School

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Dec 17, 2015

Everyone knows that a good education is vital in order to have a successful and happy life. The consummation of knowledge enables us to navigate our journey through thick and thin. Education and information comes in many forms. Besides academic achievement and computer prowess there are things that have come to be known as ‘street smarts,’ common sense, on the job learning, and even survival skills. If one is fortunate enough to live a ripe age they will usually get a handle on these essential endeavors.

The ‘on the job’ learning curve is always better when one is working with really good people. The same is true for sports and music. On a side note, throughout my years of attending public schools in Seattle, the only classes that I aced repeatedly were physical education and, you guessed it, music, my two passions, along with my wife, of course. It should be noted that when you engage in a game of tennis, basketball, or golf the better the competition and teammates the better you get at the game. The quality and mind set of the players seems to rub off on the others. The same holds true for music as playing jazz or funk with the great musicians makes one jam on a higher level.

The art of listening and observing is also essential to the learning process. In order to learn the type of music that is dear to my heart I have had the pleasure to go out and hear up close and in person all the great jazz, Blues, and R & B players that I could. There are too many good memories of live music to write about but one that sticks out in my mind is the Curtis Mayfield concert which was at the old Eagles Auditorium in downtown Seattle. For me the star of the show was the master Henry Gibson percussionist extraordinaire. Mr. Gibson had a set of bongos between his legs and a set of conga drums in front of him. His mastery included the ability to play all four drums simultaneously and it was smokin’. Although the show was some 40 years ago, the musical images are as clear to me as if it was last night. When Henry Gibson played the hand drums I was mesmerized and it was school to me.

Remember

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Nov 19, 2015

Most of us have certain songs that remind us of past events, peoples, and circumstances. Upon hearing an old and familiar melody or lyric the good times, bad times, crazy times, travels, and old girlfriends become clear as a bell as if the events happened just last week. As noted by many health care providers the right music will trigger childhood memories amongst elderly dementia patients and they are quite lucid.

The Earth Wind and Fire album entitled ‘That’s The Way Of The World’ has had a big impact on many boomers from my generation. Besides being the #1 selling R & B album of 1975 it was also the 3rd best selling pop LP of the year. There are several songs on there that bring back vivid pictures in my mind of what and where I was at the time. My life was in chaos as I had come home to Seattle from a four month tour of playing dance music in Hawaii. I had no place to live but luckily for me my cousin Tomio lent me the keys to the old Uwajimaya building which was located on 5th and Main Street. He had intended for me to use the old office space for band rehearsal and I did that but also slept in the building for a few months before I could rent a house to live in.

The complex had a distinct aroma of Japanese foods and was quite spacious. Besides the office area, there was the old kitchen, warehouse, large retail floor, food packing rooms, basement, and loading dock good for moving band equipment in and out. We had a lot of musical and recording gear on site over many years until the building was demolished. There were also many great beer and ping pong parties with loud groovy music both live and taped.

Although there wasn’t a shower in the building it had heat, light, plumbing, and was very secure. To this day whenever I hear the music of that era I will always remember that my cousin helped me out and am eternally thankful for his generosity and understanding.

Listening Days

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Nov 5, 2015

There are days when I wake up with an 'ear worm' which means there is a song or melody going through my head even though there is no music playing. It is usually a very catchy song and the funny thing is that it's almost never the same song. This 'condition' can last for hours but eventually fades away without any lasting effects. Then there are the rhythms of the mind. I can hear in my mind various drum beats and they go with me virtually all the time day and night. These beats make me want to play drums or tap out beats on a chair or table where I am seated. They are cool, catchy, and friendly beats, 'folk rhythms' if you will.

Some days I wake up and want to hear serious jazz or Afro Cuban music. Other days I want funk, R & B, or Blues depending on the mood or feeling of that day. I suppose we like different foods on different days as we have the luxury of a wide variety of cuisines at our disposal.

The funny thing about the music and rhythms of the world is that the differences between the various genres and cultures is fast becoming quite vague. Popular dance beats cut right across all the civilizations that are known to us and have been spread around quickly via the mass media. You can find drums, guitars, flutes, and singers in just about every corner of the globe.

Music has long been recognized for its therapeutic value and is known for its ability to affect mood, trigger memories, and foster loving associations. Many doctors believe that certain forms of music can help you tap into your own innate ability to heal your heart. It is no surprise that over the last few decades the healing power of music has been studied and utilized by countless healthcare givers with good results.

When one thinks about the function of music in our society and others around the world, several ideas come to mind. Some people look at music as a way to make money which can be quite tenuous at times. Others see it as a way to 'decorate our environment' using beautiful sounds. I like the idea that musical endeavors will usually bring people together for an enjoyable time and always enhances the spirit of the party. It should be noted that performing live music not only promotes camaraderie amongst the band members but also raises the adrenaline levels of both the audience and the performers. This type of euphoria is a natural high which is the best kind and also is what musicians and performers live for.

The Voice of The Theatre

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Oct 8, 2015

I recently posted and sold my classic Fender Rhodes suitcase electric piano. Although it had some sentimental value, I decided that the lack of play time on it and the fact of it being very cumbersome it was time to go. The vintage Rhodes pianos basically have only one sound and are too heavy to cart to nightclubs on a regular basis, especially compared to the new keyboards. My newest 88 key digital grand sounds and feels terrific and weighs a mere 20 LBS. Can't beat that for convenience.

At one point I was the proud owner of a pair of speaker cabinets called The Voice of the Theatre Speakers that looked and sounded great. I loved those speakers and got plenty of mileage out of them. The only down side was that each cabinet was the size of a Maytag washing machine which meant I had to call a friend each time they were to be transported to and from an engagement. They also required a top of the line power amp which back in the day weighed about seventy pounds. By the way, in case you didn't know it, hand trucks are popular with musicians.

So when I picked out my newest sound system it should be noted that the speakers are extremely compact and having 1000 watts per cabinet are incredibly clean sounding. It goes without saying that the new technology is saving my back so I can go out and mess it up with my amazing golf game.

In The Groove

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Sept 24, 2015

There was a time when many very conservative Americans thought that swing music and Rock & Roll would be the destruction of the very fabric of our society. Fortunately that has not come to pass. If one were to check out Dancing with the Stars, attend dance parties, night clubs, or view hot popular music shows, you would notice that cool rhythmic music continues to thrive in our rich and vibrant cultural scene.

Rhythms in music can be found in many different tempos, styles, and intensities. For example, in South America or Cuba, drummers play musical grooves with the 'fear of God' in that they would never play a single note that didn't have a strong rhythmic implication. One of my all-time favorites is the legendary James Brown and his band. James always insisted on a solid funky beat and an emphasis on the one or downbeat. As a matter of fact, his most famous funky grooves are actually derived from traditional West African rhythms that were brought over to the Western hemisphere during the colonization of the Americas.

I personally love drum beats that make you want to move to the groove whether it is a trap set, congas, bongos, timbales, or cowbells as long as the beats are tastefully done. It is also the responsibility of the other instruments to contribute to the overall band groove to create a strong 'wall of sound'.

There is an old saying in jazz that goes 'it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing'. This is not just a reference to the swing style of music but truly means that if you are going to swing or groove-please do it with the utmost sense of urgency and don't bring any weak notes.

Composition

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Sept 10, 2015

People often times ask me how I go about writing original music. Although I do not consider myself a master of jazz composition, my previously released records have garnered a fair amount of airplay and sales. Like many Americans, my musical and over-all lifetime philosophy is really very simple as opposed to technical and intellectual. There are a few geeky areas of interest such as astronomy and theoretical physics that peek my curiosity from time to time. Around our house we also like to watch The Big bang Theory which is about a group of young and very smart scientists. It is, of course, a comedy and very funny too.

As a five year old, I learned to play some children's songs that were written by Mozart when he was a child. The original Mozart pieces are simple and short but also make a complete musical statement, pure genius if you will. Another favorite artist that influenced many people of my generation is the legendary Booker T Jones and his group The MG's. The name MG is the acronym for Memphis Group as the band is from the music famous city. The MG's were the house band for the great STAX Records. Booker T wrote and recorded dozens of instrumental hit singles spanning several decades and garnering a ton of airplay as well as record sales. His concept of music was a very basic Rhythm and Blues style featuring the Hammond B3 organ as a lead voice. The melodies were all very catchy and still popular today.

By and large, most people worldwide tend to like music that they can relate to rather than have to analyze. There are, in fact, hundreds or thousands of musical concepts to choose from and play for your enjoyment and listening pleasure. I personally tend to gravitate towards the groovy and pretty sounds that are most often simple but also quite effective.

Evolution

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, June 4, 2015

According to Charles Darwin and Bruce Lee, everything evolves. Darwin, of course, is the 'father' of the theory of evolution which most scientists seem to agree on. The great Bruce Lee has stated in interviews his concept wherein martial arts and other such endeavors always evolve to embrace greater ideas and practices. To become modern, flexible, and useful for any given situation will help us survive and succeed.

While out on the town on a recent tour of the Belltown neighborhood, my friends and I were bar hopping from place to place to check out the scene. There are a plethora of restaurants, hotels, and nightclubs in the area with hoards of peoples and tourists out and about. Most of these venues at one time had live music in the form of jazz, Blues, and dance bands. Those days are gone and all that's left for music in 95% of the clubs are DJ's with pre-recorded sounds. For the club owners it is obviously a money saver and a convenience. For the musicians it is unfortunate but a sign of the times.

One place in Belltown that has live solo piano music is The El Gaucho Restaurant, an upscale venue with a hotel right above the dining room. The gig is strictly background music for the drinkers and diners, as opposed to a showcase or dance setting. While playing there every week for some three and a half years, it struck me one day that this is actually the evolution of past venues, specifically the 'old west saloon.' If you have ever seen the old cowboy movies with the piano player in the saloon, the gig at El Gaucho has a very similar vibe to it. The only differences between then and now is that the guests arrive in fancy cars instead of horses, people wear nice shoes-not boots, and the piano is a grand as opposed to a funky, out of tune upright. I reckon the guests won't have six shooters on their belts either and there are not many requests for 'Oh Suzanna.'

Repetition

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, May 7, 2015

Quite often when performing ensemble work I'll have my band start off a groovy jazz selection with what we call a vamp. Vamping is the repeating of a musical idea and for our group it establishes a chord base and a rhythmic groove space, a cool atmosphere if you will. There isn't any set number of bars before we get into the meat of the song. The melody and bridge commence when it feels right. With these types of tunes it is likely that the ending vamp will be similar to the intro vamp but oftentimes we will crescendo, improvise, and stretch out musically for a dynamic effect before I signal the last chord, which is sustained and flourished. There is always a lot of joy and happiness with my fellow musicians when we are performing our brand of cool and funky jazz.

It is well documented that repeated exercise on a daily basis over many weeks, months, and years yields the best results as opposed to temporary or sporadic involvement. All skill endeavors such as golf, tennis, typing, cooking, and driving to name a few are developed through years of practice or repetition.

My old friends and I have a friendly poker game on a regular basis, which has been going on for a few decades. A couple of years ago my bassist, webmaster, and good friend, Danny Benson joined our card playing circle. It has always been a blast with the guys as the conversation is totally hilarious, no holds barred if you get my drift. So Danny and I were drinking in the Sake Bar at last year's Densho Sushi Festival when his wife Sally comes up to me and asks very matter of fact, “Deems, why is it that you always win at cards?” Apparently I had been on a hot streak over the last few games and so it seemed that I was winning all the time. Sally's question had me thinking about the run of good fortune and one of the answers I came up with is that having played poker since childhood the repetition of the game's odds over a lifetime had me comfortable with my decision making as to when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

The Language of Music

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Apr 23, 2015

According to an online website, there are well over 500 musical genres and sub genres in the world today. Music comes in an abundance of styles ranging from Blues to symphony, avant-garde to honky tonk, Afro Cuban to Tex Mex, and many more. If one were to travel abroad or simply go online to YouTube you could find an incredible wealth of world music styles. So many, in fact, it can make one dizzy just to think of them. There is Celtic, Hawaiian, Middle Eastern, Polka, and West African to name a few more on this extraordinary list.

So how and why is it that human beings have come to enjoy such a variety of musical styles and concepts? If we look at foods of the world such as Asian, African, European, and South American we can see that there is a plethora of cooking styles to fit the regional pallet. Each food style, of course, has evolved over many millennium to accommodate what is available in a certain area and also what can be stored such as wheat, rice, barley, corn, potatoes, et cetera. It appears that the alcoholic beverages of the various regions are also dependent on the same stored food sources. For example Japanese Sake is brewed from rice, Russian vodka is made from potatoes, and Americans use corn or barley to make whisky.

There are some 6,000 languages worldwide yet geneticists have discovered through DNA research that all the Homo sapiens on planet Earth came out of Africa about 200,000 years ago. It must be that when the early humans moved across the globe our tastes, customs, language, foods, and music styles evolved to adapt to each new living situation. Just as humans use different words to communicate our thoughts we apparently need different cultural statements to cement and define our identity as to who we are. I personally like this.

Tuning

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Apr 9, 2015

A few years back, when my wife mentioned that she was ready to retire from the federal government job that she was never real crazy for, I decided that it would be a good idea to expand my trade skills as a backup form of employment. I was fortunate to come in contact with a highly sought after technician named Scott Craven. Not only does Scott do all the grand piano tuning for The Jazz Alley and many major concert artists, he was also the president of The Seattle Piano Technicians Guild at the time.

Before I had the good fortune to get the proper information and tutelage from Mr. Craven, I thought that it looked easy and gave tuning a try. Having obtained a tuning hammer and some mutes, I proceeded to tune my sister-in-law's piano in Spokane. After laboring away on her Wurlitzer piano for a few hours, I put down the tools and played the newly 'tuned' grand. It sounded just awful and I sat there laughing my butt off for several minutes. It was at that point that I knew I needed a teacher.

Scott and I became golfing pals and he gave me solid technical advice. He also invited me to attend all the guild meetings and workshops without having to pay the membership and annual dues. It gave me the opportunity to meet many of the local tuners, get business info, and play some very expensive concert grand pianos.

Although I never became a guild member or a full time tuner, it has been a rewarding experience. There have been a few occasions where the skill has come in handy and my confidence to make a piano sound well tuned is getting pretty good, if I say so myself. The procedure can be tedious as there are 225 strings on a grand but what I really like about tuning is the end result which is akin to driving a well-tuned automobile, especially a top quality one, very satisfying indeed.

Seattle Center

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Mar 19, 2015

Last spring I had the honor of performing with my trio for The International Jazz Day Concert which was held in The Armory Building located at The Seattle Center. In November 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially designated April 30 as International Jazz Day in order to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe. It is a worldwide event with concerts held in the USA and abroad as well. My trio of Dan Benson on bass, Steve Banks on drums, and Deems on keyboards backed two fine female vocalists along with performing some original compositions for this showcase.

The Seattle Center was originally built as the home of the 1962 World's Fair and is still a thriving and viable establishment. It is the home for many concerts, cultural festivals like the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Chinese Cultural Festival, Festival Sundiata, Brazil Fest, as well as movies at the Mural, Skate Park, Center House dancing, and food venues galore. There is also the Space Needle which is our worldwide moniker, the Science Center, Bagley Wright Theater, the Mural Amphitheater, and the Key Arena, former home of the Supersonics, to name a few of the outstanding venues on site. The Center also hosts the Bumbershoot Festival, the Bite of Seattle, and Winter Fest - all great family attractions.

In 1960 there was some ninety thousand children attending Seattle Public Schools and with the great World's Fair of 1962 on the horizon local officials came up with some clever marketing strategies. One of the very cool and creative ad campaigns was having all the grade school kids address ten postcards each telling out of town relatives and family friends about the grand event. This type of inexpensive promotion was of course long before email, Facebook, and texting and would hit the out of towner's right in the heart. To hit people on an emotional level is the premier goal of advertising.

Oxygen

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Mar 5, 2015

Generally speaking, Seattle baby boomers are somewhat city, country, city folks, as although we live in a metropolitan area it was not that long ago that our great urban center was actually an over grown Podunk community with a Boeing plant. This may partially explain why there are a lot of bad drivers in the western part of the state. Now don't get me wrong, I love our fair city and state but the way some people drive makes me remember when the population and traffic were quite sparse and DUI's were virtually nonexistent. The other thing that one might notice about the great Northwest is that besides breeding visionaries such as Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, The Nordstroms, and Bill Gates, we have sent a plethora of young basketball players to the NBA. I often wonder what makes the Pacific Northwest the type of area that lends itself to being the source of these types of greatness.

There is a resort near Los Angeles called Terranea situated on the Pacific Ocean. I recently had the pleasure of performing solo grand piano for a PayPal Thank You Party in honor of their top one hundred clients. The resort is very luxurious to say the least. All one has to do is check in and right away they are giving you champagne, hor dourves, and valet service. Terranea also has its own golf course, spa, and Olympic size swimming pool. Whenever I stay at a place where the weather is hot, I am the type that needs to go for a dip and swim laps for exercise. As I don't get to swim very often, it usually takes me time to build up my stamina to the point where I can do 50-100 laps. As it turned out, the smog was extremely heavy and although The Catalina Islands are right out in The Pacific Ocean the legendary islands were not visible. For two days I worked on my endurance but the resort, being situated in desert land with virtually no plant life, it felt like there wasn't any oxygen. One could surmise that the oxygen rich environment of the Pacific Northwest lends itself to a healthy life style and may contribute to healthy thinking and action as well.

My Old Friends

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Feb 19, 2015

As Billy Bob Thornton tells it when he was a young and hungry actor, he worked a variety of jobs one of which was at a fast food restaurant wherein he made just enough money to cover his rent and buy a little food. It was during this time in his life that he met a famous director who told him that he should write screenplays of stories and characters that feature someone of his nature. Billy took the advice to heart and embarked on a career that has made him very successful as a writer, director, and an award-winning actor. It should be noted that many of the all time great screenplays were written with specific actors in mind which contributes to the success and meaning of the stories.

Jazz and Blues musicians oftentimes compose tunes that will feature certain instruments, voices, and personalities in particular. I myself have written many songs that have the grand piano in the forefront of the composition as it is, of course, the tool of the trade. For the better part of my lifetime I have also had the pleasure of hangin' with many great and dear old friends pursuing activities like tennis, golf, billiards, and poker, as well as music. The list of musicians that have performed and recorded with me contains a plethora of guys that went to my high school which is more than coincidence. It seems that we have a history of enjoying and playing similar musical stylings that have carried on into the later stages of our careers. If you have ever listened to the album called Deems Plays For Lovers you may have noticed a tune on there called My Old Friends. This cut features David Yamasaki, Dean Mochizuki, Marcus Tsutakawa, and Steven A. Banks and was written with exactly this cast in mind; a wonderful situation indeed.

Crab Cakes

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Feb 5, 2015

From about the middle of May through the end of August each year you can find fresh wild Alaskan Sockeye and King salmon that are snagged from the world famous Copper River. I usually wait a few weeks from the start of the season to purchase the delectable seafood as the price will go down once the stores are well stocked. It is said that Copper River salmon are strong, robust creatures with a healthy store of natural oils and body fat. These qualities make the salmon among the richest, tastiest fish in the world. As Harry Yoshimura, owner of Mutual Fish, always says: “the secret to cooking a top quality salmon is to not dry it out.” I like to bake mine in the oven covered at a low temperature-say 320 degrees preheated with butter, lemon, and sea salt. You have to keep an eye on it and take it out when it's just done. It is also a good idea to transfer the fish to a serving platter as it will continue to cook if left in a hot roasting pan.

The great and wonderful thing about living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance and variety of sea foods available to us. Clams, oysters, rock fish, octopus, and squid are quite plentiful, to name a few, although I think a lot of the squid and shrimp found in restaurants is actually imported from overseas or Mexico. Another of my personal favorites is the Dungeness crab which is named after the town of Dungeness, Washington located on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. During a recent conversation with a gentleman from New York, he told me his favorite dish was the Baltimore Blue Crab Cakes which are full of bread, eggs, mayonnaise, and butter. He apparently had not yet sampled the local cuisine. The crab cake patties are fried and this adds fat to the dish. I had to tell him that out here in the Pacific Northwest most people consider taking good fresh Dungeness crab, adding bread, and frying it is a waste of good crab meat. I guess we are spoiled.

Nasty Mix Records

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Jan 22, 2015

Unbeknownst to most people, the most successful record company that was ever founded in the great Northwest is the now defunct Nasty Mix Record Label. The company was started by my old friend Ed Locke when he discovered the one and only Sir Mixalot making home rap recordings and selling his original music on the streets in the form of cassette tapes. At the time, I had recorded and released several 45 RPM and LP vinyl records with some modest success. I had also received a fair amount of airplay coast to coast. Ed was actually the first disc jockey that I know of to play my music over the air. He played my 45's on KBCS radio out of Bellevue, Washington and hearing my music over the air waves gave me a good deal of inspiration for sure.

When Ed Locke decided to record Mixalot and market him nationally, he called me up weekly for advice on how to make a record. Needless to say, promoting and selling Sir Mixalot's music was a huge success as he became certified platinum by industry standards. The magic number of records, CDs, and or tapes sold to be considered gold is 500,000 units and to be platinum the number is one million units sold. This number of units sold is, in fact, quite incredible and will most likely never happen again to a Seattle based company as virtually all music sold these days is through digital downloading and not actual physical products, especially for young people.

The unfortunate thing for Nasty Mix Records is that after Mixalot's early fame and fortune he moved on to sign with Def American Records and attained even loftier industry accomplishments. The cool thing for us Seattleites is that before Mix left town there was a gold record party at The Four Seasons Olympic Hotel on Union Street in downtown. Being label mates (I was also on Nasty Mix Records till their demise), my band played in the lobby while guests arrived. When you stop to think about it, these types of events are usually held in Los Angeles or London, to have a gold record party in Seattle is a very rare sighting.

Thanks Steve

By Deems Tsutakawa / For The North American Post • Thur, Jan 8, 2015

Back a few years ago I attended a luncheon in downtown Seattle hosted by Broadcast Music Inc, or BMI for short. The purpose of the event was to pay tribute to The University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University, and Seahawks' bands as all three institutions pay annual dues to the publishing houses for the legal right to play the music live at the stadiums. Being a BMI member got me a seat in the grand ballroom and luckily for me I ended up sitting next to the late Tom Ogilvy. Tom was the owner of the Seattle based label called Bolo Records. Bolo did a variety of R & B, Soul music, and jazz. I used to listen to their releases and bought some of the real cool stuff on 45 RPM vinyl which I just loved. When MR Ogilvy introduced himself to me he told me that he had been following my career and this floored me as he was one of my mentors.

So the master of ceremonies for the 'function at the junction' was none other than the local legend MR Steve Raible. Raible is, of course, the voice of the Seahawks, a former player on the NFL team, and the KIRO TV News anchor spanning several decades now. Turned out that about the time of the luncheon Steve's current TV contract was due to expire and he was not bashful about bringing it to the attention of the captive audience which included television executives from ABC, NBC, and CBS. MR Raible is actually a hilarious guest speaker with a lot of wit and humor. He not only talks up an entertaining storm, he also was in the mood to roast every single person he could except for one individual. After literally burning up everyone in the house of note, Steve took a moment to get serious and said there is someone in the audience that he loves, respects, and plays his music every chance he gets. MR Raible then proceeds to tell all in attendance to please give a round of applause to Deems Tsutakawa. Now, bear in mind, this whole event was not in my honor but for a few moments it felt like it was.