A Tsunami Washes Away 10,000 Albums, But The Music Plays On
“The March 11 earthquake and tsunami took more than 13,000 lives and wiped whole towns off the map of Japan. One of the lesser-known casualties was the loss of a great jazz record collection — the life’s work of one man.
It belonged to Ken Terui, a jazz aficionado who owns Johnny’s Jazz Cafe in the northeastern prefectural (state) capital of Morioka, a rural region known more for aging rice farmers than jazz lovers. Discovering Terui’s club — everybody calls him Johnny — was the high point of my three-week assignment in Japan covering the aftermath of the tsunami.”