PE’Z

The quintet hope that street jazz and Tokyo style have a market overseas

(From left) Kou (drum), Kadota “JAW” Kousuke (sax), Ohyama “B.M.W” Wataru (trumpet), Nirehara Masahiro (bass), Hiizumimasayu-KI (keys) courtesy of World Apart

In a recent segment of a Fuji TV program called Our Music, five young jazz musicians earnestly queried ’80s pop star Cyndi Lauper about their dream of making it big abroad. Heartstrings were suitably tugged when Lauper said they’ve got what it takes and should simply stay true to themselves; eyes visibly moistened when she extolled the deliciousness of sushi and sake.

It was the kind of sappy, easily dismissible program that’s a staple of Japanese TV, with one difference: PE’Z can play, as they proved by backing an amazingly fresh-looking Lauper on “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time.”

The program was part of a new effort by PE’Z to reach out to an audience beyond Japan, where their fans last week once again sold out every night of the group’s multi-day residency at Liquidroom. In the past year PE’Z have ventured abroad to do a street show in Seoul and play clubs in England and Holland.

But most importantly, and unusually for a domestic act, they’ve signed with an overseas label, leaving Toshiba-EMI for Roadrunner Records. “We want to expand our activities to America and Europe. In order for us to do that, a foreign record label is key,” says bandleader and trumpet virtuoso Wataru “BMW” Ohyama at their management company’s Asakusa office.

The last time we talked with PE’Z, two years ago, Toshiba-EMI was targeting 2004 for the band’s international debut. Apparently, that didn’t work out. “It’s better for us to be with a company like Roadrunner that’s based abroad with its main offices in Holland,” BMW says. “Of course there were certain benefits to being with a big company like Toshiba-EMI. But we’re happy with the way things have turned out.”

Audiences in Europe didn’t know quite what to make of PE’Z’s poppy, up-tempo swing. But BMW says they’ve never tried to cultivate an audience familiar with jazz. “We don’t really view ourselves as a jazz band per se. We’re glad that we’ve been accepted into the mainstream of Japanese pop music.”

Rather than working the jazz club circuit, PE’Z launched their career on the streets of Shibuya in the summer of 2000. On word of mouth alone they were soon drawing crowds several hundred strong, and topped Japan’s indie charts with their self-titled debut album.

A listen to PE’Z’s albums alone won’t quite explain their success. With roots in modern jazz, their music—as, for example, on the new album Chitosedori—is a fairly straightforward outing of neo-swing topped up with ska, Latin and fusion for a contemporary edge.

It’s at live shows that PE’Z show their difference. Garbed in hip Shibuya street fashion, they speak the language of youth culture, and in BMW they have a bandleader who can make each person in the audience feel as if the concert is for her or him alone.

Perhaps most widely known for their heavy-rotation Asahi Super Dry beer commercial featuring the song “Dry! Dry? Dry!” PE’Z have achieved by stealth what no mainstream act has: bringing jazz back to the people. “We want to introduce jazz to as many folks as possible, and to people who’ve never heard it,” concludes BMW. “That’s why we take a pop approach to our music.”

Yebisu 06 New Year’s Party@The Garden Hall, Dec 31. See concert listings (popular) for details.

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