Jiro Inagaki never settled into one music community. The 90-year-old saxophonist says that while he entered the industry via jazz, he was always interested in how the style could intersect with other genres, including rock.
¡°If you were a player like me, you¡¯d go to the rock community and be seen as just a jazz guy,¡± Inagaki says in an interview at his apartment near Shinjuku Gyoen National Park. His son, Masayuki, joins us as well. ¡°When I went to the jazz scene, I was viewed as a rock player. You couldn¡¯t really belong to one group.¡±
Inagaki didn¡¯t heed this separation of musical styles, though, and his open-mindedness is what has helped his work persevere through the years. Finding himself caught up in enka ballads, the hippie movement, city pop and more, Inagaki¡¯s jazz reveals his curiosity about the sonic worlds around him and an enthusiasm for tinkering with genres.
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