Kalo Posted June 29, 2005 Report Share Posted June 29, 2005 Haruki Murakami's story in the July issue of Harper's Magazine begins with fairly extended discussions of personal experiences he's had related to jazz music, specifically attending a Tommy Flanagan gig (at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA), and buying Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams albums. The story veers away from these topics pretty quickly, but it sounds like Murakami should be posting on Organissimo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted June 30, 2005 Report Share Posted June 30, 2005 It is well known that Murakami is a big jazz fan. He has written two books, Portraits in Jazz Vol. 1 and 2, but unlike his wonderful novels, I don't believe these have been translated into English. Basically these are, as the titles suggest, brief portraits of a number of his favourite artists. A CD with the same title was released also. I read somewhere that he has an enormous jazz record/CD collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted June 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2005 (edited) Well-known in Japan, perhaps. Too bad the jazz volumes haven't been translated. Are they similar to British author Geoff Dyer's jazz reverie, But Beautiful? (Highly recommended, BTW, if you haven't read it yet.) What's your favorite novel that HAS been translated into English, JohnJ? I need to catch up on Murakami. Edited June 30, 2005 by Kalo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted June 30, 2005 Report Share Posted June 30, 2005 To be honest I have only glanced at the jazz volumes as reading anything but fairly basic Kanji takes me forever and I don't have the patience. Murakami is very popular in many countries and all of his novels are quickly translated into English and other languages, the most recent, 'Kafka on the Shore' was on the bestseller lists all over Europe. I read recently that he may already be the biggest ever selling Japanese author in the west. I like all of his work, but my favourite may be 'A Wild Sheep Chase' for Murakami at his magic realist best. Murakami is a big Raymond Chandler fan and this novel is sometimes referred to as 'The Big Sheep'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Dorward Posted June 30, 2005 Report Share Posted June 30, 2005 I didn't actually like A Wild Sheep Chase all that much but have been enjoying The Wind-up Bird Chronicles. Yes, there are references to jazz all over the place in the novels (e.g. Eric Dolphy gets a passing mention in TWUBC). Pity that his writing on jazz hasn't been translated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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