Party all night

The jazz concert was great. It was also very, very long. It was held at the NHK concert hall in Osaka, started at five, and finished shortly before nine. By the time we got home it was nearly ten, and we hadn't eaten. There are no restaurants open around the NHK concert hall on a Sunday night.

The hall was packed. I don't know how many people it holds, but I heard someone mention two thousand and something. A lot of people. There were something like 40 musicians taking part in the concert, which was not a retirement concert as I'd thought (i.e. he's not retiring), but a 50th anniversary concert. That's fifty years of performing - the pianist, Zensho, is 70. He'd collected many of the musicians he's played with through the years, and probably about a third of them were similarly aged. They were wonderful. Zensho was on the stage the whole time, looking about 55, which he does close up, too (does jazz keep you young?) and he was superb. 'Play' is exactly the right verb for what he does with a piano.

The part I liked best was when there was just three of them up there, the original trio that started off 50 years ago. Metcha cool music.

Now I have to get some sleep. Those old guys might be partying through the night but I have to work tomorrow.