Jazz & Blues Singer Yoko Noge Brings Japanese Flavor to Summer Evening Concert
Photo: Chicago-based jazz & blues singer and pianist Yoko Noge (C) performs jazz and blues pieces on August 2, 2022 with her band members Phillip Perkins (L), Jim Pierce (L2) and Philip Castleberry (R) at Anne and John Kern Terrace Garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago | Yoshiko Urayama
Chicago-based jazz & blues singer and pianist Yoko Noge appeared at the terrace of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on the evening of August 2, showcasing Chicago R&B sounds that are infused with a Japanese flavor.
The audience spilled from the terrace chairs onto the lawn, breathing the humid air filled with hot beats.
Noge was featured in the Museum’s “Tuesdays on the Terrace” free concert series. The series invites Chicago’s jazz musicians every Tuesday throughout summer to perform at the Museum’s Anne and John Kern Terrace Garden.
During the two separate sessions from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Noge and the backing Chicago jazz musicians George Wells (singer), Philip Castleberry (bass), Phillip Perkins (trumpet), Jim Pierce (guitar) and Avereeayl Ra (drums) presented a lineup of jazz standards, arrangements and Noge’s originals, such as Georgia on My Mind (Osaka), You Hear Me Talking, Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean, I can’t Get Started with You, and Kansas City.
Georgia on My Mind (Osaka), Noge’s arrangement, was sung in Japanese.
Photo: The audience enjoys talking with Yoko Noge after her concert | Yoshiko Urayama
It’s a particularly memorable song for Noge, who says the Japanese words just came to her while she was practicing Georgia on My Mind on the piano years ago.
The famous jazz song was assigned to Noge for practice by her teacher, blues piano legend Erwin Helfer.
Originally from Osaka, Japan, Noge came to Chicago in her 20s and began learning to play jazz piano at the age of 30. She was growing homesick when she was assigned Georgia on My Mind. As she practiced the song, tears started to roll down her face. Japanese lyrics came to her lips before she realized. In the end, it became her Japanese version of the song, Georgia on My Mind (Osaka).
One of Noge’s originals, You Hear Me Talking is a Japanese song with a rap beat.
An encounter with everyday English is a typical “shock” for first-time Japanese visitors to the U.S. For example, a simple phrase like “For here or to go?” at a local McDonald’s can cause great confusion, Noge related humorously.
Such communication hazards notwithstanding, Noge believes that a song, even if sung in words that are nonsensical to non-natives, still has power to impact its listeners. She knows it from her own experience: when she heard American blues for the first time, it moved her so deeply that she decided to come to the U.S., although she didn’t understand the lyrics.
Noge wrote this song to prove her point, in which Japanese words are catapulted to the listeners, with a chorus “You hear me talking!” inserted repeatedly.
While lyrics are an important part of a song, what’s more important are emotions they carry, she said.
“I want you to listen to your own hearts for reactions to these foreign words thrown at you,” Noge spoke to the audience. “I hope this song makes you think more about foreigners and immigrants.”
Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean is a 1950s hit by Ruth Brown, sometimes known as the “Queen of R&B.” A song about a woman’s laments about the no-good love of her life, it’s one of Noge’s favorites. The guy treats her badly, and she still can’t stop loving him madly – it’s a song of a woman of any nationality, and Noge sang it as a Japanese woman from Osaka.
The concert’s climax came with a popular Japanese folk song Tanko-bushi (“Coal Minors' Song”). It’s a song to be danced to during the summer “obon” period. Noge has arranged it in eight-beat rhythm, and Japanese women in kimono paraded among the audience while dancing to the song.
This song became part of Noge’s repertoire after she and her band were invited to perform at a local theater in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture.
The theater – called Kaho Theater – has been a home to traveling troupes and a center of entertainment for the people in the once-thriving coal mining town.
An old-fashioned kabuki theater, Kaho Theater is a registered tangible cultural property today.
The theater asked Noge to play Tanko-bushi as a part of the program. She arranged it in an R&B style. When she sang it, old folks in the audience began dancing to it. Many more followed, and a large number of the excited guests ended up on the stage, dancing.
Noge felt then as if the theater was filled with the spirits of these people’s ancestors.
The song ended with a Cab Calloway-style of repeated calls and responses with the excited audience, Noge recalled.
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Yoko Noge has performed at venues across Chicago for more than 15 years, including HotHouse Chicago, Andy’s Jazz Club, the Green Mill, the Chicago Blues Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Asian American Jazz Festival, and many special events in the U.S., Japan, China, and Europe. She has been named “Chicagoan of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune, and was the recipient of the Foreign Minister’s Commendations in Japan in 2014. She was featured in a Newsweek Japan cover story, “100 Japanese People the World Respects,” as a Chicago blues singer and band leader. (From the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago website)