Jazz Greats Anthology

Author: Haruki Murakami (Japanese) Translated by Lin Shaohua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-09-01
Features: This is a rare opportunity in a thousand years—when two Japanese super jazz fans met, allowing twenty-six contemporary American jazz talents to come together in one collection. Painter Wada Makoto has listened to "jazz of all types and periods," and meeting Murakami was no small feat—"he spent most of his life with jazz," "during a certain period, he even made it his job." Thus, both of them brought their mastery of jazz to the fore. Wada's twenty-six illustrations are naturally elegant and seamless, ingenious yet understated; Murakami's twenty-six essays are even more brilliant and extraordinary. Take this line: "Whenever Parker was about to surge or dissolve in the sweet melody and imagery, Gillespie would decisively blow fresh air to reinforce the banks, and at times of mist and haze, he would use 'yesterday's blade' to cut through." Such a fluid, dazzling long sentence—you'd find it hard to come across in Murakami's other works.