Greetings. I am pleased to share my interview with Naoko Sakata, whom I consider a master of piano improvisation. Listening to her solo work just opens me up, there is something in her playing which both exhilarates and calms me; I think there is a truth embodied in her music. It was an absolute pleasure to get the chance to ask her some questions about her creative process.
CR: Could you start by introducing your improvisational approach?
NS: My improvisation approach is that I sit with piano and just play what I hear in that moment. I connect with the energy in that room and feel my emotions and energy in me and they become music in me and I just play it. For me, playing improvisation on piano is very natural thing to do more than talk with words.
CR: Can you talk about how you developed your aesthetic? By this, I am interested in knowing what musical training you have had, what are your major musical influences, and how did you develop your sense of phrasing and composition so that you could express your feelings as you hear them.
NS: I had music around me when I was born because my mother is a piano teacher and I had a perfect pitch from when I was very little.
I was imitating the music I hear on TV or from her piano lessons for other students and so on. Playing piano was very primitive thing for me. It was like talking. It had difficulties reading the music sheet since I could not understand the meaning of reading. I just hear music and play. It was very simple. But my mother and other piano teachers did not like at all that I was not good at reading. It was very confusing feeling toward piano. It felt very natural to play piano but at the same time it was not really my choice to play piano and it was so strict. I almost never practiced and I felt much pressure on piano lessons. However I continued to get lessons until when I was like 11 or 12 years old and I stopped. I was dancing very much in that time. I was dancing from when I was little as well. I was listening very much hip hop music from when I was little as well. I listened very much to 2 Pac. I had no idea what he was singing but I liked the sound and energy. I still listen to him very much. Then I heard jazz music when I was 18 when I watched the movie “The Legend of 1900". I really liked the music in that movie and I felt very near to that pianist. He also just improvises and also imitates. I imitated that music on piano many times and I decided to play jazz music. I went to 2 years music school and studied jazz. I did not understand theory but I just played by ear and listened many jazz music. I felt strange again. I thought it was free but it seemed like there are many rules and people think I am too much outside the box when I play like I hear in me. I felt more and more that what I am feeling and hear in me and what I “should” play did not fit. Then I found the jazz music from Scandinavia. I felt that this is very familiar from what I hear in me. I started to dream to go to Sweden. In 2008, I came to Sweden to do entrance test for the music and drama university in Gothenburg and I started from that year 2008 on improvisation program.
CR: Could you share some of your philosophical and/or spiritual beliefs and how they relate (if at all) to your music? Your description of reading the energy of a room and the nature of improvised music in general makes me feel that you are most likely an empathic and intuitive person, and a good listener. Maybe this question could be rephrased as: how do you view the world and how do your interpretations and understandings relate to your music?
NS: I have always been very emotional and intuitive person. It was very difficult to follow the rules when I did not agree or did not understand why. I felt very often outside. I could not continue my high school since I did not want to follow the school rules with my appearance. I heard often from people that I should be more normal and I should do and look like all other person but I could not. My emotions could not do it. Maybe because I had difficulty fitting in, I was very interested in spirituality and energy from when I was young. I wanted to find the meaning of life and I wanted to find peace in me. But also I felt very natural with spiritual thinking from the beginning as well, like piano was for me. When I improvise, I come deep inside me. I believe that every person has own universe inside and when it comes to core, we all meet there.
For me it is very important that I feel safe and my heart is open. When there is no cloud between me and inside me, music just flows. It feels like most myself and also very mysterious feeling. Many time when I improvise, I wonder where these music come from since it feels so natural. I think there is me who is living outside person and my inside unconscious person that feels like real me. I think my job is how much I can make safe place to play for that inside person mentally. Where everything is allowed to happen.
I surrender to what I hear in that moment. I do not think. When it feels very good and connected while I play, afterwards I feel very difficult to move my tongue and think words and talk. It seems like that part of brain was pausing while I improvise. It is very special feeling. I think every person is spirit and energy like nature and things, everything is spirit for me.
CR: Movement is a clear component of Dancing Spirits and Inner Planets as well. Can you speak about the physicality of your playing and how integral that is to what you are doing? I often think that people disregard this element of playing music and you embody so intensely both on the keys and in the music videos with you dancing to your improvisations. What you are doing isn't just cerebral, it is emotional and primal. How has your playing evolved as you have developed your capacities?
NS: I let my body play what I hear and feel in that moment. I do not control. Sometimes it becomes very much movements. It feels like I am with sound vibrations. I sometime feel maybe I should be more calm when I play but as always has been for me, my emotions and intuition always win. I always do what I feel and what I hear in me in the moment. I danced from when I was little as well maybe that is also why I use my body while I play. I started to accept that side about me.
CR: I haven't seen a lot of live performances in the past couple of years due to life circumstances. Watching your videos reminded me of seeing other amazing piano players in my life and how much I miss those experiences (and took them for granted: as a younger man, I was gifted with the opportunities to see McCoy Tyner, Vijay Iyer, and Craig Taborn, among others). Your work reminds me of those experiences and I hope to someday have the opportunity to see you play live. Can you tell me about your experiences recording Dancing Spirits and Inner Planets? Can you compare the spaces and environments in which you performed each album? What were your intentions as you created each of these pieces? What did you learn from these experiences and how have they transformed you?
NS: When I recorded Inner Planets, I found that when I feel safe and accepted, music just come very strongly and also I felt it became better and better and that connections in me and myself felt stronger the longer I played. Recording a "Dancing Spirits" was like a dream place to improvise for me and also people who were there I felt so safe with.
The sound in that church was absolutely the sound I hear in my head and body and also the energy was wonderful there.
All the music on the album is from the 2nd day of recording. I felt very strong connection with music flows in me from the first take on that day. I played 3 improvisations without pausing. It became improvisation 1 and 2 and 3 on “Dancing Spirits”.
CR: Lastly, what are your next moves given these strange times and how best can people support your work?
NS: I have some concerts in autumn of 2021 and I am very much looking forward to playing for audiences again!
The best way to support my work right now would be sharing my music. I would be happy to reach more people with my music!
You can reach Naoko Sakata and find out more about her at
https://www.naokosakata.com
and via Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/naokosakata888/?hl=en
It was an honor to have the chance to correspond with Naoko Sakata. Her music is intensely moving and I hold her in the highest regard.
Sakata has already blessed us with an amazing body of work I am looking forward to hearing what she does next. I will certainly be listening.
Thank you, Naoko, for taking the time to answer my questions and for being such a genuine person, it shines through your playing.