Mal Waldron/Christian DUCASSE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
The renowned American jazz pianist Mal Waldron, who once played with Billie Holiday, first came to Japan in 1970 at the invitation of the local postwar publication Swing Journal. Over the years, he kept coming back and staying for years. He married a Japanese woman and recorded several albums that were released only in Japan, though, considering that Waldron released more than a hundred albums in his lifetime, this generosity is not unheard of.
He was particularly impressed by the Ryōan-ji Temple of the Dragon at Peace and its stone garden in Kyoto. He wrote a song about it and recorded it in 1972 at the Dug Club, which is described in the novel Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It is a beautiful minimalist masterpiece at the crossroads of two musical traditions—essentially Japanese blues in a rock garden.