The Teruo Nakamura Quartet plays 3rd special jazz performance for HIV/AIDS awareness

 

Jointly sponsored by The Red Shoes Foundation and World Bank PIC Tokyo

(From left to right) drums Hiroshi Murakami, guitar Kiyoshi Sugimoto, bass Teruo Nakamura, piano Hiromu Aoki (photo by Shiro Kimura)

June 23, 2008, Tokyo – The Red Shoes Foundation and World Bank Tokyo PIC hosted The Teruo Nakamura Quartet for another jazz performance at the World Bank PIC space in the Fukoku Seimei Building lobby in central Tokyo on June 23^rd. The live show drew over 60 guests who were privy to the sounds played by Teruo Nakamura on bass, Hiromu Aoki on piano, Hiroshi Murakami on drums, and Kiyoshi Sugimoto on the guitar.

 

Hiroshi Hiratsuka, board member of the Red Shoes Foundation opened the performance with an explanation of how the special Teruo Nakamura jazz and art for HIV/AIDS awareness all got started. Kazushige Taniguchi, Special Representative for Japan’s World Bank Office, also spoke on the importance of the HIV/AIDS issue in the context of this year’s recently concluded TICAD IV (Tokyo International Conference on African Development IV).

 

The world population has hit 6.7 billion and a billion of those people are living on less than $1 per day. The number of people worldwide estimated to have been infected with the HIV virus has reached 35 million. A disproportionate 60% of the world’s HIV-infected people live in Africa, though Africa makes just over 10% of the world’s population. While HIV/AIDS grabs the attention of people as social problem in Japan and other developed countries, the number of HIV/AIDS infections in the developing world continues to increase.

 

One Japanese artist who has been standing up to face the HIV/AIDS crisis for 13 years now is a jazz bassist by the name of Teruo Nakamura. Nakamura left home for America 45 years ago all by himself, and rose to become the best Japanese jazz bassist around. He has also become an important advocate in Japan for HIV/AIDS awareness. During his years in New York, Nakamura says he came to learn about how important it is to transcend race and other discriminatory boundaries as many of the friends and musicians around him fell victim to HIV/AIDS. He decided to take action in his own way, and on his yearly tours in Japan he has created a unique series of concerts – bringing together the comforting sounds of jazz with Japanese experts in the fields of Asian and African development, and HIV/AIDS.

 

Music by the Teruo Nakamura Trio  

 

 

Arts & Music for HIV/AIDS with the Red Shoes Foundation in Japan over the last year

 

November 26     AIDS Awareness Live jazz at World Bank PIC Tokyo 

 

December 2       AIDS Awareness Concert at the United Nations University 

 

April 17, 2008    Video conference and lecture with Teruo Nakamura and Japanese HIV/AIDS experts at World Bank Tokyo’s TDLC (Tokyo Development Learning Center) , and AIDS awareness live jazz at World Bank PIC, along with a photo exhibition of Nakamura’s past by photographer Akiyoshi Miyashita

 

 

This August, a special stage event will be set up in Hibiya City (just next door to the

World Bank PIC Tokyo) where Teruo Nakamura and friends will again perform for HIV/AIDS awareness.

 

We note with great sadness the June 1^st death of Mr. Yoshitaka Uematsu, the drummer who played with Teruo Nakamura and his friends last November and made an appearance at the performance at World Bank PIC on April 17.