Descriptions:
Sendai’s autumn tradition, the Jozenji Street Jazz Festival, will be held for two days starting September 7. This year, the 33rd year of the festival, new initiatives are planned, such as the opening ceremony for the first time. We interviewed high school students celebrating the opening day. The entire city of Sendai, the forest capital, is surrounded by music at the Jozenji Street Jazz Festival. There is no limit on the participants, professionals, amateurs or age, this two-day event brings together bands from various musical genres, not limited to jazz. Last year, for the first time in four years, the event was held normally, with no restrictions on participants and visitors, and 550,000 people attended. Announcer Nishinoiri Natsuki: “One of the venues is Kotodai Park Civic Plaza. Preparations for tomorrow’s event are proceeding smoothly, including the installation of sound equipment on this stage.” This year, more than 600 bands will perform on 34 stages, including Jozenji. Street and Kotodai Park. We asked the organizers about the features of this year. Masao Satake, director of the Jozenji Street Jazz Festival Association: “We have many new projects. We hope that everyone will find their own way to enjoy the event and visit the various venues.” New jazz festival. Compared to last year, more than half of the staff are over 20 years old, including college students. In addition to planning performances in halls as a measure against the heat, new ideas were born one after another, such as installing an outdoor piano in the Ichibancho area that anyone can freely play. To raise funds, we held a crowdfunding campaign and raised 1.9 million yen, 700,000 yen more than our goal. And another new attempt… Announcer Nishinoiri Natsuki: “This is the first time that the opening ceremony marking the start of the jazz festival will be held here on Jozenji Street.” The first opening ceremony of the jazz festival will be held at two locations on Jozenji Street. , and 5 The group opens with a bang. The climax of the opening ceremony will be… Nishinoiri Natsuki Announcer: “This is the St. Ursula Gakuin Eichi Middle School Brass Band. The rehearsal will be in three days.” St. Ursula Gakuin Eichi Middle School in Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai City. On September 4, the club members were seen rehearsing the songs that will be performed for the first time at the jazz festival. 2nd grade student: “The tempo from ‘E’ is questionable, so I’d like everyone to start from ‘E’ once.” The students were given sheet music “the day before” on the day of the interview. This is the first day that we will be able to tune together as a single unit, so we will practice over and over again, down to the smallest details. The students memorized the score in less than an hour, and once they finished practicing, they took their instruments outside. “At the end, you will step, but don’t do it for the first eight bars, just stop and keep stepping for the next eight bars.” Now it’s time to practice the choreography. As the environment gets darker, I synchronize the movements and sounds over and over again. Show your best performance at the first opening ceremony. I’m enjoying practicing. Ichiji Takahashi: “I hope more people will be interested in our school’s brass band since it will be held on the main street of Sendai.” Yuu Sato: “I hope Ursula will continue to play like this in the future.” I’d like it to be a festival where the brass band performs at the opening ceremony, and then various bands play jazz.” Director Yui Oyamada: “We would like to invite everyone from Sendai and those coming from outside the prefecture to join us. I am rehearsing right now because I want to perform in a way that people can fully enjoy.” The jazz festival will begin with an opening ceremony for the 33rd time. For two days, September 7 and 8, Mori no Miyako will be filled with music and excitement.