JP/17/SUZUKI

Healing voice from Japan visits Jakarta

Hera Diani The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Japanese singer Shigeko Suzuki is very aware that her music is the kind that can easily lull people to sleep.

Therefore, before she started her recent concert here in Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Central Jakarta, the 37 year-old singer said that she would understand if the audience fell asleep during the concert.

"Just continue to sleep, but please, don't snore," said the owner of the delicate voice in perfect English, smiling, and in the same delicate manner.

Soft and delicate it was when she talked, but the voice turned deep and powerful when Suzuki sang, although thankfully, it was not that scary Celine Dion-esque kind of powerful.

And with that vocal quality, Suzuki has earned the title "healing voice from Japan".

Debuting in the music industry in 1995, she has released six albums, the latest is 2002's Presenca under BMG Fanhouse record company.

The music itself is a cross between jazz in particular, pop, bossanova and traditional Japanese folk songs.

Born into a musical environment in Hamamatsu, Suzuki learned classical piano from the age of three, is a trained classical singer and played bass in her high school fusion band.

When she was studying in the law faculty at the prestigious Tokyo University, she sang black music in a band.

"But I was not very comfortable singing that kind of music. It didn't fit my feelings and my body, maybe because I'm not black. I wanted to learn something essential, something that had become a foundation for pop music. So I chose jazz," she told a media conference a day prior to the concert.

Although passing the examination to become a judge, she chose to be a professional jazz singer instead ("I'm not somebody for law"), did a recording session in New York and performed with jazz musician Touse Silmans.

Suzuki was the first Japanese singer to make a live debut at New York's Blue Note in 1995, the same year she released debut album Premiere.

Afterwards, she released an album each year and quickly grabbed the attention of fans and critics, earning several awards, including the Japan Gold Disk Award. Her fifth album Jazz Beside You was declared the best selling album in Japan in 2000.

The year also marked her debut as an actress, playing the main role in My House in Mars.

As if that was not enough to demonstrate her talents, Suzuki also often writes essays about music in Japan daily Yomiuri Shimbun. In 2001, she published her collection of essays called Tenshi no Iru hoshi de (The Star inhabited by Angels).

Despite releasing six albums, Suzuki said that she is still trying to find her own musical style.

"My interests are now beyond the field of jazz. I feel that I'd like to make music without boundaries ... wider and deeper. I'm also interested in a lot of musical instruments from all over the world," she said.

She said she has just started making her own music, with themes ranging from the beauty of nature, her family, love.

One of her songs called On the Shore was created in Bali, her favorite holiday destination that she has visited over 10 times.

"I was lying on my bed, in a cottage by the sea, staring at the ceiling. There was this ceiling fan that was going around and making a monotonous sound. Suddenly, inside of me, it started another sound at the same time. Then the sound of fridge added, and it became a song," she said.

During her recent concert, her first ever here, Suzuki presented a varied set of songs, from John Lennon's Imagine, to Sting's Fragile, to On the Shore and traditional Japanese folk songs Hana and Haru Ga Kita (Spring has come).

Unfortunately, the concert the other night did not really reveal Suzuki's caliber, as her shows in her resume.

She was not really attractive on stage, sitting on a chair all the time, backed by her band: pianist Watanabe Kazuki, Kobayashi Nobuaki on bass, Kuriyama Toyoji on percussion and guitarist Itoh Yoshiteru.

Her delicate voice and manner reflected a Snow White persona with less character than the dwarfs, or in this case the band.

The band was good, and sparked up the night, especially when playing a lively instrumental jazz number.

Too bad though, that the only disease that was cured by the healing voice in the concert the other night was insomnia.