“In the warm glow of the country’s jazz cafés, a subculture of vinyl aficionados is cultivating the kind of shared sensory experiences that our noisy world has forgotten.”
I read an article about Japanese jazz kissa bars (National Greographic: paywalled) and was drawn in by the images and history of these communal spaces to enjoy music listening.
A jazz kissa is a uniquely Japanese cafe or bar where listening to vinyl records is the main event, not background music. They appeared in the late 1920s and peaked in the '60s and '70s, decling as home audio became mainstream. However, there’s been a recent resurgance with younger crowds and tourists. Distinctive traits of Japanese kissas include:
Reverent silence - many kissas enforce a no-talking rule
Full albums, not singles - owners typically play entire sides of LPs, sequencing records into multi-album sets
Reading the room - owners study customers’ faces to choose the right records, matching the vibe of the room
This got me thinking about music listening bars/pubs/restaurants nearby. Consider one of the following the next time you visit Chicago.
So Chicago and Tokyo are now on my bucket list … will my be ears up to it?
Seriously, what a great way to re-live what was such a part of my youth - sharing recorded music with others.
Hopefully more of these will be part of the future - I had no idea about them becoming part of the American experience and saw them as a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.
Whoah, thank you for that steer mjw. If anyone wants to check it out on Google (like I did) it’s Framlingham, not Framlington. Although I found it using Framlington! I was only yesterday discussing Suffolk as a campervan destination. Think I’ve found myself a stopoff
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mjw
(You want nice, supportive? Call a damn helpline.)
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Thanks for the correction. I’ll amend my original post.
@Fernando_Machado I recently learned that my cousin (not pictured below) wears bone conduction headphones while swimming. I had no idea folks were listening to music while underwater. Just imagine what it would be like if your local pool broadcasts/streams what is playing on the turntable to all swimmers
