I've been obsessing over a couple of realizations and re-discoveries during the past few weeks. For a number of years now, I've noticed more and more that there's a certain kind of unique harmonic signature attached to Japanese jazz harmony. Without even trying get too analytical right off the bat here: it's just something I can instantly recognize and appreciate, something I can feel when it's there. It's a very colorful and visual sort of sound.

Stuff you hear from guys like YMO, Casiopea, T-Square, etc. and all the great arcade and console game music that continues to have this emotionally vivid sound to this day.

It's something that always wows and amazes me when I come across it and I've been trying to casually understand it for a while in passing, but there's always been some sort of missing connection...like what actually influenced this sort of angular sound? It's obvious that jazz is America's baby and it has influenced musical movements all over the world, but there are a lot of harmonic movements within this area of Japanese music that just doesn't sound like any kind of American derivative. I've always just assumed the magic there was basically, "Well it's just crazy cool cos it's Japanese and they're just good like that hurhurr!", but of course that really can't add up to actually explain anything. I mean you can always trace things back to an influence at some point, right?


There's a particular composer that I've revisited lately and have just been floored upon closer inspection: Soyo Oka, the composer who did the music for Mario Kart, Pilotwings, and Sim City on the SNES. There's something particularly stunning going on within her compositions. It's an extremely clever and functional kind of chromaticism.


And by "functional chromaticism", I mean there's a difference between the craft and awareness involved with functional harmony(leading the listener on a journey, pointing toward key centers), and modal harmony(something probably more infamously known as "transpose-core"). Modal harmony has a very impressive and colorful sound to it because it's constantly challenging the listeners reference point on where the key center is, but, by it's nature, it's not particularly leading the listener to anticipate or yearn for what is coming up ahead. It's an impressive sound, but ultimately sort of emotionally flat IMHO.

What I have noticed in Oka's music is that she modulates all over the place, but it's not just some lazy and sudden jump into a new key(a lot of Kirby music does this ~v~'). Everything operates in a functional way. And not only that, but she's also riding on the barriers between multiple key centers...sort of functionally operating within multiple keys at once without actually ever settling into any of them!

Some great examples of this from her work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDJopSlcL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV-GwS84dsM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOkHjbbeUqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpJcjWhMvE8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqTt9j_bHPE

and this profound little gem(there is so much going on within this 6 second loop):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qiBxnSLs5c


There are a lot of things going on within these examples, too much to really start covering at the moment, but there is one musical concept I've noticed which I'd like to talk about briefly...


There's a particular progression that you can find derivatives of all over Japanese stuff which demonstrates one of the ingredients behind this "poly-key" tonality:

Cmaj7 > B7 > Em > Dm > G7 >> Cmaj7 ... etc. and it can keep repeating.

Without explaining too much right now, the proposal is that this progression is existing within both the keys of E minor and C major, yet it's never actually settling in either of them! It has an extremely attractive sound because it's perfectly functional, yet not exactly pointing at one central key. The result is this uncanny, mysterious dynamic that sort of keeps you on your toes!

Wanna hear a couple good examples of it in action?

http://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/Summer%27s+Farewell/7731/ (kicks in at 0:11. kf enters it for a few go rounds and then pulls out of it, settling on a conclusive key.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E29uwKZJbUI (kicks in right after the fancy intro. this one is actually dancing around three keys simultaneously!)


There are tons of other examples that I know are out there, but I can't exactly recall many at the moment. What's important is the musical idea behind how this progression works and not the actual progression itself!


Anyway, so where does Brazil come into all of this?!


The other day I was discussing Oka's music with a friend, like this 5 hour conversation almost. At some point he mentioned, "Hey you know, her music really reminds me of that Brizilian kind of sound. She's even cited Latin music as huge influence." Outside of this just applying to Oka, there are also other correlations like Japanese soccer themes for television being composed in the the style of a jazzy samba. So it really got us thinking more deeply into there being a connection here.

I have not really explored Brazilian jazz very much outside of the well know Bossa Nova songs from the 50s and 60s, but of course Bossa has evolved since then. It seemed to've morphed into a sound that's been colloquially shuffled into a genre, "Música popular brasileira" (MPB). What I find particularly interesting about MPB is the focus and concentration placed on matching the harmony with the timing and meaning behind lyrics, which can be quite chromatic by consequence!

A beautiful example~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EjFQDYIWZY

(On a side note: it also occurred to me that 16th century madrigals also had this lyrical-harmonic objective, which of course had the tendency to be adventurously chromatic! There's a good video demonstrating this with subtitles, you can clearly understand how the music changes color with the lyrical content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVW8GCnr9-I )


So anyway, I'm thinking there must be some kind of not-so-widely known history between Brazil and Japan. A history that is likely more obvious and taken for granted in those countries. Perhaps much like the history behind why the Dutch and Canadians are best friends(betcha didn't know that!) There has to be a point in which you can see how, when, why and where the cross-pollination happened. There are a few wikipedia articles that support this proposed correlation at a glance, but there's really not too much information there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilians_in_Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil%E2%80%93Japan_relations

"According to a 2013 BBC World Service Poll, 71% of Brazilians view Japan's influence positively, with only 10% expressing a negative view, making Brazil one of the most pro-Japanese nations in the world."


There's also a lot to consider from this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_jazz

...which doesn't mention this idea of Brazilian influence, but I'm wondering if anyone has really had the reason or interest to investigate this angle.


Anyway, I'll be updating this thread as I do more research. I'll soon have my own website up where I'll be storing research like this and musical transcripts, but I thought maybe a few people here would be interested and curious about these things as well~


I'd also like to hear our resident BotBrazlians opinions on this!

That Megalopolis was insane.

I'll try to keep these ideas in mind. Usually with trance/old prog house it's easy to get trapped into to 4chord sequences that don't heavily go anywhere, but it's not for the reason of multiple centers. What you've demonstrated a lot of the times has very stretchy leadingtone chords that does normal secondary functions, but it's so dense that you easily get lost. And the weird thing is how easily the progression finds its way back home.

Very neat tech

GREAT POST!!!!!!!

Soyo Oka & Ivan Lins <3
btw, I transcribed part of velas icadas a while back:
http://midiman.reztech.org/music/originals/unsorted/ivanlins-velasicadas_excerpt.mid

literally everyone knows brazilian music better than i do FUCK

I'm trying to think of other examples of culture-based genres that make it into Japanese VGM. Only two things come to mind. 1) SMB main theme is a samba of sorts and 2) Don Flamenco's theme (which, now that I think of it, is probably not even flamenco in nature). Lot's of food for thought here. We should have some key modulation battles!

yea bknox that'd be fun i think ::) there've been talks of having a 12-key challenge ohb and stuff like that.


i've also been looking more into the filipino influence on japan that some articles are pointing at. i never realized jazz was a thing in the philippines in the first place, so been looking more into the history of how jazz came to be known over there as well.

fortunately, there's a filipino jazzer guy who wrote books on the subject and even took the time to make a documentary: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/377/Pinoy-Jazz:%20The%20Story%20of%20Jazz%20in%20the%20Philippines

lots more to think about...

btw i've been listening to more ivan lins lately, he is really something~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtExkfaeAzQ

yeah like that

don't think any of these vidoes constantly modulates to the key a major third apart

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jhljg5fw2binl19/yodalord.jpg?dl=0


hey since we're sort of in this area already -- http://www.mi.sanu.ac.rs/vismath/lends/ch1.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c0n3EM_PUU&t=4m54s

i checked this thread just to see if i had already posted that link or not

came across this recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF0-OxewolY
the chorus goes like:

|Bm7||F#m7||Em7 A11||Dmaj7 F#11|
|Bm7||F#m7||Em7 F#m7||C#m9 A11|
|Bm7||F#m7||Em7 A11||Dmaj7 F#11 |
|Bm7||F#m7||Em7 F#m7||C#m9|

where | | represents one 4/4 measure

the main cadence and esp the way it lands on the C#m9 sounds so japanesey to me

Every time this comes up on Reddit's /r/musictheory I paste an answer that basically explains that the world is now flat and all of these people are inspired by the same stuff.

The reason I post like that on reddit is because the OPs are kids whose parents didn't expose them to smooth jazz or yacht rock so a major 7th chord sounds otherworldly and exotic and anime is the only way they've ever paid attention to it.

Part of the exchange that brings Brazilians to Japan lands them jobs in auto factories. Honda has a minor league soccer team that often contends for championships, and, from being a "work team" isn't allowed to be promoted to the professional leagues. They are nicknamed the "Gatekeepers of the J.League" because when they win the championship, any team with professional aspiration can't get promoted that year. Also, when a Japanese footballer is known only by one western sounding name...