Since its opening in 2010, Iidabashi’s BAR MEIJIU has attracted a wide range of people, from those who enjoy dining in the Kagurazaka area to young music freaks coming to the area to visit this bar.
Music critic Mitsutaka Yanagiraku is one of those fascinated by this restaurant. BAR MEIJIU also has many fans in the music industry.
NiEW visited the restaurant for the third installment of the series “Where Good Music Meets Good Music.”
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Established bar with the solidified concept
It has been three years since a bar I happened to find on Twitter and became my favorite place to hang out. I have no connection to Iidabashi, which is far from my home. But I had a hunch that I should go there. That was BAR MEIJIU.
I was attracted to BAR MEIJIU because every detail was taken care of, and it was infinitely complete as a restaurant. And that “perfection” includes their music selection.
There are a number of stores in Tokyo with a high degree of perfection. For example, Nishiogikubo’s JUHA and Shibuya’s Bar Music. Although these two establishments play music of various genres and eras, the music selected has a common taste, texture, and feeling in line with the atmosphere and worldview that the establishments want to create, creating a strange sense of unity. Even the interior design and furnishings are designed to match the music and atmosphere perfectly. The “well-designed” music selection, including the music itself, gives the restaurant an originality that cannot be found anywhere else.
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Various contexts in the harmonized music selection
BAR MEIJIU is a bar with a high degree of perfection that has just such “originality unique to that bar.
Keisuke Matsumoto, The owner of the bar, has selected a variety of old and new genres of music, mainly jazz and post-classical, to be played here, and the music selection can only be described as BAR MEIJIU-like music.
My personal favorite is the array of records on the wall. The titles from the prestigious jazz label Blue Note are lined up in a row, and they include not only classic records, but also records that have been reevaluated by DJs, new jazz from the 21st century, and good records from a time when they were often overlooked. Blue Note’s tasteful choices are directly indicative of the store’s music selection tendencies.
The records are chosen to match the relaxed atmosphere of the so-called “bar,” and the tastes are often similar, but there is a fine mix of various contexts within the similar tastes. Personally, I was impressed by the fact that the music of famous players from the 1980s and 1990s, who influenced the current jazz scene, were played. The music is casually brought in where it is completely missing from the existing context of “Tokyo’s background music. On the other hand, there are also jazz records that could have been sold at a record store for less than 1,000 yen, but all the records sound like they belong in the interior of the store, which has a “simple, wooden, warm, and a bit rugged” atmosphere.
The audio equipment that provides high sound quality and at the same time plays with a gentle touch is also a special feature of this place. The Tannoy speakers softly convey the nuances of the restaurant’s mood.
Perhaps because of this environment, records that were trendy a long time ago sometimes sound fresh, and new releases sometimes sound as if they have been around for a long time. The music is not in an existing context; rather, it sounds like it belongs here, creating a very special space.
