{"id":32,"date":"2007-05-21T19:26:32","date_gmt":"2007-05-22T02:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2007-05-21T19:28:01","modified_gmt":"2007-05-22T02:28:01","slug":"murakamis-trombone-miasma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"Murakami’s Trombone Miasma"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m about 50 pages into the new Haruki Murakami book<\/a> and, like most of Murakami\u2019s work, I\u2019m drawn to the small bits of Americana and western culture that permeates his writing. Despite having read a bunch of his translated work, I\u2019ve yet to pinpoint what it is that gives his work that Murikami-ness that is so pleasant to read \u2013 and no, I\u2019m not talking about his fantastical plot elements and science fiction wackiness, since that\u2019s only working for him some of the time.<\/p>\n

I do like that one of the characters in the book plays the trombone, which seems like a motif cropping up in his work (not simply American jazz, but the trombone itself). I flip-flop regularly, but I\u2019m pretty sure my favorite short story of all time is \u201cTony Takitani\u201d for it\u2019s startling simplicity. In it, Tony\u2019s father is also a jazz trombonist. Hmmm\u2026.<\/p>\n

In any case, I was drawn to the current novel\u2019s explanation of why this character plays the trombone:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in middle school, I happened to buy a jazz record called Blues-ette<\/em> at a used record store. An old LP. I can\u2019t remember why I bought it at the time. I had never heard jazz before. But anyway, the first tune on Side A was \u2018Five Spot After Dark,\u2019 and it was great<\/em>. A guy named Curtis Fuller played the trombone on it. The first time I heard it, I felt the scales fall from my eyes. That\u2019s it<\/em>, I thought. That\u2019s<\/em> the instrument for me. The trombone and me: it was a meeting arranged by destiny.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It blew my mind reading this namely because I finally<\/em> bought Blues-ette<\/em> while in Chicago last month. My visit to the Jazz Record Mart<\/a> led me to an oversized vinyl bag filled with jazz gems that were long overdue in my personal collection. Fuller is truly astounding on this, and when Murakmi\u2019s two characters hum the opening bars of \u201cFive Spot After Dark,\u201d I\u2019m right there with them. One of the moodiest, instantaneously catchy songs you\u2019re going to find. I\u2019ve been playing this album continuously in my class the last few weeks; it\u2019s likely that many students\u2019 impressions of \u201cjazz\u201d will be made primarily by the magic of Blues-ette<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s other references so far are also telling, aforementioned trombonist wants to be in a band like Tower of Power (awesome), female protagonist questions the naming of a love hotel \u201cAlphaville\u201d (Godard references always make me tingle) and Ben Webster is innocuously playing on a stereo in a bar. Did I mention the opening of the book takes place in a Denny\u2019s? I realize that there are several critics that have questioned Murakami\u2019s fetishization of western culture; is this why hipster kids like Murakami so much? Though such a discussion is one for a lengthier debate I will say that Murakami\u2019s style is iconic and one that cannot be trivialized by his occasional use of culture signals for the pop enthusiast.<\/p>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>