Kathmandu Makoto Takenaka loves jazz, and that is what he does. But this 63-year-old Japanese pianist and composer does it differently. “I love to find a new scale and want to improvise on that scale,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Himalayan Times. Because he loves to “seek unique musical scale, I believe we can find something new”. Takenaka was invited to Nepal by the Japan Asian Association and Asian Friendship Society to perform for a charity, and free concerts. He believes that “Nepal has a unique scale and unique people and unique musicians” and so he improvised his jazz with some musicians of Nepal including the instrumental ensemble Kutumba here. “I have learnt jazz, love jazz and jazz standards,” this alumnus of Berklee College of Music (1982) with a Magna cum Laude (BA) shared adding, “I am combining, arranging classical music, Japanese music, Russian songs, hymns … to jazz style.” As per him, jazz is not a kind of music. Rather jazz is a “method, a way to enjoy music. We can use this method to enjoy classical music or Russian or Japanese music, including jazz music. We enjoy and play music and so people will enjoy too”. Takenaka was born in the USA and brought up in Japan. So he loves Japanese music too. He revealed, “I love to change a little bit and I want to introduce that music to the world — this is my one main purpose in playing jazz.” Music is not something that I give to you. It is me enjoying together with the audience. If I don’t enjoy, nobody will enjoy Jazz is a method, a way to enjoy music ... I love to change a little bit and I want to introduce that music to the world — this is my one main purpose in playing jazz I want people to enjoy my music in my style. This is the way I can tell people how I feel “The Japanese scale has a very unique pentatonic scale. It is very different from the heptatonic scale. It has a flavour, it has a taste, and it has everything to feel: ‘Oh I am in Japan…’ I really love to play those and I want people to enjoy that.” Other than Japanese scales, he has played with Russian music, hymns as well as classical music to arrange those music into his albums like Mio (1993) and HIBIKI (1997), IMP-”RUSSIA”-VISATION (2002) and Jazzlassic (2003) to name a few. This art of improvisation of scales comes naturally to Takenaka. “It is easier for me because I can speak in my language and I can play whatever music — classical, Russian music in my way. If I listen to some music and if I want to play, I can play only in my style. But I want people to enjoy my music in my style. This is the way I can tell people how I feel. So, in that sense, it is very easy,” he explained. Different kinds music have their own ways and notes and that is where it becomes tricky. He pointed out, “For Japanese or Russian music, there is certain way or notes that we shouldn’t play. In traditional Japanese music, there is no third, which is very important in Western music. Japanese music is different — we shouldn’t play either major chord or minor chord. If we play, we are borrowing the Western idea.” This is the Japanese way and that is why “I began to play Japanese music in a jazz style saying something —  it is little bit different from Bach, Beethoven or Chopin”. When he is on the stage, it is all about enjoying, be it the performer or the audience. “The pianist is the first audience with the best seat in the concert hall,” he quipped. “Music is not something that I give to you. It is I enjoying together with the audience. If I don’t enjoy, nobody will enjoy.” During his performance, he asks himself, “What do I want to hear?” and follows his instinct — that is why every time “I perform it is different and it should be different, that I believe”. Takenaka has performed in all over the globe including Canada, South Korea, Russia, Hungary and Romania. He who is interested in drawing and animations, and has had a long career as a piano instructor from becoming the first Japanese Assistant Professor in Berklee College of Music to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) and now Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Japan among others since picking the instrument as a child. As young as five years old, he took up the piano and he is still playing it. “I don’t remember picking up the instrument but my parents said I always want to take piano lessons. I don’t remember at all,” he recalled adding, “I hated piano lessons and I hated practising. I practised only for five minutes a week before going for lessons; my teacher would scold me.” Right after the lessons, he would always play baseball — he was interested in baseball and all manner of sports. “I had no idea that I would become a professional musician as I wasn’t interested in music at all, zero per cent,” he said. It changed in his second year of high school. He quit piano lessons when he had to prepare for college entrance examination. But the next day, “I began to play like 10 hours a day. Because I love to play without being told you should play this way, you should play this tune... I felt free, I could play Chopin, Beethoven. I love Chopin and my teacher didn’t allow me to play because it was difficult.” And he didn’t study at all for the entrance examination and “I didn’t quit piano because I love to play”. After living in the USA as a student and then as a teacher, three years ago, he “packed everything and came back” to Japan to teach music at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts. “I really didn’t want to die in America. I really want to die in Japan. I was always seeking the possibility to work in Japan at the end of my life.”