I’M INVITED TO JAZZ AND THE SPOKEN WORD IN TOKYO
I’m reading my poetry with music at MZES in Akasaka, Tokyo FRI Feb. 27, 2026 7 p.m. Thanks to the kind invitation of Joshua Breakstone, who has this to say about the event:
We’ll be holding a very special and unique event, “Jazz and the Spoken Word”, for the first time in Tokyo. The most recent “Jazz and the Spoken Word” in Kyoto was held on January 9 to a sold-out house of 50 seated listeners plus 20 more standing at the back- it was packed, it was wild, and the audience was totally into it.
As in Kyoto, 4 readers- 2 in English and 2 in Japanese- will read their own work or the work of others, or talk about something they think would be of interest or significant to the audience, or improvise a story, or do whatever they like, all accompanied by live improvised jazz. No rehearsals, everything spontaneous and of the moment.
Music will be by me and the great pianist Phillip Strange with whom I’ve been performing in a duo setting for many years.
It’ll be a wonderful evening no doubt and, if we receive enough support from the Tokyo literary and jazz communities, it’s an event I hope to be able to continue into the future as a series, as we have been able to do in Kyoto (2x/year and 7 times to date).
I’ve attached very brief bios of each of the 4 readers as well as the poster for the event.
Your help in publicizing would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for sending out info, forwarding this message, posting, contacting friends and colleagues…for any and all of it. If there’s anything else you might need from me, let me know.
Please mark down February 27 on your calendar. I hope you can attend!
BTW….I’ll also be playing that week at a few other venues:
Feb 25- Adirondack Cafe (Duo with pianist Phillip Strange) (Kanda)
Feb 26- Farout (Duo with pianist Phillip Strange) (Yokohama)
February 28- Sometime (Guitar trio with Okudaira Shingo on drums and Yasukagawa Daiki on bass) (Kichijoji)
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Ishii Shinji (いしいしんじ):
Shinji Ishii, who has authored more than 30 works of fiction and nonfiction, is a highly acclaimed novelist from Osaka currently residing in Kyoto. Since the publication of his debut novel Buranko-nori (Once Upon a Swing) in 2000 he has been nominated six times as a finalist for the Yukio Mishima Prize. In 2003, he won the Tsubota Joji Literary Award for Mugi-fumi Kutze (Kutze, Steppin’ on Wheat), in 2012 the Oda Sakunosuke Prize for Aru Hi (One Day), and in 2016 the Hayao Kawai Story Prize for “Akugoe” (Bad Voice). The film, “Crazy Man” (“Toritsukare Otoko”), based on Ishii-san’s novel of the same name, was released in the fall of 2025.
“Usually I write novels at home. On February 27, I will write an improvised novel on stage.”
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Chris Mosdell:
British lyricist/poet Chris Mosdell has been awarded the Yuki Hayashi-Newkirk Poetry Prize, the Tokyo Music Festival’s Gold Prize, and the Grand Prize for Poetry at the Boulder, Colorado, Festival of Literature. In 2023 he was the recipient of Japan’s Classics Day Cultural Foundation Prize, an award “honouring individuals who have contributed to the dissemination and enlightenment of Japanese classical culture”––an award presided over by Princess Akiko of the Imperial Family. His lyrics have been recorded by Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Sarah Brightman, Boy George, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yellow Magic Orchestra, among others.
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Yuri Kageyama:
Yuri Kageyama is a poet, filmmaker, storyteller and journalist. Her book, “The New and Selected Yuri: Writing From Peeling Till Now,” is out from Ishmael Reed Publishing Co. Her theater piece “NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA: Meditation on an Under-Reported Catastrophe by a Poet,” directed by Carla Blank, was performed at Z Space in San Francisco in 2017, and debuted at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York in 2015. It was documented as a 2018 film by Yoshiaki Tago. She made a collaborative animation film “The Very Special Day” with stop motion artist Hayatto. She has read with Melvin Gibbs, Seamus Heaney, Shuntaro Tanikawa, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Winchester Nii Tete, Sachiko Yoshihara and many other artists.
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Taylor Mignon:
Taylor Mignon’s most recent book is Visual Poetry of Japan: 1684-2023, which came off the heels of VOU: Visual Poetry Tokio 1958-1978 (2022). Mignon discusses these in an article published in Genda shi techo, Modern poetry notebook (Summer 2025). He is founding editor of Tokyo Poetry Journal, having spearheaded the first six issues, including the book-sized issue, “Japan and the Beats.” New Directions are slated to publish his translations in an upcoming anthology of Japanese avant-garde poetry. He’s working on a collected book on the photography and poetry by modernist Tsuji Setsuko.
Mignon will be performing a few of his homage (not fromage) for Japanese poets he loves, in addition to one translation of a modernist poet. They will be presented bilingually.