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Pit Inn (ピットイン)

Second Pit Inn street entrance
Location	Accord Building B1, Shinjuku 2-12-4, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Type	Nightclub
Genre(s)	Jazz
Opened	24 December 1965
Website
http://www.pit-inn.com/index_e.html

The Pit Inn (ピットイン) is a jazz club in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The original opened in 1965 and was forced by demolition to close in 1992. It re-opened at a different site in Shinjuku later that year. DownBeat wrote in 2019 that the Pit Inn "is almost universally regarded as Japan's most important jazz club".

First Shinjuku Pit Inn

The first Pit Inn was located in Shinjuku 3-chōme. It was named by its owner, Yoshitake Sato, who was a car enthusiast. The first manager was Goro Sakai, who had experience of running jazz clubs. The Pit Inn opened on 24 December 1965, as a jazz coffee shop. By March of the following year, it was hosting live jazz every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and on other days was being let out to theatre groups and for happenings. Two years later, it became even more focused on jazz and was in the style of a Greenwich Village hangout.

From its early days, both domestic and international musicians played at the Pit Inn. In 1968, for instance, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra played there. Other activities also took place: a photography exhibition in 1968 was an early example. Some of the most prominent Japanese jazz musicians played at the club early in their careers. Many continue to play there regularly, including Terumasa Hino, Sadao Watanabe and Yōsuke Yamashita. Trumpeter Hino played there in 1969. In 1970, the standard entrance charges were 450 Yen for the 2pm show and 500 Yen for the 7pm one, with one drink included. It was described as "A comfortably dingy, often smoke-filled niche for the serious jazz fan over the years it had been home to performances and recordings by some of the world's greatest jazz musicians". In January 1992, it was forced to close, as the building it was part of was being demolished.

Second Shinjuku Pit Inn

The Pit Inn reopened on 5 July 1992, at a new location at the edge of Shinjuku 2-chōme. It continued to offer an afternoon and an evening performance, with the former being for less-well-established musicians. The fortieth anniversary celebrations featured performances by Hino, Watanabe, Yamashita, Keiko Lee, Otomo Yoshihide, John Zorn and others, playing in a nearby rented hall, as the club was too small to accommodate all the fans.

Other Pit Inns

There have been other jazz clubs with the same name in other parts of Tokyo and Japan. The Roppongi Pit Inn was open from at least 1978, and was at Shimei Building B1, Roppongi 3-17-7. In 2003, it contained wooden pews and chairs, and "ceiling-high speakers angle in to cover the entire audience space with crisp sound resolution and exceptional clarity". It closed on 26 July 2004.

Concert recordings

An asterisk (*) indicates that the album was recorded at the Roppongi Pit Inn.

Notes

1. Facebook's page gives 25 August 1977 as the opening date.
2. "Dancer" & "Love Space" recorded on March 11, 1981.

References

1. Catchpole, James (February 2019). "Tokyo". DownBeat. Vol. 86, no. 2. p. 55.
2. ^ Soejima 2018, p. 24.
3. Soejima 2018, pp. 23–24.
4. ^ "The 30th Anniversary of Relocation: Shinjuku Pit Inn Special Session". pit-inn.com. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
5. ^ Atkins, Everett Taylor (1997) This Is Our Music. (Doctoral thesis). p. 223.
6. Soejima 2018, pp. 25–26.
7. Lash, Max E. (14 July 1968) "Big Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Band Packed with Power". The Japan Times. p. 5.
8. Pearce, Jean (31 August 1968) "Readers' Exchange". The Japan Times. p. 5.
9. ^ "Listening Post" (20 January 2006). The Japan Times. p. 20.
10. Lash, Max E. (29 December 1968) "Jazz, Groups Sounds on New Year's Eve". The Japan Times. p. 5.
11. Lash, Max E. (19 April 1970) "Mamoru & Charles... New Record Stars??". The Japan Times. p. 6.
12. ^ Moses, Marc (25 July 1992) "Pillar of Japan Jazz Stands Once More". The Japan Times. p. 17.
13. "What's Happening in Town" (11 April 1978). The Japan Times. p. 9.
14. ^ "Roppongi Pit Inn". Facebook. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
15. Brand, Jude (1993) Tokyo Night City. Charles E. Tuttle.
16. Pronko, Michael (9 March 2003) "All of It... Why Not Hear All of It?". The Japan Times. p. 13.
17. Grey, Hilarie (March 1, 2000) "Steps Ahead: Smokin' in the Pit". JazzTimes.
18. Barakan, Pete (12 December 1980) "Rock 'n' Roll". The Japan Times. p. 9.
19. "Phillip Walker – Blues Show Live at Pit Inn". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
20. Leggett, Steve "Lowell Fulson – The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn 1980". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
21. Hale, James (13 August 1991) "Kondo Creates a Unique Blend of Blues and Soul". The Japan Times. p. 15.
22. ^ Hale, James (31 July 1993) "Blues-Lovers Assembled for Tribute". The Japan Times. p. 15.

Bibliography

• Soejima, Teruto (2018) . Free Jazz in Japan: A Personal History. Translated by Kato, David Hopkins. Public Bath Press. ISBN 978-4-9908636-5-4.

• 1965 establishments in Japan
• Jazz clubs in Japan
• Music venues in Tokyo