(日) A Life in 2020, “The Kohta Chapters”

誰もが経験しているように、2020年は混乱を極める1年となった。目まぐるしく変化する状況の中、先の計画を立てることは難しく、それでもなお現状に適応することを強いられる。気ぜましく不安な生活を送ることとなったが、幸いなことに、それでも今日の時点では、少しの冷静さと過去の瞬間を慈しむ気持ちをもってこの1年を振り返りることができる。私の2020年を5つの音楽で表現し、”A Life in 2020, The Kohta Chapters”と名前をつけた。一緒にこのストーリーを体験してもらえると嬉しい。

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A Life in 2020, “The Kohta Chapters”

As everyone has experienced, the year 2020 has become one of the most chaotic years in our lives. Relentless changes did not allow me to set clear plans, but still forced me somehow to adapt myself to the situation. The situation kept me busy and anxious, however today, with a more calm mental perspective, I can look back this year at my past-self, and cherish each moment that taught me so much. “A Life in 2020, The Kohta Chapters” is an exhibition of five songs which chronologically reflects each moment of my life in 2020. I hope viewers and listeners will experience this turning of pages of my story.

Chapter 1 : “Lush Life” (Billy Strayhorn)

In March, Kohta was in Boston. A Massachusetts’ stay-at-home-advisory was put into effect. With rising concerns, what would happen to his life next…?

Solo performance by Kohta Nakai.

Chapter 2 : “Inner Urge” (Joe Henderson)

In May, Kohta was bored of being bored. One day, he found an email from his mentor and great pianist Kevin Harris. It came with an attachment, it was a… Funk Rhythm Track!

Virtual duo performance by Kohta Nakai “A” and Kohta Nakai “B”.

Chapter 3 : “Straight Ahead” (Kenny Dorham)

In July, desiring the joy of playing with friends, Kohta’s band tried a remote jam. BUT, there was a big obstacle, LATENCY. How would this remote jam be a success…?

Personnel
– Benjamin Orlin (Tp)
– Kohta Nakai (Pf)
– Ian Quinton Banno (Ba)
– Cristián Tamblay (Ds)

Chapter 4 : “Shinjuku Twilight” (Eddie Higgins)

In September, a sudden change came about. Kohta had to abandon his residence in Boston and return to Japan. Holding on to the dream of finishing his studies in Boston, Kohta understood this dream would not come to fruition as he had originally planned.

Personnel
– Kohta Nakai (Pf)
– Makoto Ishizaka (Ba)
– Yuki Koizumi (Ds)

Chapter 5 : “Breakfast in Tokyo” (Rakto Zjaca)

In November, with a new found momentum and acceptance of the way things had now become, Kohta started looking ahead, with a renewed determination.

Personnel
– Kohta Nakai (Pf)
– Makoto Ishizaka (Ba)
– Yuki Koizumi (Ds)

Tensions

Here to share a quick summary and findings from “Tension” menu of “Jazz Standards Statistics“.

For tension chord analysis, we have several viewpoints; “where” tension chord appears, “what chord quality” have more tensions, “which tension” is used, etc. For example 5_7(#9) chord is, dominant 7th chord (“what chord quality”) occurring at 5 (“where”) with #9 (“which tension”). This time, firstly let’s have a look on “what chord quality” and “which tension”, in comparison between Major key songs and minor one.

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Meta Level Info

Here to share quick summaries and some findings from “Meta level Info” menu “Jazz Standards Statistics“.

(1) Key Signature

The most common key is… F major. Out of 1350 songs, 240 songs are in F (17.8%). This could be expected since we have many F blues. Then followed by Bb blues? It’s actually at 4th place, with 13%. The 2nd and 3rd places were taken by C (17.4%) and Eb (15.1%). After 4th place, followed by G (8.4%), Ab (5.6%)… and the least often key is F#m which has NO songs.

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Jazz Standards Statistics : Preface

Two weeks ago, I decided to finally start my personal project “Jazz meets Tech”, which actually has a long dreamful roadmap, maybe I’ll talk about it later. Anyway the 1st step of the project was to create database. As a data source I used every-jazz-musicians’-friend app iRealPro. From a playlist, I collected 1350 files and made it into database. Then I visualized the dataset, and the outcome was really interesting. More precisely, I didn’t expect it would be such pure fun to have an overview of jazz standards. Thus I decided to share this dashboard with everyone, and also to share the progress of my “Jazz meets Tech” here. Anyway, here is the link. Hope you enjoy 🙂

http://kohtanakai.art/jazzstdanalysis/