The Elephant Vanishes: Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruki Murakami

Artistic disciplines inform one another, cross-pollinating inspiration and conception. In recent years, poetry has emerged as a preferred vehicle among musicians who have collaborated with noted contemporary writers Dr. Sonia Sanchez, Aja Monet and scores more.

Intrigued by the idea of drawing musical inspiration from literary works, but finding minimal pull toward poetry, bassist and composer Fumi Tomita settled on a collection of stories by fiction writer Haruki Murakami. He'd read The Elephant Vanishes years ago, and envisioned recording an original album with the same title.

"There were relationship problems—no communication," Tomita said, detailing Murakami's short stories. "There was anger with direction in life—a feeling of going nowhere. I thought I could turn those [literary] themes into musical ones."

Initially, Tomita anticipated creating a musical reference that could bubble up in every tune. But that concept would prove challenging as he sat with the music. So, he changed trajectory and found that the stories lent themselves to "more general themes" he could express just as potently in his compositions.

"For the feeling of desolation, negativity and frustration for example," the bandleader said, "I used a descending bassline, a descending melody."

While Tomita gathered much of his research from the stories themselves, he allowed certain critical responses to infiltrate his creative process. One passage in particular resonated with the bassist's own interpretations of the texts: "One guy described [Murakami's story structure] as a house. There was the reality, which was the rooms in the house. But there's a subconscious part of Murakami's works, and he called that the basement or the attic—you don't know what's there, but you can feel its presence."

Tomita returned to this interpretation as he worked through his compositions, opting to have soloing over changes represent the rooms, while open sections would serve as the basement or attic. Guitarist Mike Baggetta's use of whammy bar throughout offered further thematic rumination. "It was just a reference to the blues," the bassist said. "I read Murakami's stories as being modern blues stories."

Dream-like quality among characters also helped shape how Tomita handled the music, but approaching other facets of Murakami's style proved trickier. "The unusualness—the humor of his works—that was pretty difficult to translate into music," he said. Tomita found using rhythmic motifs helpful in connecting compositional elements in a way that reflected interconnectedness among the stories. "There was a general philosophy that was being communicated."