Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan

by E. Taylor Atkins

The 1960s was a very difficult time for me, but it was also a very important time, because I had so much difficulty supporting my daughter and myself. I really had to take a look at who I was and what I was trying to do. . . . At least if you’re an American it’s justified, let’s say, to be a jazz musician. Jazz is American music. And I thought, here I am, I’m a Japanese and a woman, and the woman part is not that important I think, but here I am Japanese and a jazz player and playing in New York. I never thought I was a bad player, but there are so many great players, too. And I look at it and then have to really think about where my position is, what my role will be. And somehow it looks kind of pathetic and comical, the fact that there is a Japanese little girl trying to play jazz . . . and I felt very insignificant. Did I do something, did I make any kind of revolution [in] the jazz world? At that time I thought to take that opportunity to just become a nice little woman who cleans the house and cooks. I think I was very tired, fighting the world since [I was] sixteen years old. Because at that time I wasn’t really contributing anything [to jazz] and I thought I would quit. Lew [Tabackin, her second husband] kind of stopped me from giving up. He told me that I have some value. I decided that perhaps I would look upon my heritage, which . . . traditionally to be Japanese was a handicap to become a jazz player, because you were not American. But I decided that was a rathe...