Sawano Motohiro Sensei: A Jazz Musician

The first time I met Sawano Motohiro Sensei (1) I was deeply impressed by his gentle nature and open mind. We met in a rather unusual way, so let me explain.

Early in the day I had been introduced to a young American exchange student, Evan. He was a jazz major, but also loved Japanese. So, he came to Japan to learn the language. As we chatted that day, I realized his real love was music. So, I told him I would like to hear him play. As luck would have it, we were near a Kawai Music shop. My new friend had the brilliant idea of going there and pretending to buy a piano. That way he could perform using the very best instruments they had.

I was stunned by the superb quality of his playing. And so were the store assistants and customers. Everyone crowded around and began asking for requests. As this impromptu concert was going on, it occurred to me that this budding master should give a formal concert during his year abroad. A Japanese friend with us liked the idea, too, so she started asking about how to book the concert hall.

Of course, we needed to check the place out, so all of us traipsed upstairs for a look. Evan was like a duck to water when it came to a piano, so even though another group was just packing up from an afternoon concert, he slid past them all and started to play. As soon as he did, the members of that professional ensemble stopped what they were doing and stood perfectly still, as a deep hush fell over the room. You could hear their thinking, “This young kid is really good. He could easily become one of us.”

In Japan that kind of thinking is quite rare. Japanese tend to be an exclusive, “in boys’ club” sort of people. They are fiercely loyal to those inside their circle, but have little or nothing to do with those outside, besides formal politeness or sometimes even downright rudeness. But as soon as Evan finished one piece, the leader of that professional jazz combo, Sawano Motohiro Sensei, walked up to him and started chatting.

After a while I heard, “Sure. You can play with us. Our next performance is on Sunday night. Can you be there?” And that is how things began. Evan often played with that group. And because of that, everyone’s world expanded. Evan got fabulous firsthand experience and the group got to learn the quirks of a foreigner’s thinking and behavior.

Motohiro Sensei, as he is often called, received excellent musical training. At age three he studied piano and at nine he took up the trumpet. Then from age twelve he took lessons with the main trumpet player of the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra. That formal training gave him a solid base in classical music, which an important way to start out.

Motohiro Sensei’s mother is a classical singer and music teacher. Her students come to the house for lessons. Also his older brother started out playing the trumpet, but switched to the trombone. When he did that, Motohiro Sensei inherited his brother’s trumpet, much to his glee. He practiced a lot and loved it.

But when it became time to enter university, Motohiro Sensei failed the yearly entrance exam twice. Back then entering a Japanese university was extremely difficult, so many students were “ronin”, a term from Japanese history, which originally meant “a masterless samurai”. Now it means a student without a university thanks to not passing the entrance test.

Motohiro Sensei’s father, an architect, urged his son to go into architecture and civil engineering. He got accepted in a university in the far north, Hokkaido Institute of Technology. Once there, he immediately connected with the music scene. There was no wind ensemble, but there was a jazz big band club. He joined and fell in love with jazz.

Music had always been his first love, so he left school and headed for America to immerse himself in the world of jazz. He wanted to major in composition and arrangement, but also trumpet and flugel horn. He selected Berklee College of Music in Boston not only because of the excellent program there, but also because the English requirement was minimal. That matched Motohiro Sensei’s stumbling language ability perfectly.

“America was such a great eye-opener for me”, he said. “In Japan we focus so narrowly on our own circle. But at Berklee I studied and played with people from all over the world. In fact, every Friday night seven of us, each from a different country, would get together to jam, and then go out and hit the town. It was wonderful. Our levels of English varied tremendously, but we all spoke the language of jazz. In that arena we met as equals and could converse fluently and beautifully.

“When I was with that group, I realized I was truly a world citizen. I had a global vision. And I belonged to a whole process much larger than anything I had ever imagined before. It was also during those times that my identity as an individual came into focus. I am me, of course, yet I am also part of something that encompasses the entire world. That feeling opened my mind and heart very wide and I try to live from that place even now. Of course, I am very connected to the community where I live here in Japan, but I am constantly aware of being so much more.

“When I was in the USA I also had jobs. I worked in a bookstore, one where many Japanese went. And I got a lot of practical music training in various places in the city, too. I even considered applying for a seaman’s visa, which meant I could play on cruise ships. But in order to get that, I would have had to go back to Japan for six months and then return to the USA.

“I was still thinking about it when 9/11 happened. And then the entire world flipped upside down. Suddenly people weren’t going to clubs anymore. And cruises were cancelled, which meant there was no chance for that sort of visa at all. In fact, any kind of visa was hard to get. So, reluctantly I headed back to Japan.

“I spent two years in my hometown, Sendai, but I eventually headed to Tokyo. Almost all the high level players were there, and I wanted to be part of that scene. At that time I thought I could live anywhere in the world as long as I had jazz. But in Tokyo I learned I couldn’t. The air was bad. The place was overly crowded. It was really expensive. I got a serious rash and allergies. And then my father died, so I knew it was time to head back home. Even though the music scene was smaller, there were mountains, the sea, and fresh air. In other words, it was the place for me on many levels.

“It is never easy to get started, but I had the world of music as my cradle. So, of course, that is where I began. In Berklee I had run across several folks from Sendai, much to my surprise and theirs. They had also returned to Japan after 9/11. So it was with those few that I got my feet on the ground.

“Now I have a great sextet. We members understand each other perfectly. And we all have the same attitude towards music. We practice, of course, but we all love improvisation. And we all know how to take off and fly.

“If one member is having a hard time one day, we all work together to help him until he is up to the level of the rest of us. It’s a great team. And it’s a real joy to play together. We never know what will happen. Every time is an unfolding mystery. It is great!”

Now Motorhiro Sensei gives private lessons in trumpet, trombone, and piano. He is also the music director for the Tohoku University Jazz Club, which is a combo style group. In addition he has adult students, who also formed a big band called Time After Five. Motohiro Sensei is their music director, too. He is responsible for scheduling and booking all the venues of his students and the various bands they have created. Likewise, he plays in clubs around the city and occasionally goes to Tokyo to perform with friends there.

Stepping outside of music, Motohiro Sensei teaches English in an elementary school. “I can do that”, he says with a grin, “because the English is easy.”

“I have teaching in my DNA. My mother is a teacher, and so were both sets of grandparents. So, it comes naturally to me. And I love it. In the future I want to connect to young people more. I’m really concerned about Japanese young people. They are really lost and aren’t getting much help. They don’t even know basic things like how to introduce themselves properly. They communication skills are awful. They are sloppy and rude. I want to give them some guidance. I think I might be able to get to them through music. Then I can slowly introduce other structures into their lives.”

I asked Motohiro Sensei how he composed. And his answer was most interesting.

“I’m immersed in music all the time. I look at a scene and I hear music. I can immediately see the score floating across my vision. In fact, I constantly live with musical images and stories drifting through my mind.

“I can listen to any piece and see in my mind how it is written. I can listen to anything and then write the score for it. But it is really time consuming and a hassle. If five trumpets are playing different parts and there are other instruments as well, it takes a lot of concentration to get all that down on paper.

“Usually when I want to compose something, I create an image in my mind. I spend a lot of time building up and exploring that scene. After that I become very open and receptive. Then suddenly it is like a bolt of light shoots through me and I see the piece in its totality. I can catch everything in about three minutes at most.”

Occasionally he and his mother work together. Those productions are classically based. So, Motohiro Sensei composes and arranges to fit into that genre. Often in those concerts music accompanies poetry reading. So, in order to compose pieces for that, Motohiro Sensei will work with the poem itself, sometimes for days, until he can compose a piece that musically parallels the rhythm and message of the poem. Sometimes Motohiro Sensei adjusts a piece more than a hundred times before he is satisfied. “But that is what composing is about. Sometimes it flows. Sometimes it takes concerted effort. But that is all part of how it goes.

“But arranging is different. That’s like putting pieces of a puzzle together. It’s fun. I can do that with the TV on, with my wife practicing her flamenco dancing, with my kid throwing a ball at me or climbing into my lap. And actually that sort of thing sometimes jolts me to rearrange parts in ways I’d never thought of before.

“My life is good. And I’m lucky. I’m doing what matters most to me. My life is all about communication, about connecting with others. And of course, that is done mainly through music. I’m happy to be right where I am, doing just what I am. I live from the heart. And for me that is in the here and now, but also encompasses the entire world, and maybe the universe as well.”

* * * * *

(1) This name is Japanese style, with the family name coming first.
“Sensei” means “teacher” and is a polite form of address to a teacher. It literally means “One who has gone before”.