Blues @ 3 Quarks Daily [East Asian style]

I’ve taken eight examples from my current series on the blues and written an article for 3 Quarks Daily:

Tell me about the blues, 3 Quarks Daily, April 25, 2022
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2022/04/tell-me-about-the-blues.html

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The blues has long since made its way around the world. I’ve got two examples from East Asia. The first is a 2014 edition of the Big Friendly Jazz Orchestra (BFJO) from Takasago High School in Japan. They’re playing a Basie tune, by Frank Foster, which I examined here. That was the Basie Band in 1959. I’m guessing that the parents of most of these Japanese students (notice that most of them are young women) weren’t even alive then.

Blues In Hoss’ Flat (Frank Foster) / BFJO 2014 team Ota, with Guest Players

They’re not all high school students. There are some adult ringers. Listen to their ensemble work. How tight! I'd like to think of Frank Foster is grinning from ear while listening to this performance.

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This one, from Korea, is a bit more recent, 2019. Kwak Dakyung is sitting in on a blues jam. She appears to be about 10 years old here. I devoted a post to her about a year ago.

[윤아트홀] Blues Jam - 곽다경 (재즈 트럼펫 / Jazz Trumpet)

The first tune is a minor key blues. It appears to me that her father (the bass player) just tossed her into the fray, leaving it up to her to figure out what to do. Listen to her testing things out during the guitar and piano solos, figuring out where things lay. Now she’s got it, 3:23. Now she dialogs with the guitar, 4:31. Now we pick up the tempo, 5:49. But you don’t need me to point out what’s going on, do you? She’s still figuring it out.

But then aren’t we all?

Here's a blues playlist I put together at YouTube, though some non-blues tunes managed to slip in.