Toots Thielemans
Feb 3&4

Born in Belgium 1922, Jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans (nicknamed after the musicians Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata) is still packing in the audiences and even with his 84th birthday on the horizon he's showing no signs of waning.

Toots first began playing the harmonica as a hobby but was soon to find that it was his forte. He's also an accomplished guitar player (his first idol was Django Reinhardt) and was also playing the accordion at just three years old. Some people are born with a natural talent for music and Toots Thielemans is one of those people. In fact it has been said that seeing him play is like 'seeing the man become the music'.

After getting a break on Benny Goodman's European tour in 1950 Toots decided that if he was to pursue his music career seriously then he'd have to leave Europe and so in 1952 he emigrated to the US. Once there, he found himself as a member of Charlie Parker's Allstars. After this he took a longer-term position with pianist George Shearing that lasted six years.

Over the past fifty years Toots has been asked to play alongside such greats as Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald and Jaco Pastorius as well as contemporaries such as Paul Simon and Billy Joel. Other (unusual) credits to his CV include playing solo harmonica on Sesame Street and whistling on an Old Spice commercial (apparently Toots invented the art of whistling and playing the guitar at the same time). He also has a few film scores to his name, including Midnight Cowboy and The Getaway.

Many complimentary words have been said over the years about Toots Thielemans but the best quote has to be one from fellow musician Quincy Jones, 'he's one of the greatest musicians of out time, he goes for the heart and makes you cry'.

Osaka Blue Note
Time: 6:30pm/9:30pm Entry: ¥6,400-¥8,400
Tel: 06-6342-7722 Genre: Jazz Harmonica

Royskopp

Feb 4

The duo of Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge that is Royskopp bring their unique brand of electronic, ambient, rock pop to Club Quattro as part of a three-date short trip to Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka).

They released their debut album Melody AM in 2001 for which they were nominated for a Brit Award (Best International Group), and won an MTV Europe Award (Best Video). On the back of this album, which sold over 1 million copies, they were invited to tour with Moby exposing them to much larger audiences than they'd experienced whilst performing live in their own right.

The music itself is addictive, ambient melodies, electric pop beats and as one critic put it 'lush atmospherics'.
Their second album, released in the summer of last year was a long time in coming, that ever-difficult follow-up as a band strives to recapture the success of their debut. The Understanding though has been described as even better than the first.

So why did it take almost four years between the two releases? The band explain that they had to get 'bigger hair', 'it's part of the process you go through, the longer the hair and the beard, the more Beaujolais you drink. It's stage three of the seven stages of song-writing'.

You dread to think what the other four stages could be! More Beaujolais?

Club Quattro, Osaka
Entry: ¥6,000 Time: 7pm Tel: 06-6535-5569
Genre: Euro-Electric Pop Rock

The Subways
Feb. 11

Hailed by UK music magazine NME as the 'sexiest thing to sweep rock 'n' roll off its feet for years', The Subways got their big break when they won the Glas- tonbury Festival Unsigned Performers Competition in 2004.

The band comprises of brothers Josh Morgan on drums, who admits to being 'a bit nutty' in younger days so his parents gave him a drum kit to calm him down, and Billy Lunn on guitar and vocals, who took his mothers maiden name of Lunn for the stage, plus Charlotte Cooper on Bass and vocals.

The two brothers proudly claim that they were raised on their father's record collection listening to everything from The Carpenters to AC/DC, which explains the wide variety of styles in their music. If you're expecting a straightforward three-piece rock-combo then you're in for a welcome surprise. Their music is a mixture of extremes, pop and metal, blues and grunge, punk and acoustic. It sounds like the most unlikely marriages of styles but somehow it works and it works to great effect.

Their debut album 'Young For Eternity' was released through Infectious records and has been described as full of 'manic pop thrills and teenage kicks'. As for the songs themselves, Lunn explains that 'these songs are my life'.
And for the future they have this to say, 'we're going to work hard and make sure that the people who come to hear our music have a good time'.

Club Quattro, Osaka
Entry: ¥5,500-¥6,000. Time: 6pm Tel: 06-6281-8181. Genre: Rock

Wei Wei Wu
Feb 25

Chinese violinist now resident in Tokyo, Wei Wei Wu began playing classical violin at just five years old. Practicing western music every day at a time when China was going through a cultural revolution was not though a wise choice so her father, then a well known Shanghai composer, used to draw the curtains of their home so as to encou-rage as little public attention as possible.
Wei Wei attended the Shangai Music Institute from age nine and this road inevi-tably led her towards a professional career in music.

What's surprising though, and extremely refreshing, is that Wei Wei Wu, now using the Chinese erhu two-stringed violin, hasn't followed the same traditionalistic route of many Chinese erhu players. In fact her last album Wei Wei Wu Plays Burt Bacharach epitomises this distance quite clearly. Her music has been described as a mixture of jazz, classical, world, Chinese and 60s Euro-contempo.

Her debut album Memories Of The Future was released in 2002 and her second album Shanghai Red swiftly followed a year later in 2003. This work led to an invita-tion to record with Ryuichi Sakamoto, which she gladly accepted.

Osaka Blue Note
Entry: ¥4,500-¥6,500. Time: 6:30pm/9:30pm
Tel: 06-6342-7722. Genre: Jazz/World

Live Listings February

2/3-4
Toots Thielemans @ Blue Note, Osaka. 6.30pm/9.30pm. ¥6,400-¥8,400.
Tel: 06-6342-7722. Jazz Harmonica.
2/4
Royksopp @ Club Quattro, Osaka. 7pm. ¥6,000.
Tel: 06-6535-5569.
Euro-Rock/Pop
2/8-9
Jim Hall & Geoffrey Keeler @ Blue Note, Osaka. 6.30pm/ 9.30 pm. ¥6,400-¥8,400. Tel: 06-6342-7722. Jazz
2/9-10
Aiko @ Zepp, Osaka. 7pm. ¥4,400. Tel: 06-6344-3326. J-Rock/ Pop/Female Vocal.
2/11
The Subways @ Club Quattro, Osaka. 6pm. ¥5,500-¥6,000. Tel: 06-6281-8181. Indie/Rock.
2/12
Franz Ferdinand & The Magic Numbers @ Zepp, Osaka. 6pm. ¥6,800. Tel: 06-6535-5569. Rock.
2/12
Shakalabbits @ Namba Hatch,Osaka. 6pm. ¥4,500. Tel: 06-6233-8888. J-Rock.
2/14-16
Toxic Audio @ Namba Hatch,Osaka. 7.30pm. ¥6,000.
Tel: 06-6362-7301. Theatrical A Cappella.
2/14
The Prodigy @ Zepp, Osaka. 7pm. ¥6,800.
Tel: 06-6233-8888. Rock Fusion.
2/15
Richard Bona @ Blue Note, Osaka. 6.30pm /9.30pm. ¥5,500-¥7,500. 06-6342-7722. Jazz Fusion Bass.
2/18
Ellegarden @ Zepp, Osaka. 6.30pm. ¥2,800. Tel: 06-6233-8888. J-Rock.
2/18
Fried Pride @ Rag, Kyoto. 7.30pm. ¥4,000-¥5,000.
Tel: 075-241-0446. Jazz Guitar & Vocal.
2/19
The Ordinary Boys @ Club Quattro, Osaka. 7pm. ¥5,000-¥5,500. Tel: 06-6281-8181. Indie/Rock.
2/20
Switchfoot @ Club Quattro, Osaka. 7pm. ¥5,800-¥6,300. Tel: 06-6281-8181. Rock.
2/20
Blendy Mother Father @ Bahama, Osaka. 6.30pm. ¥1,800. Tel: 06-6211-3504. J-Rock/Pop.
2/20-21
Shakatak @ Blue Note, Osaka. 6.30pm/9.30pm. ¥6,400-¥8,400.
Tel: 06-6342-7722. Urban Fusion
2/23-24
Aiko @ Zepp, Osaka. 7pm. ¥4,400. Tel: 06-6344-3326. J-Rock/ Pop/Female Vocal.
2/24
Punkrockers Bowl @ Club Quattro, Osaka. 7pm. ¥3,500. Tel: 06-6281-8181. Punk
2/25
Wei Wei Wu @ Blue Note, Osaka. 6.30pm/9.30pm. ¥4,500-¥6,500.
Tel: 06-6342-7722. World Music
2/25
Ah Wootrapp @ Fandango, Osaka. 7pm. ¥2,800. Tel: 06-6535-5569. Punk
2/26
AhWootrap @ Metro, Kyoto. 7pm. ¥2,800.
Tel: 06-6535-5569. Punk
2/26
Four Corners @ Rag, Kyoto. 7.30pm. ¥4,000-¥4,500.
Tel: 075-241-0446. Fusion.
2/27-28
Matt Bianco @ Blue Note, Osaka. 6.30pm/9.30pm. ¥6,400-¥8,400.
Tel: 06-6342-7722. Jazz Pop.
2/28
Extreme the Dojo @ Big Cat, Osaka. 6.15pm. ¥7,000.
Tel: 06-6535-5569. Metal.

Compiled by Phillip Jackson