After enjoying OPUS LRS backstage the day before yesterday (6/7), I went to LOFT HEAVEN in Shibuya yesterday (6/8).

The Jazz arrangement by OPUS was excellent, as I had expected. And I was seated a little further back, so the impact was less, but the beat of drums was still impactful enough to detoxify and refresh me. I will now review it in the streaming online archives (http://opus0607.peatix.com/)

I was expecting backstage food as well, since it was recommended by Leader, and it was ethnic style and very tasty.

Yesterday (6/8), I went to LOFT HEAVEN in Shibuya.

OPUS’ drummer Kanemoto and keyboardist Marina Sasaki are both first-year students of the Jazz Department of Kunitachi College of Music, and they often support Jazz live performances. I often went to their Jazz live performances last year.

I was writing a book on Impact Assessment last year, and I was depressed last year because I had to write a book at a time when my motivation for writing was extremely low due to the invasion of Ukraine and one unpleasant thing at my workplace.

I had the hardest time in March right after the invasion. However, at that time there was a Jazz live performance supported by Ms. Marina, and for the first time in my life, I bought a paid subscription to Jazz music because Ms. Marina supported it. I started listening to it. Thanks to her and the impact of Jazz, I am relieved to be able to publish the results of 20 years of research in a book. I am grateful to Ms. Kawakami, the editor of Springer, for making it possible to publish the book, and to many others for the contents, but I am also personally quite grateful to Marina Sasaki, who shared me the benefits of Jazz, and I try to go listen to her as much as possible.

Yesterday, I went to Shibuya again to listen to Ms. Marina’s support. Marina accompanied Edda on piano in the second half of the concert, and my first impression was that it was like a solo performance of Schubert’s The Demon King or Poetry. Edda-san is a great professional vocal performance, and it is amazing how expressive a full live house can be when it is a somewhat small live house. I was enjoying it.

The guest performer, singing at first was Sana (sajou no hana), who made her debut with the opening song for Mob Psycho and is in charge of the opening song for JOJO’s latest series. I didn’t know this at all.

My wife is a big fan of Mob Psycho and my daughter is a big fan of JOJO, and when I told them after we got home that I got to hear them live in front of me, they were super jealous. I decided to at least buy an autographed CD to go, but he was almost a major player and there was no merchandising.

So I got one that Marina brought with her, since I have only bought signed copies of OPUS’s first album Behind The Time, including the super treasures so far. I’ve had more opportunities to listen to live performances by almost major players recently, and there is a difference between major surely and a little bit more. Naturally, the four members of OPUS could become a major at any time, and I’m thinking it’s about time.

So, I’ll put up Marina’s schedule of appearances through July. I think I’ll leave next Sunday’s DUO and July’s Ginza free on my schedule.