Jazz kissa

A typical jazz kissa features a high-quality stereo system, a large music collection and dim lighting, and serves coffee and alcoholic drinks.

The first cafés focussed on playing recorded jazz opened in Japan in the late 1920s as part of a wider enthusiasm for Western culture and music.

Their influence extends beyond Japan with listening bars inspired by jazz kissa opening in many other countries in the 21st century.

The popularisation of coffee, cafés and jazz music in Japan began in the 1920s and 1930s as part of a wider middle-class enthusiasm for Western ideas.

[2] Other cafés eschewed this eroticism and installed phonographs, low lighting and sofas to create a sophisticated and relaxed atmosphere.

[7] These kissa housed large record collections, centred on specific genres, and modern sound equipment.

[13] Instead, records had to be imported from America at prohibitively expensive prices that, while too costly for most individuals, jazz kissa would pay.

This particularly affected university students who, drawn to the cafes' bohemian atmosphere, made up a significant proportion of jazz kissa patrons.

These jazz kissa were notable for their dim lighting, extremely loud music and rules for patrons such as the prohibition of talking.

[22] However, this trend declined at the end of the 1960s alongside the deaths of free jazz musicians John Coltrane and Albert Ayler and the disintegration of the New Left.

[24][25] Records and stereos became affordable for teenagers and students in the 1970s which, together with a considerable expansion in live jazz, made the music readily more accessible.

These jazz kissa have targeted younger customers by creating a more relaxed environment and featuring live performances from both DJs and musicians.

[30] High-quality stereo equipment is a central feature of jazz kissa and speakers are sometimes custom built for the space.

[22] Typically jazz kissa have low lighting and antique furniture, and are located on quiet side streets.

[32] The walls of many jazz kissa are decorated with LP covers and have shelves filled with vinyl records and CDs.

[25] Japanese musician Otomo Yoshihide wrote that the classic jazz kissa of the 1970s was a 15 m2 room with a counter, several hundred vinyl LPs, a large collection of magazines and "a pair of huge JBL or Altec speakers".

[15] Musicologist David Novak has argued that the imported technology and music in jazz kissa "helped Japanese learn how to be modern".