coffee no cigarettes: jazz in cafés of Tokyo - TAPE

A collage of jazz recordings from Tokyo’s cafés. Some were intimate, independent hideaways; others, bustling franchises; and a few, jazz 'kissa'—cafés dedicated to playing jazz on deluxe hi-fi systems.

I started this journey thinking jazz would be a very niche pursuit in the streets of Tokyo, but it wasn’t long before I began to find it in abundance. I had set out looking for it but came to feel that jazz was the one pursuing me, pleasantly surprised even to hear a carefully curated playlist in a busy Starbucks, of all places. This recurring pattern became a comforting constant—the melodic thread woven through my days.

These recordings were kept raw, with the volume low, capturing the vibe of each space as naturally as possible. We catch fragments of laughter, faint conversations, snippets of speech just out of reach. Jazz fills the air just right—not overpowering, yet never reduced to background noise. Some moments drift by with a Chet Baker kind of cool, while others buzz with untamed energy that might just sweep you into a frenzy of Thelony!

Through the hum of city life—oscillating sirens, cars gliding by, the steady pulse of the city—an unexpected collaborator emerges: the contingent 'Tokyo Street Ensemble'—credit where credit's due. The clink of a cup, the tap of keystrokes, the grind of beans and the hiss of steam scatter arhythmic textures over those smooth melodies. Always harmonious even in its dissonance, it’s a jam…

For me, these recordings cloud the line between reality and imagination. Can sound really let us be in two places at once? Can it pull us back to a moment lost in time and space? There's something else at work here—beyond the ambient allure—drawing us into the strange, shifting landscape of someone else’s memory, where everything blurs as we wander through it. My hope is that, as this collage subtly rolls out on your stereo, it opens the door to that distant, uncanny world for you too.

Recordings: MK
Text: MK/Noam Assayag
Images: MK
Big thanks to Jan