Club Yellow closing week: Monday “Last Step in Jazz”

Club Yellow closing week: Monday “Last Step in Jazz”

26 June, 2008 | 4.23PM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: club yellow, tokyo

Monday, I arrived at Club Yellow at midnight to find a huge line at the door.

As the people streamed in, it seemed like regular Saturday night at Yellow, but at the same time I felt there was something very different than the usual. 

It is hard to describe what was different but it was something special.

Maybe it was the yellow sunflowers decorating the bar counter.

Maybe it was old school club-jazz girls who turned over 30-years old whom I haven’t seen in years!

Shinichi Osawa (aka Mondo Grosso) was DJing, and for this special night called “Last Step in Jazz”, I thought he might play jazz, but he played his usual electro rock.

So I went upstairs where the All-Star Japanese House DJs were playing.

Katsuya played a brilliant minimal techno set and brought heat to the floor.

Then, Ko Kimura followed up with high-energy dance tracks. The second room was where the party was at, but, I had to listen to jazz that night.

On the main floor Tatuo Sunaga (aka Sunaga T.Experience) was playing jazz.

It was an eclectic, smooth, unpredictable mix, and the sound system, which is already one of the best in Japan, sounded better than ever.

By that time, I was exhausted from 10km run I did earlier, but that didn’t stop my booty from shaking in the middle of the dancefloor.

Then I realized what the magic of this club was—it was this sound system. It was the DJs. It was music.

There are many clubs in Tokyo, as you might guess. But in this town music is treated as “a trendy accessory to an outfit and style”, rather than a means to bring like-minded people together.

Therefore, most clubs don’t spend enough money on their sound systems, don’t care about the quality of DJs; rather, they spend time thinking about how many people a certain DJ could bring to the club.

Yellow wasn’t all that innocent, but they kept it real—they were always true to the music.

Kei Kobayashi followed up with jazz and kept the floor going while I was busy pondering.

I noticed I was sweating more than while I was running, so I left the floor.

But the party kept on, like there was no ending.

Words by: Special guest blogger Takamori Kadoi
Photos by Kenta Fujiki

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