Photo/Illutration Haruki Murakami talks about U.S. jazz saxophonist Stan Getz during an event at the Waseda International House of Literature in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on Nov. 13. (Provided by Waseda University)

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series on “Authors Alive!” book-reading and other events to mark the opening of the Waseda International House of Literature known as the Haruki Murakami Library.

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Audience members were treated to author Haruki Murakami serving as a disc jockey while playing the works of jazz great Stan Getz and talking about his music.

Murakami played records from his own extensive collection during a session held Nov. 13 at the Waseda International House of Literature in Tokyo.

The event was the fourth in a series of sessions titled “Authors Alive!” to mark the Oct. 1 opening of the institution, also known as the Haruki Murakami Library, which stands on Waseda University’s main campus in the capital’s Shinjuku Ward.

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The logo of the “Authors Alive!” events (Provided by Waseda University)

“I listen to music in different genres, but I’d love to begin with jazz,” Murakami said in opening the session, which he dedicated to a review of the life of the late U.S. saxophonist.

The writer occasionally recited from the Japanese version of “Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz,” a biography by Donald L. Maggin, which was translated by Murakami and is available from Shinchosha Publishing Co.

Getz was born in 1927. Although his family was poor, he obtained a second-hand saxophone and began performing professionally at the age of 15.

“He had a number of special talents,” Murakami said. “For one thing, he was able to play on reed instruments of all sorts. For another, he was able to play music on sight once he glanced at the score. No matter what band he was in, he proved himself to be valuable.”

The first piece Murakami played was “Early Autumn” from 1948, when the 21-year-old Getz was playing in Woody Herman’s band. Murakami went on to present more pieces as he explained their backgrounds in the broader context of the history of jazz, with occasional riffs on his own personal recollections.

“I listened to this a lot when I was in high school, which made me really get into Getz,” Murakami said of “A Summer Afternoon” from “Focus,” a 1961 album.

“Getz’s bossa nova is a world apart from that of others,” the writer said as he put on “Corcovado” from “Getz/Gilberto,” the famed 1964 album with Joao Gilberto. “The way his lyricism gets along with Brazilian music is something you could hardly find anywhere else.”

In the shadows of his spectacular and extensive musical career, Getz continued to suffer from alcoholism and drug addiction his entire life.

“Music is there like an independent form of life unto itself,” Murakami said. “It keeps evolving even if it lives in a host who is so messed up.”

The last vinyl to play was “First Song” from a 1991 live performance, in which Getz entertained the audience with opulent tones despite being afflicted with cancer. Three months later, he was dead at age 64.

Murakami concluded the event by reading aloud his afterword to the biography he translated.

“The essence of Getz’s music consists in its lyricism,” a passage reads. “It is a deep, lyrical spirit that goes above and beyond sentimentalism. Still, that only represents one side of the coin. A ruthless demon lurks silently, and inevitably, on the backside of that beautiful spirit.”

Murakami’s postface continues, “Light and darkness, the bright and the shady--you can never choose one of them of your own free will. It is not up to you, but up to them, to choose. And true beauty is something that inevitably embraces such a dangerous origin at its root.”

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