August 18, 2002

Japanese Pianist a Controversial Attraction on Harlem Jazz Tours.

By Kosuke Takahashi

One recent sticky Sunday afternoon, John Beatty, owner of one of Harlem's legendary homes of jazz, The Cotton Club, dimmed the house lights. As the capacity audience of 175 applauded thunderously, six musicians strode onto the stage. One of them—a short and slender Japanese woman dressed in a dark designer suit and black pumps—immediately stood out. To the surprise of some, her keyboard playing during the group’s two half-hour set stole the show.

“Her performance was excellent, super. I liked her solo,” said Zalda Goulari, a Brazilian tourist, referring to the performance of Noriko Kamo, from Hokkaido, Japan.

Kamo is believed to be the only Japanese jazz and gospel musician who regularly performs in Harlem. Her struggle for recognition in the face of discrimination against non-black musicians has been a long and hard one, spanning 15 years.

“If my performance were on the same level as that of American players, the owners and managers of the jazz clubs surely would hire Americans,” she said. “I have had to demonstrate my ability and rise above them.”

　　Kamo has been performing on Harlem stages since the late 1980s. In addition to The Cotton Club, she plays at three other top venues: St. Nick's Pub, M & S Front Line, and Londel's Restaurant.

Born to a piano-teacher mother, music has long been a passion of Kamo. She graduated from a Christian university in Tokyo, then started her piano career by working a couple of years at several jazz clubs in Tokyo. In her late 20s, she decided to travel to Harlem to study and play with the storied jazz musicians of Manhattan.

At that time, in the mid-1980s, many Japanese viewed Harlem with a mix of awe and apprehension. Harlem had a bad name in Japan, conjuring up images of crime and drugs. But Kamo was undaunted. “In Harlem, many top jazz musicians have continued to develop jazz into the present day. I came here to pursue the real jazz,” she said.

However, not everyone has been pleased with Kamo’s success on the increasingly hot Harlem Jazz circuit. Some in the tourism industry take a dim view of a Japanese performer being a spotlighter at a famous Harlem tourist attraction. Among them is Toshiaki Tomita, a 63-year-old Japanese native, who is president of Harlem Soul Tours Inc. and a member of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. He has given tours of Harlem to Japanese tourists for 15 years—almost exactly the same time that Kamo has played there.

“A lot of my clients come to Harlem all the way from Japan, thinking they'll see black people,” huffed Tomita. “They are always surprised and shocked to see Kamo playing jazz here.” For this reason, he admitted having tried to ban her from performing, putting pressure on club owners and managers at several Harlem clubs.

Does Kamo mind such efforts to keep her down? Not at all. She has been fighting against people like Tomita all her professional life.

Of course, she has lots of supporters in the Harlem jazz community willing to sing her praises. John Beatty, owner of The Cotton Club, said, “She has a strong music background and lots of talent. She is very professional too.”

Helen Slade, a spiritual singer who performs with Kamo every Sunday at The Cotton Club, said: “She is great. Her playing brings spirit to our heart. She shows us the satisfaction of serving God. We love her.”

What does bother Kamo is the recent and rapid commercialization of Harlem Jazz, which she says panders to international tourism. “Many musicians are coming to play jazz in more understandable ways to tourists, living up to owners’ and managers’ expectations. For those expectations, we musicians tend to sacrifice our creativity and originality, which are crucial to jazz.”

To respond to tourists’ expectations, many jazz clubs such as St. Nick's Pub have already placed top R&B and hip-hop albums in their jukeboxes. Some jazz clubs are even holding Karaoke parties every week to attract tourists.

“Owing to tourists, the Harlem Renaissance is starting over again,” said John Beatty, owner of The Cotton Club. Before the Sept.11 terrorist attacks, tourists generated about sixty-five percent of its total revenue every month; now they account for about fifty percent of it.

A similar drop off has occurred at St. Nick's Pub, but tourist volume is starting to return to pre-Sept.11 levels. “Thanks to tourists, our business has been picking up since last March,” said Earl Spain, the club’s cigar-smoking owner.

Many musicians are also welcoming the return of tourists. Bill Saxton, a famous jazz veteran, who currently plays sax at St. Nick's Pub on Fridays, said, “Tourists are very important. We can’t play for free. Jazz is business. Jazz is money.”

Such commercial concerns are of no interest to Kamo. “I want to strive to pursue the true jazz,” she said with more than a little pride.