The Pit Inn (ピットイン) is a jazz club in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The original opened in 1965 and was forced by demolition to close in 1992. It re-opened at a different site in Shinjuku later that year. DownBeat wrote in 2019 that the Pit Inn "is almost universally regarded as Japan's most important jazz club".[1]
 Second Pit Inn street entrance | |
| Location | Accord Building B1, Shinjuku 2-12-4, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
|---|---|
| Type | Nightclub |
| Genre(s) | Jazz |
| Opened | 24 December 1965 |
| Website | |
| http://www.pit-inn.com/index_e.html | |
First Shinjuku Pit Inn
editThe first Pit Inn was located in Shinjuku 3-chōme. It was named by its owner, Yoshitake Sato, who was a car enthusiast.[2] The first manager was Goro Sakai, who had experience of running jazz clubs.[3] The Pit Inn opened on 24 December 1965,[2][4] as a jazz coffee shop.[5] By March of the following year, it was hosting live jazz every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and on other days was being let out to theatre groups and for happenings.[6] Two years later, it became even more focused on jazz and was in the style of a Greenwich Village hangout.[5]
From its early days, both domestic and international musicians played at the Pit Inn. In 1968, for instance, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra played there.[7] Other activities also took place: a photography exhibition in 1968 was an early example.[8] Some of the most prominent Japanese jazz musicians played at the club early in their careers. Many continue to play there regularly, including Terumasa Hino, Sadao Watanabe and Yōsuke Yamashita.[9] Trumpeter Hino played there in 1969.[10] In 1970, the standard entrance charges were 450 Yen for the 2pm show and 500 Yen for the 7pm one, with one drink included.[11] It was described as "A comfortably dingy, often smoke-filled niche for the serious jazz fan [...] over the years it had been home to performances and recordings by some of the world's greatest jazz musicians".[12] In January 1992, it was forced to close, as the building it was part of was being demolished.[12]
Second Shinjuku Pit Inn
editThe Pit Inn reopened on 5 July 1992,[4] at a new location at the edge of Shinjuku 2-chōme.[12] It continued to offer an afternoon and an evening performance, with the former being for less-well-established musicians.[9] The fortieth anniversary celebrations featured performances by Hino, Watanabe, Yamashita, Keiko Lee, Otomo Yoshihide, John Zorn and others, playing in a nearby rented hall, as the club was too small to accommodate all the fans.[9]
Other Pit Inns
editThere have been other jazz clubs with the same name in other parts of Tokyo and Japan. The Roppongi Pit Inn was open from at least 1978,[13][note 1] and was at Shimei Building B1, Roppongi 3-17-7.[15] In 2003, it contained wooden pews and chairs, and "ceiling-high speakers angle[d] in to cover the entire audience space with crisp sound resolution and exceptional clarity".[16] It closed on 26 July 2004.[14]
Concert recordings
editAn asterisk (*) indicates that the album was recorded at the Roppongi Pit Inn.
| Year recorded | Leader/Band | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Sadao Watanabe | At "Pit Inn" | CBS/Sony |
| 1974 | Cedar Walton | Pit Inn | East Wind |
| 1978* | Tatsuro Yamashita | It's A Poppin' Time | RCA Records |
| 1979*[17][18] | Steps Ahead | Smokin' in the Pit | Nippon Columbia |
| 1979* | Kazumi Watanabe | KYLYN Live | Better Days |
| 1979*[19] | Phillip Walker | Blues Show Live at Pit Inn | Yupiteru |
| 1980*[20] | Lowell Fulson | The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn 1980 | |
| 1984 | Elvin Jones | Elvin Jones Jazz Machine Live at Pit Inn | Polydor |
| 1985 | Mal Waldron and Yōsuke Yamashita | Piano Duo Live at Pit Inn | Village |
| 1986 | Manhattan Jazz Quintet | Live at Pit Inn | King |
| 1986 | Kenso | Music For Unknown Five Musicians | King |
| 1988 | Sun Ra | Cosmo Omnibus Imagiable Illusion | DIW |
| 1989*[note 2] | Tatsuro Yamashita | Joy | Moon Records |
| 1990 (released)*[21] | Fusanosuke Kondo | Heart of Stone | BMG Victor |
| 1990 (released)*[22] | Fusanosuke Kondo | Go Back to de Basic Thing | BMG Victor |
| 1991 (released)*[22] | Fusanosuke Kondo | Unchained Rhythm | BMG Victor |
| 1992 (released)*[22] | Fusanosuke Kondo | My Innocent Time | BMG Victor |
| 1992 | Material | Live in Japan | Jimco |
| 1992 | Elvin Jones | Tribute to John Coltrane "A Love Supreme" | Columbia |
| 1994 | Masahiko Togashi | So What | Venus |
| 1994 | Choi Sun Bae | The Sound of Nature | Universal |
| 2001 | Akira Sakata and TOY | Live at Pit Inn | Q-Train |
| 2005 | Akira Sakata | Explosion | P-Jazz |
| 2005 | Satoko Fujii | Live!! | Libra |
| 2005 | Kei Akagi | Live – Shapes in Sound | Video Arts |
| 2007 | The Thing | Shinjuku Crawl | Smalltown Superjazzz |
| 2007 | The Thing | Shinjuku Growl | Smalltown Superjazzz |
| 2009 | Ted Brown | Live at Pit Inn | Marshmallow |
| 2009 | First Meeting | Cut the Rope | Libra |
| 2010 | Guerino Mazzola, Heinz Geisser, Shiro Onuma | Dancing the Body of Time | Cadence Jazz |
| 2010 | Peter Brötzmann, Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke | Two City Blues 1 | Trost |
| 2010 | Peter Brötzmann, Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke | Two City Blues 2 | Trost |
| 2011 | Mari Yamashita | Live at Pit Inn | Erato |
| 2012 | Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love | Extended Duos | Audiographic |
| 2012 | Jazz Hijokaidan (Akira Sakata) | Made in Japan | Doubtmusic |
| 2013 | Masahiko Satoh and Paal Nilssen-Love | Spring Snow | PNL |
| 2014 | Takeo Moriyama | Straight Edge | Pit Inn |
| 2014 | Otomo Yoshihide | Live at Shinjuku Pit Inn | Pit Inn |
| 2014 | Shingo Okudaira | This Is New | Pit Inn |
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ Catchpole, James (February 2019). "Tokyo". DownBeat. Vol. 86, no. 2. p. 55.
- ^ a b Soejima 2018, p. 24.
- ^ Soejima 2018, pp. 23–24.
- ^ a b "The 30th Anniversary of Relocation: Shinjuku Pit Inn Special Session". pit-inn.com. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ a b Atkins, Everett Taylor (1997) This Is Our Music. (Doctoral thesis). p. 223.
- ^ Soejima 2018, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Lash, Max E. (14 July 1968) "Big Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Band Packed with Power". The Japan Times. p. 5.
- ^ Pearce, Jean (31 August 1968) "Readers' Exchange". The Japan Times. p. 5.
- ^ a b c "Listening Post" (20 January 2006). The Japan Times. p. 20.
- ^ Lash, Max E. (29 December 1968) "Jazz, Groups Sounds on New Year's Eve". The Japan Times. p. 5.
- ^ Lash, Max E. (19 April 1970) "Mamoru & Charles... New Record Stars??". The Japan Times. p. 6.
- ^ a b c Moses, Marc (25 July 1992) "Pillar of Japan Jazz Stands Once More". The Japan Times. p. 17.
- ^ "What's Happening in Town" (11 April 1978). The Japan Times. p. 9.
- ^ a b "Roppongi Pit Inn". Facebook. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
- ^ Brand, Jude (1993) Tokyo Night City. Charles E. Tuttle.
- ^ Pronko, Michael (9 March 2003) "All of It... Why Not Hear All of It?". The Japan Times. p. 13.
- ^ Grey, Hilarie (March 1, 2000) "Steps Ahead: Smokin' in the Pit". JazzTimes.
- ^ Barakan, Pete (12 December 1980) "Rock 'n' Roll". The Japan Times. p. 9.
- ^ "Phillip Walker – Blues Show Live at Pit Inn". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
- ^ Leggett, Steve "Lowell Fulson – The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn 1980". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
- ^ Hale, James (13 August 1991) "Kondo Creates a Unique Blend of Blues and Soul". The Japan Times. p. 15.
- ^ a b c Hale, James (31 July 1993) "Blues-Lovers Assembled for Tribute". The Japan Times. p. 15.
Bibliography
- Soejima, Teruto (2018) [2002]. Free Jazz in Japan: A Personal History. Translated by Kato, David Hopkins. Public Bath Press. ISBN 978-4-9908636-5-4.