Terumasa Hino -- Still Be Bop

 

Over the past few days, Japanese media has been all abuzz about the annual Nobel Prizes as it has been for probably decades. I mean, Canadian media has been making reports about the winners as well, but for some reason in Japan, the news surrounding these awards seems to take on a level equivalent to that of the National Hockey League's Trade Deadline Day here in Canada and the announcement of the nominations for the Oscar awards. By the way, the above video has 2012 Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka（山中伸弥）having his press conference for winning his prize in Physiology/Medicine.

Even years before that, when I was working for my second school, a few of us teachers were sent to train some high-flying students English presentation skills for three days while we stayed at their company's high-tech research centre in Yokohama. It was a really modern facility with some fine cafeteria food...and the training went well, too. But in the evenings, we could all let our hair down a bit and get together in more casual garb over some brewskis. But one night, we all gathered around the lounge television to watch the media hoopla surrounding the fact that Masatoshi Koshiba（小柴昌俊）and Koichi Tanaka（田中耕一）had just gotten their Nobel prizes in Physics and Chemistry respectively back in 2002. By the way, I give my thanks to Wikipedia's "List of Japanese Nobel Laureates".

As such, last night I was wondering about whether I could find out about these Japanese Nobel laureates' taste in music. I figured that it would be a stretch, but I tried...and failed. All I could find was that a couple of them enjoyed jazz and classical. The rest of them were apparently too busy to have favourite singers or bands.

So, just to stubbornly hold onto that thin sliver of hope of a prestigious award themed KKP article, I found myself some minutes ago at the Wikipedia's article of "Order of the Rising Sun" which is "...awarded to people who have rendered distinguished service to the state in various fields except military service." There are various ranks to this order with the first-class awards (the Grand Cordon) being conferred onto people in high government office or notable institutions, Japanese or non-Japanese, for example. Then as I went down the list to the fourth-class awards, Gold Rays with Rosette, there were quite a few entertainers and athletes such as actor George Takei, baseball legend Hank Aaron, French singer Charles Aznavour and jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi（秋吉敏子）.

Another Japanese jazz legend was included in that list. Trumpeter extraordinaire Terumasa Hino（日野皓正）received his Gold Rays with Rosette in 2019. And so, to finally get onto a song here, I go into his 1980 album "Daydream" for his "Still Be Bop", the first track. There's some mighty fine and spicy funk and jazz as Hino and his fellow horn players riff through the music like a hot knife through butter. But I also like the analogy of racing down the oceanside highway from Tokyo to a really nice resort area in a red convertible. Dave Liebman does the saxophone solo, and the legendary Steve Gadd is on the drums. Of course, Hino's gotta have his solo, too.