A Big TV Program

Yoko Miwa is ready for her closeup at The Mad Monkfish on Friday, 19 April 2024.

So much sucking and slurping.

A Japanese TV crew set up camp in the Jazz Baroness Room at The Mad Monkfish to film the Yoko Miwa Trio set.

From behind the piano Yoko Miwa assured the audience at the restaurant meets music venue meets bar that the crew was filming for a “big TV program.”

It was an added incentive for the room of sushi and jazz lovers to hush up a bit. Which is a challenge on a normal night. Sure, the sushi is a quiet eat, but the noodles soups (duck soup is HIGHLY recommended) make for a lot of sucking and slurping.

To be honest, though, it’s the regular talking – not the chewing and chomping – that makes the most noise. Patrons are advised that, while the restaurant is not a “church” or a ”library,” they should find it within their heart and soul to maintain much diminished decibels.

Is that the kind of appeal that pulls at your heartstrings? Jazz regulars are used to going into clubs and staying mum. Not every jazz club is like that, but some are on some nights with some artists. Being able to go with the flow is a skill you should learn at a sushi/jazz club. It’s a skill you should learn in general.

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A piano, a standup bass, and drums. It was Yoko Miwa’s night. The pianist was born in Kobe, Japan, but eventually moved to Boston to receive her training in the art. Or at least the finishing touches. Now she’s an associate professor herself at Berklee College of Music, and she took the Japanese TV program on a musical tour of her professional stomping ground.

She began with a bluesy piece, setting aside the more overt jazz gestures to start at the root of American music. It was a little education for viewers at home. Her detours in and around jazz didn’t stop there. A cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross” dipped into soul. And the set got personal with an original composition and tribute to one her favorite fellow artists, the jazz pianist Benny Green, called “Mr. BG”. The support on drums was stately and reserved, while the standup bassist switched between the bow method and the plucking method.

Without a voice or the strong tone of a horn to cut through the soupy chatter, some of the finer points of the playing get lost in a white noise, at least in the back of the room. But the Japanese TV crew was savvy enough to mic Miwa close and mic Miwa snug. No slurping or sucking was going to upset the applecart tonight.