Tokyo Jazz Site (TJS) was started by me, James Hussein Catchpole (Mr. OK Jazz) in late 2007 as a blog to share all the scoop about my visits to jazz related establishments in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The jazz scene here is extensive and diverse, including bars, cafes, clubs, record shops, performance spaces and festivals. Although New York City may be the center of the jazz world for live music, nowhere in the world can you hear jazz in more diverse & random places than in Japan.
That said, the Tokyo Metro area is massive, with over 50 train lines and 900+ look-alike stations. Finding some of the tiny jazz joints can be tough, especially if you cannot speak Japanese. The aim of TJS therefore was, and still remains, to help the lost jazz fan find the best spots in town! The Directory currently includes profiles of over 150 jazz spots around the entire Tokyo Metro area, including Kawasaki, Yokohama, Saitama and Chiba prefectures.
Since starting to work in broadcasting in 2012, I’ve been very lucky to interview many visiting and local musicians including Jack DeJohnette, Billy Harper, David Murray, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, Vijay Iyer, Ozone Makoto, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Marcus Gilmore, Gilad Hekselman, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Yagi Michiyo, Anyango, Tomikawa Masashi, Hino Terumasa, Cheikh Lo, Jupiter Okwess, Brian Blade, Makaya McCraven, Joel Ross, Kuwabara Ai, Grace Mahya, Brandee Younger, Nakamura Akira, Okabe Genzo, Sone Mao and many many more.
From March 2013 through October 2014 I hosted the weekly radio program OK Jazz on 76.1 InterFM in Tokyo and in 2015 started the OK Jazz podcast, now 175 episodes in and heard in over 45 countries worldwide. In July 2016 I started hosting Tokyo Jazz Map on JJazzNet, an online radio site based in Japan that features contemporary Japanese jazz, which ran through December 2019, and can still be heard on archive.
Since 2015 I have collaborated with photographer Philip Arneill on the Tokyo Jazz Joints photo project, aiming to visually capture the hidden, slowly dying world of old jazz spots throughout Japan. To date we have together visited more than 200+ jazz joints nationwide, and have been profiled in publications such as Wax Poetics and Vinyl Factory. Our photo book has sold out two editions, with a Japanese publication coming in 2025. Tokyo Jazz Joints is the culmination of years of exploring, and we plan to continue hitting ever more obscure joints around the country. Follow our adventures on the TJJ Podcast!
Tokyo Jazz Site has also been featured in publications including the Japan Times, Asia Wall St. Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Travel, Smithsonian magazine, DownBeat Magazine, Wax Poetics, Departures Magazine, Vinyl Factory, Jazz On The Tube, Time Out Tokyo, Swedish jazz magazine Orkester Journalen, and Russian jazz magazine Jazzist. It also featured on the TV program “Jazz in the City:Tokyo” produced by and broadcast on Dutch national broadcaster NPS, in the Singaporean TV program “Asia By Taxi”, in the French TV program Jazzed Out, and on Coy Wire’s CNN program ‘True Tokyo’
Pre-COVID I used to occasionally DJ around the Tokyo Metro Area at bars and clubs like Li-Po, Bonobo, the Cactus Club, Brooklyn Parlor, Electrik Jinja, INC Cocktails, The Room Coffee & Bar, and World Kitchen Baobab. I’m now a 27-year resident of Japan, currently living in Yokohama. When not making my kids listen to Bobby Hutcherson or Franco & le T.P.O.K. Jazz albums, or walking my dog Sam, I like to watch baseball and drink a lot of Guinness.
If you have any burning Qs please email me at moc.e1745041122tiszz1745041122ajoyk1745041122ot@zz1745041122ajkor1745041122m1745041122 Thanks for stopping by!