Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942. He was an American boxer. His real name was Cassius Clay Jr.

His famous phrase was “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

After he lost a match, he got dispraise: “The butterfly has lost its wing, the bee has lost its sting.”

He put it on the wall and saw it every day. He tried to get his wing and sting back.

To contact with local people

I usually have my hair cut by my wife, but in a foreign country I look for a barber shop.

In America in 2013

In Myanmar in 2014

And during this winter holidays, I had my hair cut in India.

I hear America singing

One book in my life is Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

What image do you have about America? It was jazz that originally attracted me to America. The sound of American music amazed me when I heard it on the radio. I was a high school student.

I was born and raised in Tokyo. I was studying English at a local university. I’ve been interested in American literature and wanted to go to America. I couldn’t realize my dream during my university days, but two years ago when I was 41, I went to New York City for the first time. One of my destinations was the Brooklyn Bridge. Looking at cables up and the Statue of Liberty far away, I walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

The first edition of Leaves was published in Brooklyn. “I celebrate myself,” starts Whitman’s long poem called “Song of myself.” When I met this poem in the classroom in my 20s, I felt freedom voiced through more than 1,300 lines. And walking on the streets of New York City, I remembered the saying, “jazz and freedom go hand in hand.”

Whitman expressed himself without considering the limited form. It seems to me Whitman’s free style is like the adlib or improvisation of jazz musicians. I am 44 now and still have a desire to read his lines again and again.

Freddie Mercury (Queen)

Freddie Mercury was born on September 5, 1946. He was the lead vocalist of the rock band, Queen.

Queen had lots of hit songs. Radio Ga Ga was one of them. I was a junior high student. I was listening to foreign music through FM radio. It was 1984.

Are you listening to radio in the age of the Internet?

Radio be praised!

Richard Wright

Richard Wright, a black American writer, was born on September 4, 1908.

He coined the phrase of “black power.”

In his Native Son, a big rat appeared in the room from the morning.

Beatles & Black

With the Beatles is their second album.

8 songs are their originals. 6 are cover songs.

Among 6 cover ones, 5 tunes are from “black music.”

I’d like to write on this topic.

The Beatles were the first white artists to ever admit that they grew up and honed themselves on black music. (Smokey Robinson)

Twist and Shout

The Royal Variety Performance,

November 4, 1963, Prince of Wales Theatre, London.

John Lennon said before the performance,

“For our last number, I’d like to ask your help.

Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands?

And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewellery.”

The audience laughed.

Dickie Henderson, an English entertainer, said after the performance,

“So successful. So young. Frightening.”

The audience laughed again.