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@Brooklyn
Memoir (21)@
Besides
jazz clubs I often went to Japanese piano bars after moving to Manhattan.
A "piano bar" is the bar where customers or the singer can sing
along with the piano music. It is an old style KARAOKE bar, so to speak.There were at least 5`6 Japanese-style piano bars in Manhattan those days, and many of them were owned by Japanese. However, hostesses were mostly Americans. Many of them were semiprofessional singers and dancers who often auditioned for parts in Broadway or Off- Broadway plays.
They sometimes sang or danced for frequent customers. For those women, the Japanese-style piano bar was the ideal place to earn living expense, because Japanese customers were usually entlemen and the tips were not bad.
I especially enjoyed talking with those women. Since they barely spoke
Japanese, we spoke in English to each other. The topic at bars is not
very decent anywhere in the world. Believe me, they were great teachers
of indecent English vocabulary and expressions. My English vocabulary
in this field ( I cannot show you examples here) is relatively abundant
despite only a 3-year stay in US. It is definitely thanks to the teaching
by women at piano bars in Manhattan.
I sometimes went to piano bars with Hiro, my jazz teacher. Although he
was a research fellow, he spoke English so fluently. His indecent English
vocabulary was even better than mine.
Most of Japanese businessmen in NYC were frequent customers of piano
bars. Later on in Paris, where I practiced medicine for 2 years I had
a chance to talk with several businessmen of my generation who happened
to have worked in NYC in early 80s. We talked about the same experience
of piano bars in Manhattan. One of them even made an international call
to one of his favorite piano bars in NYC. We talked with one of the Japanese
Mama-san (chief hostess of the bar) whom all of us knew very well. It's
a small world, isn't it?
E-mail:kidot@momo.so-net.ne.jp