Uri Nakayama at her album release concert

Dan Grunebaum

At a time when most of her peers are listening to rock or hip-hop, what makes a young woman pick up the accordion? “When I started to sing, I thought about the piano and guitar, but they’re so common and there are so many good players,” explains Uri Nakayama at her management’s offices in Akasaka. “I wanted to do something that would stand out.”

With her creatively coiffed hair (it turns out she’s a sometimes hair stylist), neo-bohemian wardrobe and accordion, Nakayama certainly stands out from the Beyoncé and Avril Lavigne clones who seem to proliferate without limit among young women singers. “I feel a bit of a gap with my friends,” she admits. “I wasn’t able to talk about music with girls my age.”

Introduced to legends like Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong by her jazz-loving father, Nakayama’s first instrument was actually the trumpet. She didn’t pick up the accordion until after she’d hit 20, but once she did, the connection was immediate. “I became entranced,” she recalls. “I felt like I could attune my breathing to it. Like with the piano, you make a tone by depressing a key, but the accordion also has bellows that allow you to make the music breathe, that give it color.”

Although she’s only been playing the instrument for a few years, Nakayama seems confident and at ease in the recent release concert for her major label debut, Do Re Mi Fa, at Duo Music Exchange in the heart of Shibuya. Her translucent, unaffected voice draws pictures from a dreamy lyrical world where camels appear in the moonlight and songs are sung for sailors in a marketplace. The canvas for Nakayama’s tone poems is provided by her all-male band, which includes a jazz rhythm section, acoustic guitarist and, at one point during her set, a guest clarinetist who pulls Dixieland riffs out of his reed.

Nakayama has a natural rapport with her audience—one that has translated into a growing fan base as she graduates from small live houses to large-scale concert halls. There are certainly plenty of rapt, alternative role model-seeking young women in the audience, but there’s also a smattering of older hipsters and jazz fans. Nakayama has also proven a hit online, where her 2006 self-titled EP was the overall number four in sales, and number one in the jazz charts.
So it’s a surprise, and a commentary on the current state of the music business, to learn that she has only recently been able to give up her full time job as a stylist to focus on music. First discovered as a session trumpeter by her current management agency, Nakayama even now continues to supplement her income by cutting hair.

The last song on Do Re Mi Fa, “Hashiru Onna” (“Running Woman”), describes the balancing act. “There was a time recently when I didn’t have a day off for over a month, and I was playing music at the time,” she says about the song. “Recently, I’ve gone freelance and have cut back on my hair stylist work, but at the busy time I wrote that song, I was always running around. I think there must be a lot of people who can relate to that.”

As in the West, the old guard of Japanese jazz players and their whiskey-drinking fans are reaching retirement age. But young acts like American Norah Jones, Japanese piano phenomenon Hiromi Uehara and Uri Nakayama are breathing new life into the genre, bringing it out of small, smoky clubs and onto the stages of concert halls and rock festivals. No purist himself, Satchmo is no doubt looking on from wherever he is… and smiling.

Do Re Mi Fa is available on Sony Music Japan International. Uri Nakayama plays Summer Sonic Aug 11 and Shibuya Duo Music Exchange Sep 11. See concert listings for details.

Got something to say about this article? Send a letter to the editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp.

Listen to the Metropolis Podcast, the coolest guide to what goes on this week in Tokyo.

Looking for international friends? Check Japan, Inc. Friends now - it's 100% free!