Kagoshima Bank opened up a new HQ building down near Kinko Bay. I'm not sure if the building is called Yocado, or if that's the name of their credit card, or what. I haven't had any reason to go inside before, so I had no idea that there was an open plaza in the middle of the first and second floors.
Then, on May 4th, Yocado sponsored a Jazz Day, featuring local jazz hero (the guy that ran the Jazz Fest in September the two years before Covid hit) - Keishi Matsumoto. There were 3 shows scheduled, with one duo playing at 12 noon and 4 PM, and the Keishi Trio at 2 PM. I only had a mild interest in catching Keishi for a few minutes, and I arrived at the building shortly after 1:30 PM.
(Kagoshima Bank (Kagin) mascot 1.)
While I was standing around waiting for the show to start, one of the people in the audience started talking to me. After a few minutes, he pointed to the big sign on the wall and said "That's my son." So, that was cool.
(And mascot 2.)
We continued talking up to the start of the show, then we separated to our selected listening spots. The Trio mostly played audience requests, which tended to be light jazz. The featured song was from Chick Corea. The last requested song was from the movie "Cleopatra." The band hadn't rehearsed that one beforehand, but they did a good job of faking it.
I'm still not comfortable using the new pocket camera, and I'm having trouble getting good indoor shots in low lighting.
There were maybe 50 people in the audience, and the plaza was crowded enough that I didn't want to walk around to get better angles, or get closer to the stage. The bass player was behind a potted tree from me, which is why I didn't get any shots of him.
The set ran 1 hour, and there was one encore song. At the end, Keishi's father insisted on taking my camera and getting a few pictures of me with the band. I'm not sure if Keishi remembered me - we've only talked a few times about 3-4 years ago - but he put on a good act in saying that he did. Then I found out that the drummer had spent time in Minnesota, and the bass player had lived in Boston for about a year, each.
We continued talking for a while, then everyone split up and went their own ways. It was a good time.
I didn't have a chance to ask Keishi, but one of the other guys suggested that there may be a live Kagoshima Jazz Fest in Ten Park this Fall. If so, that'd be cool, too.
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