all. Thanks, Joshua! It must have been boring ;)    I also asked him a silly question during a photo shoot, which is "How many times have you been to Japan?" He said, "19 times." Oops! It's obvious I don't know anything about him. Oh well, I admit I'm not so crazy about Jazz. I just don't feel the beauty of it for some reason. But hopefully asking him such a question might turn out a proof we had not met before.

Golden Week (Japanese longest holiday season) starts on April 29. It drives magazine editors crazy as usual but it's going to be a nice time off for me to help my eyes heal. I'm having fun looking for what to do then at the moment...