{"id":74361,"date":"2013-12-26T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-26T01:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=feature&p=45555"},"modified":"2017-06-26T18:41:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T09:41:04","slug":"quin-arbeitman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/quin-arbeitman\/","title":{"rendered":"Quin Arbeitman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013
\n\"fn181<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quin Arbeitman<\/strong>
\nHometown: Upstate New York, USA
\nIn Japan: 9 years
\nIdentity: Jazz musician<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to get people\u2019s emotions growing – that\u2019s what happens to me when I start playing,\u201d says Quin Arbeitman, a regular performer on the Fukuoka jazz scene. Piano is his instrument of choice, although he also sings and plays breath powered keyboards such as the melodica and the Andes, a unique soprano instrument invented in Japan. Since moving south from Tokyo four years ago, his memorable experiences of Fukuoka so far include forming the jazz unit Arbeitman and Salaryman, the occasional foray into funk with the band Funky Oka, and annual all-night jam sessions before the Yamakasa festival in Hakata. He runs a monthly event at the Riverside club, the \u2018Oishii Jam Session\u2019, for anyone interested in playing jazz in a social setting. There, free samples of real jam are served up alongside delicious jazz licks. Quin is currently preparing a collection of original compositions for his solo show on January 28 at New Combo, and perfecting some favourite love songs for a special appearance at the Fukuoka Now Valentine\u2019s Party<\/a>, Feb. 14 at Hotel With the Style.<\/p>\n

Hi, Quin. How long have you been playing jazz?<\/strong>
\nI started playing piano when I was 12. I played clarinet before that, but I got into jazz when I was a teenager because you don\u2019t have to practice in the same way as classical, where you always have to get it just right. I loved the feeling of playing music, so jazz seemed to suit me. I had some really encouraging teachers, but had a really hard-case one in my first year of university. I got really discouraged and actually quit music and tried different things for a while. I only came back to music seriously about five years ago, but I\u2019m glad I did.<\/p>\n

How many instruments do you play?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m mainly a piano player. I played tuba and clarinet in high school so I could probably get them back but not at a professional level, and I sing too. There are a few different piano instruments that I like to play, like the melodica, a fun little instrument with the high reedy tone of a harmonica and the flexibility of an accordion, which is mainly used in education. I’m quite in love with a little keyboard called the Suzuki Andes, which is kind of like a tiny mouth blown organ, 25 recorder pipes all in a row corresponding to a different piano key. Sometimes piano players can get very cerebral because they\u2019re not breathing. When you breathe into an instrument, you\u2019re kind of giving your life into it.<\/p>\n

\"fn181<\/a><\/p>\n

What can we expect from your appearance at the Fukuoka Now Valentine\u2019s Party?<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s a Japanese word, moriageru<\/em>, which means the emotions grow up \u2013 I like to get people\u2019s emotions growing, because that\u2019s what happens with me when I start playing. For the show on Valentine\u2019s day, I’ll be with three horns and a hot rhythm section, doing my arrangements of classic love songs. I hope our music can help people make a love connection \u2013 you never know!<\/p>\n

Why did you come to Fukuoka?<\/strong>
\nBefore Japan, I was in London for three years at theatre school. I met a really nice Japanese girl there and came to Tokyo to try things out with her. Things didn\u2019t work out, but I still loved the country and decided to stay. All my friends in Tokyo spoke English, so I came to Fukuoka for a change of scenery and to improve my Japanese. I\u2019ve been living here for 4 years now.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the jazz scene in Fukuoka.<\/strong>
\nThere are a few main clubs which everyone should check out if they like jazz, like New Combo, Riverside and Backstage, as well as a few small, charming bars like Jump House, Trombone Club, and Space Terra. Tokyo is where everyone goes when they\u2019re young and hot, so that\u2019s where you find the world-class stuff, but we\u2019ve got some really wonderful older musicians in Fukuoka who I love to see play. Every year, there\u2019s a late Dontaku festival session at Riverside. We also jam all night before the Yamakasa race, then go and watch it in the morning. You come home and see little sparkles in the air, probably purely from sleep deprivation, but it\u2019s magical.<\/p>\n

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\"fn181<\/a><\/p>\n

What is your current involvement in the scene?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m not playing as much as I usually do at the moment, as I\u2019m preparing for a special show on January 28th at New Combo. I feel like I\u2019m a decent player. I feel things myself at least and that\u2019s a good sign. I can\u2019t speak for the audience, of course! I\u2019d like to become stronger at the technique side of things. This is my own \u2018happyokai\u2019, the day when Japanese students show stuff to their parents, and the idea is to jump-start my technique to improve my level. The show is actually called \u2018Happy Yokai\u2019, as \u2018yokai\u2019 is a sort of little monster – \u2018happy monsters\u2019. I\u2019m recording the show which is a challenge, I think a lot of people make CDs too early but I hope to make a good one the first time round.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite song from your own material?<\/strong>
\nProbably the best song I\u2019ve written in Fukuoka came from just walking down a street called Shoninbashi-dori and humming to myself. I thought, \u2018hey, that\u2019s kind of catchy \u2013 I gotta write that down!\u2019 It\u2019s called “When You\u2019re Not Looking”. It\u2019s got two lines and when one line is doing something the other\u2019s not looking. It\u2019s a very simple, innocent melody that only comes from not thinking too hard.<\/p>\n

How would you describe your style?<\/strong>
\nI believe the best way to practice is not to try to do it all at once, but to really tighten up those sub-routines, like just the left-hand bass line, or concentrating on improvising a melody which sings. Then once you\u2019ve disassembled everything, start putting it together \u2013 superhero robots like Astro Boy are built piece by piece!<\/p>\n

Do you use jazz standards when you play?<\/strong>
\nMy tentative plan at the moment for my own show is to only play original material, but standards are wonderful because you live with them for years. When you learn to play them better, you\u2019re using them as a shell to fill with yourself and it\u2019s not them that are changing over time, but you. I don\u2019t think I have a favorite, but the first popular standards I learnt were “Stella by Starlight” and “All the Things You Are”, which are both lovely and seem simple, but there is something a little unusual about them.<\/p>\n

\"fn181<\/a><\/p>\n

How is it being a foreigner playing jazz in the city?<\/strong>
\nThere are only a couple of regular international players here. I\u2019ve improved my Japanese a lot over the last four years and I really feel like a member of the community now. I host a jam session every month at Riverside, called the \u2018Oishii Jam Session\u2019. We actually serve free jam with bread to anyone who comes. It\u2019s only 1,000 yen and it\u2019s usually on the 14th of the month. In the past jazz jams used to be called cutting sessions, like a samurai battle \u2013 only one will stand. It can be a motivational force, like when Charlie Parker famously didn\u2019t play so well, and one of the drummers threw a cymbal at the floor. He didn\u2019t play in public for two years, practiced in his mum\u2019s house and became an amazing jazz monster. The jazz scene in Fukuoka is much friendlier! I\u2019d like to invite anyone who played a little jazz sax or whatever in high school. I\u2019ll make sure you are taken care of in English if you don\u2019t speak Japanese. I do private lessons too!<\/p>\n

What are the differences between playing jazz here and in America?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve learned a lot from other musicians here, but the classic stereotypical problem for Japanese musicians, especially in jazz, is that they\u2019re too concerned about being correct. This is true these days to a certain extent in America as well, but here people feel they have to reach a high technical level before they can allow themselves to make mistakes. So they end up sounding very stiff, don\u2019t let go, and never experience that part of jazz which is energy and pure joy \u2013 that\u2019s why you listen to music of any kind!<\/p>\n

Do you often collaborate with other musicians?<\/strong>
\nI have my own jazz unit, called \u2018Arbeitman and Salaryman\u2019, a pun on the Japanese word \u2018arubaito\u2019, meaning part time job. I\u2019ve got several other bands, one called Sazan (Southern) Amigos,\u00a0after the Southern All Stars, a famous old rock band in Japan. There\u2019s also Funkyoka, my foray into funk, and a variety of others that I participate sometimes with. I think being a Western face is positive, because if I\u2019m capable of doing interesting stuff, people give me the chance to walk the talk. In a place like New York, there\u2019s no way I could be doing as much as here; it\u2019s not an overcrowded scene.<\/p>\n

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Where is good to practice in Fukuoka?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s lovely that people practice in public in the summer months, but normally that\u2019s because you\u2019re not allowed to practice in your own apartment and rehearsal studios are quite expensive. Actually, a good option for people who want to practice their horn instrument is to rent a karaoke box – I\u2019ve done that before with my melodica. I hesitate to mention my favorite place to play outdoors, as it\u2019s a secret spot, but I don\u2019t go there that often, so I guess I should share: one of the left turns right at the eastern side of Maizuru Park leads into a little garden, which is a historic spot where a famous Daimyo family lived centuries ago. You can go there with an instrument and have real privacy \u2013 at least until too many people read about it in Fukuoka Now!<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite jazz musician?<\/strong>
\nThere are two things I value in a jazz musician. Firstly, the internal spirit, or passion, which comes through if they are feeling the music, and then the intellectual side – do they compose? Some of my great heroes are Charlie Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Lennie Tristano. Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker. I love Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, when they\u2019re feeling passionate, like the record where they play together on \u2018An Evening with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock in Concert\u2019, one of my all-time favorite jazz records. They\u2019re both at the top of their game. It\u2019s like the spirits are dancing with them. Toku is a very famous Japanese flugelhorn player, who I\u2019ve actually jammed with. I also got to jam with guitarist Onuma Yosuke last year, he’s really pleasant and chilled out. Of course, pianist Makoto Ozone is a legend. He gave me a some great advice when I met him recently about how to write your own music to increase your game. Technique is essential but it needs to serve the music. And at the end of the day, music is really about passion.<\/p>\n

Interview by Katie Forster for Fukuoka Now<\/p>\n

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn181<\/a>, Jan. 2014)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI like to get people\u2019s emotions growing – that\u2019s what happens to me when I start playing,\u201d says Quin Arbeitman, a regular performer on the Fukuoka jazz scene. Piano is his instrument of choice, although he also sings and plays breath powered keyboards such as the melodica and the Andes, a unique soprano instrument invented in Japan. Since moving south from Tokyo four years ago, his memorable experiences of Fukuoka so far include forming the jazz unit Arbeitman and Salaryman, the occasional foray into funk with the band Funky Oka, and annual all-night jam sessions before the Yamakasa festival in Hakata. He runs a monthly event at the Riverside club, the \u2018Oishii Jam Session\u2019, for anyone interested in playing jazz in a social setting. There, free samples of real jam are served up alongside delicious jazz licks. Quin is currently preparing a collection of original compositions for his solo show on January 28 at New Combo, and perfecting some favourite love songs for a special appearance at the Fukuoka Now Valentine\u2019s Party, Feb. 14 at Hotel With the Style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"45555","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4911],"tags":[5124],"class_list":["post-74361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-outdoors","location-fukuoka-city","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/fn181-in-fuk-640WM-005.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98356,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74361\/revisions\/98356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}