Cotton Club Comes To Tokyo

[Goddess IsIs Akkebala]

Part of the BlackPressUSA Network

Cotton Club goes to Tokyo
by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
Originally posted 12/8/2005

While President-select George W. Bush, in his recent trip to Asia, was engaged in opening up Asian markets for United States products, John Beatty was being serenaded in Japan. Beatty owns the world-famous Cotton Club in Harlem. He made a major investment in intellectual property and it is reaping financial benefits.

America’s number one export is culture and Harlem is its capital. You do not have to leave Harlem to ascertain its world-wide curiosity and interest. Many of these tourists are Japanese. Tokyo is striving to become a world-class city. It has the population and the modernization which is sitting side-by-side with age-old Japanese traditions.

Modernization and traditions alone do not make a fashionable city, however. When you examine New York City and Paris, for example, the common thread is Black culture. It is a prerequisite for any city seeking to top the cultural charts. Compare those cities with Moscow and Berlin.

Tokyo is one of the major hot spots in Asia for jazz. Some of the premier jazz clubs include Sweet Basil 139, Shinjuku Pit Inn and Blue Note Tokyo. Look out for the Cotton Club to move these premier jazz clubs back a notch or two. History favors it.

The landlord, in Tokyo, is the Mitsubishi Corp. In Japan, banks may own multinational corporations. Mitsubishi once owned Rockefeller Center, when the yen reigned supreme. The club is located in a distinctive building on prime real estate near the Shinjuku station, the busiest train station in the world.

The opening of the Cotton Club was spectacular and would have made Duke Ellington and Lena Horne proud. The joint was jumping.

Stevie Wonder was the prized guest. Cab Calloway III, grandson of Cab Calloway, and Sheila Ray Charles, daughter of Ray Charles, were guest artists. Ironically, Cab Calloway opened the Cotton Club in Harlem.

Food included every delicacy in Japan from caviar to sushi. Sake and green tea were also available. Many of the high rollers of Japan, including CEOs of major Japanese corporations, were in the house. In Japan, everyone is expected to possess business cards.

All patrons were given the red carpet treatment and a red carpet was rolled out to greet them decorated with American cars from the 1920’s and models dressed in garb of the same period. Beatty was invited over to Japan to bless the club. He did, in fine fashion, translator and all.

His entourage of cultural ambassadors from Harlem included Franklyn Hernandez and Ronald Shear. Harlem was well-represented with Shear, surprisingly, belting out some Japanese. With an historic event like the opening of a Cotton Club in Tokyo, someone had to accompany the entourage with pen and paper.

I expected that heads would turn when four Black men wearing beautiful Cotton Club jackets embarked on Japanese soil. No Japanese person ever turned his or her head and for good reason. Blacks are all over the place. Many stayed after serving a stint in the military. The United States still has a military presence in Japan.

When whites approached us, they expected us to identify ourselves as musicians. None of them could believe that a historic institution in Harlem like the Cotton Club was now owned by a descendant of enslaved Africans. Once upon a time, the club was off-limits to Black patrons in Harlem.

Our hosts made sure that this trip was a cultural exchange program. Emi Hayashi was gracious. Her spirit, coupled with Mr. Itoh’s, was all over Japan’s importation of the Cotton Club. In her absence, Makihito Deguchi was a splendid tour guide and translator. Interestingly, Japanese students must study English for six years.

After we arrived at the Great Buddha statue at Kamakura, once Japan’s capital, Makihito urged us to petition Buddha for success or for a reversal of any misfortune in our lives. This is a tradition in Japan and it is believed to account for Japanese successes. I did. I feel optimistic. Only time will tell.

While Bush was in China complaining about religious worship limited to state-approved churches, he failed to mention his faith-based initiative and the muzzle the United States has placed on Black preachers since the assassination of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

Today, white men, associated with Judeo-Christian principles, are causing the most havoc for outspoken Blacks in this country. This is certainly the situation in my case. If you are not an adherent of the Religious Right, in this country, you are classified as unpatriotic.
Makihito made sure that we recognized Nepal as the birthplace of Buddhism. His ancestral roots are partially in Nepal. Zen Buddhism arrived in Japan from China in the 12th century. Kamakura samurai warriors were attracted to it.
Nonetheless, Shinto, the “way of the gods,� is Japan’s oldest religion. Many Japanese respect Shinto rituals simultaneously with Buddhist practices. Confucianism, brought into Japan in the 6th century, is also respected. These beliefs explain the country’s political unity.

Not to be outdone by the Japanese, the Chinese are also courting African nations. Don’t be surprised to find the opening of a Cotton Club in China and in Korea. Africa holds the balance of power, in resources, between the competing interests of the United States and Europe, on one hand, and Asia, on the other hand.

If our children continue to be indoctrinated with a Euro-centered education, they will be shortchanged educationally. The aims of the Bandung Conference, however, are being fulfilled. The cream is rising to the top after centuries of European domination.
In terms of foreign trade, Beatty has contributed to improving the balance of trade between Japan and the United States. With the presence of the Cotton Club in Tokyo, more Japanese tourists will make Harlem their number one destination in New York City. It’s all about culture from New Orleans to Tokyo with intermediate stops in New York City and Paris.

After African studies were introduced to college campuses in the 1960’s and 70’s, many Black students treated African studies and culture as though it was the Bubonic plague. Ignorance of history and culture can be hazardous to your health. Black culture is gold but our children are not getting the message. Beatty did.

A colorful slide presentation on the Japanese trip and Japanese documentary of the history of the Cotton Club and Harlem will be shown at the Elks Plaza, 1068 Fulton Street (bet. Classon and Franklin) in Brooklyn on Thursday, December 8, 2005, at 6:30 p.m. Take the C train to Franklin. For further information, call Friends of Alton Maddox at 718-834-9034.

See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.com


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