The is a jazz club in

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

, Tokyo. The original opened in 1966 and was forced by demolition to close in 1992. It re-opened at a different site in Shinjuku later that year. ''

DownBeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' 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

3-chōme. It opened in February 1966, as a jazz coffee shop.Atkins, Everett Taylor (1997) ''This Is Our Music''. (Doctoral thesis). p. 223. Two years later, it became even more focused on jazz and was in the style of a

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hangout. From its early days, both domestic and international musicians played there. In 1968, for instance,

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played at the Pit Inn. 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 is a Japanese jazz trumpeter. He is considered one of Japan's finest jazz musicians. His instruments include the trumpet, cornet, and flügelhorn. Early life He was born in Tokyo, Japan, and his father was a trumpeter and tap dancer. Hino start ...

, Sadao Watanabe and

Yōsuke Yamashita is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and writer. His piano style is influenced by free jazz, modal jazz and soul jazz. Since the late 1980s, Yamashita's main performing group has consisted of Cecil McBee (bass), Pheeroan akLaff (drums), and oft ...

. 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 in July 1992, at a new location at the edge of Shinjuku 2-chōme.Moses, Marc (25 July 1992) "Pillar of Japan Jazz Stands Once More". ''The Japan Times''. p. 17. It continued to offer an afternoon and an evening performance, with the former being for less-well-established musicians."Listening Post" (20 January 2006). ''The Japan Times''. p. 20. The fortieth anniversary celebrations featured performances by Hino, Watanabe, Yamashita,

Keiko Lee Keiko Lee (born February 17, 1965) is a Japanese jazz singer of Korean ethnicity. She has performed regularly outside Japan.Beijing Review ''Beijing Review'' (), previously ''Peking Review'', is China's only national news magazine in English, p ...

Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. He mainly plays guitar, turntables, and electronics. He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in ...

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

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 is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene. A few foreign embassies are located near Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike. It is ...

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".Pronko, Michael (9 March 2003) "All of It... Why Not Hear All of It?". ''The Japan Times''. p. 13. It closed on 26 July 2004."Roppongi Pit Inn"
Facebook. Retrieved 18 August 2017.

First Shinjuku Pit Inn

Second Shinjuku Pit Inn

Other Pit Inns

Concert recordings

Notes

References