KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Across the Pacific, the birthplace of jazz reached out to help a local group of school musicians keep their sound alive following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Staff Writer
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Across the Pacific, the birthplace of jazz reached out to help a local group of school musicians keep their sound alive following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The Swing Dolphins, a local junior jazz orchestra ranging from fifth-graders to third-year junior high students, had lost their musical instruments and practice site in the tsunami that followed the magnitude-9.0 quake.
But on April 24, members played again thanks to a gift from New Orleans, which had also suffered massive flooding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Japanese musician Yoshio Toyama, 67, who had helped in 2005 in sending musical instruments to children in New Orleans, learned of the hardships of the Swing Dolphins through an acquaintance and told of their plight to people there.
Hearing it, a jazz club operator in the Louisiana city donated $11,000 (910,000 yen) for Swing Dolphins members to get new instruments. The club said that when New Orleans was devastated by flooding from Katrina, the city received donations and musical instruments from Japan, so it was their turn to help, Toyama said.
With the donation, Toyama purchased 14 musical instruments, including trumpets, saxophones and trombones. The instruments arrived in the middle of April. Seeing the new instruments, Swing Dolphins members shouted for joy.
"Though this school year (starting in April) is the last year for me (to be an SD member), I had thought that I cannot do the activities (for the group). So I am very pleased (with the offer of musical instruments)," said Mikako Konno, 14, a third-year student at Kesennuma Junior High School.
On April 24, the jazz played for the evacuees at Kesennuma city had a New Orleans flavor. SD's 24 members performed five songs on a stage in front of the Kesennuma city gymnasium, which is serving as an evacuation center.
The five tunes included the Dixieland jazz classic "When the Saints Go Marching in" and "Furusato" (hometown). About 400 people, including evacuees, gathered to listen.
"I was impressed and moved by the concert," said Hatsue Fujie, 74, whose house had been washed away by the tsunami, with her eyes full of tears.
Also touched were the Swing Dolphins, who overcame their crisis with help of their new New Orleans boosters.
"I played the songs, thinking that I want to encourage all of the people (who gathered here). As we received applause (from the audience), I was also able to enjoy the concert very much," said Takako Onodera, 14, a Swing Dolphins member and a third-year student at Kesennuma Junior High School.
Joichi Suto, 52, instructor for the Swing Dolphins, added, "We played performances that remind people of active Kesennuma. I want all the people to look forward to seeing the growth of the children (who are serving as SD members)."