JJ January 2018
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Akira Tana_0118JJ 8/12/17 13:58 Page 10 With Sonny Rollins: ‘This was the first time I had been out Akira Tana on the road playing that kind of intense music, and so it was very physically and men- Personable percussionist tally draining, but it was a valuable experience ... we’d RANDY SMITH hears tales from one of the drummers mostly widely travelled be playing two-hour sets because he just gets going in the swing and bop circles of the 1970s and 80s, among older generation and he doesn’t stop’ survivors such as Zoot Sims, Sonny Stitt and James Moody “I was in a rock band, probably in the 8th or 9th grade, and the guys in the band were a couple years older than me. So he [fellow band member] didn’t like the record and he sold it to me for a dollar. I heard Miles Davis and it aroused my curiosity because I didn’t understand what they were doing. But the sound was overwhelming”. While attending Boston’s Harvard University in the early 70s, Tana cultivated a friendship with drummer Billy Hart that sparked his nascent interest in jazz percussion. Hart sug- gested Akira seek out veteran drummer Alan Dawson at Berklee College of Music. There followed one and a half years of intensive tutelage under Dawson that taught him tech- niques and exercises he employs to this day, both in his own teaching and in his playing. Following graduation from Harvard in 1974, Tana entered the New England Conservatory of Music where he gained a sold grounding in classical percussion. He also gigged whenever possible: “I spent a majority of my time learn- ing orchestral percussion while doing any kira Tana is an extremely talented translated from the Japanese means “sound kind of gigs to support myself, including play- musician ... highly respected by me circle”. The group was formed in the wake of ing for strippers down at the Combat Zone in “A and his peers ... a beautiful, respect- the 2011 Tohoku, Japan earthquake and Boston – they used to have organ trios”. ful human being whose family and mine have tsunami disaster. Along with like-minded During these Boston years in the mid-to-late been close for many years”. These laudatory colleagues Art Hirahara (piano), Masaru Koga 70s, an acquaintance with drummer Keith words came from the then 89-year-old saxo- (reeds) and bassist Noriyuki “Ken” Okada, phone legend Jimmy Heath in response to an Copeland led Tana to temporary jobs with Otonowa has released an eponymous album established jazz musicians including Helen emailed request for comments about the time featuring fresh jazz versions of Japanese folk Tana spent as drummer for the Heath Brothers Humes. Recalls Tana, “Whatever work he melodies, and also made several benefit tours [Copeland] couldn’t do he would ask me to band. A similar query sent to piano veteran of the Tohoku region. Junior Mance (87 years old) yielded this sub for him, and one was Helen Humes with emphatic statement: “Akira is a damn good So how did Akira Tana arrive at this point in Major Holley and Gerry Wiggins”. Other drummer and he can keep time with the best his career? To find out I arranged a Skype notable associations included providing of them as he is the best”. interview. Here are some highlights from an rhythm for the likes of Sonny Stitt and Milt enjoyable encounter with this charming and Jackson. The week-long Stitt date proved Such remarks help one appreciate why Akira personable jazz artist. To begin with, I con- especially memorable. has been the choice of so many musicians for firmed his birthdate of 15 March 1952 in San working gigs and recording sessions. A very “Sonny Stitt, he was pretty drunk, and James short listing of his important musical collab- Jose, CA, and asked how his parents, both Williams, the pianist, and I were fairly young orators includes Art Farmer, Al Cohn, Zoot Japanese immigrants, had influenced him: compared to his generation. But the bassist, Sims, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim “My mother was a tanka poet, and played John Neves, was of Sonny’s generation, so Hall, Johnny Hartman, Jimmy Rowles, Kenny koto and piano .... so in terms of artistic influ- there were a couple times when Sonny would Burrell, Jackie Byard and Claudio Roditi. Also ence, it was probably from my mother”. turn around and start screaming at me and on his resumé are extended stints with the Akira’s mother rented him a snare drum when James, and of course, we were intimidated, Heath Brothers, Paquito D’Rivera, the Art he was still in primary school, his initial first of all, by his genius, but also by his Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet, and James encounter with a percussion instrument. He behaviour. But John Neves knew how to deal Moody. And with bassist Rufus Reid, he co- also had piano lessons and played a bit of with that, and when someone wolfed at him led a group called TanaReid that toured and trumpet. He began playing drums in rock he wolfed right back, and he told Sonny, produced a number of recordings over a bands early on and first evinced interest in ‘Shut the fuck up and play’. Which he did, he nearly nine-year period in the 1990s. jazz when he acquired a copy of the Miles turned around and just played”. Among his recent projects is Otonowa, which Davis LP, Miles Smiles. Perhaps the highlight of Akira Tana’s Boston 10 JAZZ JOURNAL AKIRA TANA Akira Tana_0118JJ 8/12/17 13:58 Page 11 Akira Tana sojourn occurred in 1978 when he had a they used for big orchestras, Toscanini and all chance to work for one of his idols, saxo- those people, and we were really spread out. I phone great Sonny Rollins. Again, the invita- couldn’t hear the piano, I couldn’t hear any- tion came about thanks to a friendship with a body. I was in a corner on the other side of the fellow musician, Jerome Harris, a Rollins room, and so I asked Norman Granz ‘Can I bassist at the time. have a set of headphones? I can’t hear any- “Sonny was kind of in between bands and body’. And he started giving me this lecture drummers, so Jerry said ‘Sonny is conducting that I didn’t need headphones, that musicians auditions for drummers in New York, you from a different era never used headphones want to go down and try out?’ So I went and stuff like that. It kind of upset me a little, down there, showed up at the rehearsal studio and I said ‘I can’t hear what Zoot’s playing, I – I was the first one there – and Sonny and I can’t hear what Jimmy Rowles is playing, I just played duets for a half hour, 45 minutes, need to have a set of headphones’. So he gave or something like that. That was like a dream them to me so I could hear. That’s probably come true, you’re in the same room all by something I’ll never forget about the record- yourself with Sonny Rollins! There were two ing session”. or three other drummers, piano players, gui- Other associations following Akira’s move to tar players, but he asked me to stick around New York included working with people like all day. I stuck around and at the end he came Art Farmer and Carol Sloane. An extended out and asked me if I could do this two-week gig with the Heath Brothers, Jimmy and Percy tour with him”. (1979-82), resulted in several LPs that helped Working with Rollins proved an intense establish his name. It was a busy time for the experience for the young drummer: “I had drummer, and he was in the recording studios been doing a few things around town with often. One memorable session was James Helen Humes and people like that. This was Moody’s Sweet And Lovely date in 1989. the first time I had been out on the road play- “He [James] was saying ‘There’s a friend of ing that kind of intense music, and so it was mine that’s gonna come in and record with very physically and mentally draining, but it us, he should be showing up pretty soon’. He was a valuable experience ... we’d be playing didn’t tell us who it was – and I think he was Tom Wacha two-hour sets because he just gets going and just messing with us – but it was Dizzy. So getting. But it was a great experience; we got he doesn’t stop”. Dizzy came in and recorded three or four to tour and play our music”. songs, and I remember one – it was a kind of The musical alliances Akira forged in Boston Since moving back to the San Francisco Bay shuffle blues – and they started scatting and facilitated his transition to New York City area for family reasons at the end of the 90s, singing and the engineer, Jim Anderson, was when he moved there at the end of the Tana has maintained an active presence on able to create something that sounded like decade to begin his professional career. Much the local scene while making the occasional a vocal track. They got nominated for a of his success hinged on being in the right Japan tour. And though he admits to missing Grammy for best jazz vocal that year”.