{"id":51195,"date":"2025-04-04T09:29:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T13:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=51195"},"modified":"2026-03-19T18:19:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:19:54","slug":"jq-magazine-concert-review-yoko-kanno-logan-richardson-jam-cowboy-bebop-classics-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/04\/jq-magazine-concert-review-yoko-kanno-logan-richardson-jam-cowboy-bebop-classics-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"JQ Magazine: Concert Review \u2013 Yoko Kanno, Logan Richardson Jam \u2018Cowboy Bebop\u2019 Classics in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>JQ\u00a0magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a> editor<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Justin<\/em>\u00a0Tedaldi<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (CIR<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Kobe-shi<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, 2001-02). Justin<\/em><\/strong> has<\/em><\/strong> written<\/em><\/strong> about<\/em><\/strong> Japanese<\/em><\/strong> arts<\/em><\/strong> and<\/em><\/strong> entertainment<\/em><\/strong> for<\/em><\/strong> JETAA<\/em><\/strong> since 2005. For<\/em><\/strong> more<\/em><\/strong> of<\/em><\/strong> his<\/em><\/strong> articles,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0click<\/em>\u00a0here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Anthony Mulcahy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On March 29, the Town Hall of New York became a community united in decades of song as a world-renowned anime composer made her NYC debut with Yoko Kanno Live!<\/em>, her first U.S. concert since a 2013 solo piano gig at Otakon in Baltimore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For this special performance\u2013the seeds of which were planted when Kanno made a surprise appearance at 2023\u2019s Cowboy Bebop 25th Anniversary Concert – The Music<\/em>, also at Town Hall\u2013the cultural icon was paired with two dozen musicians led by saxophonist, composer and bandleader Logan Richardson and the Blues People Big Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Town Hall artistic director Melay Araya kicked off the evening with a shoutout to the capacity crowd of space cowboys in the house, noting that Kanno was joining Bob Dylan, Nina Simone and Whitney Houston in the honor of making their New York concert hall debuts on that very stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the first half of the show dedicated to Cowboy Bebop<\/em>, Richardson and his 16-piece big band started with jazzy small-combo pieces like \u201cCOSMOS,\u201d \u201cOdd Ones\u201d and \u201cSlipper Sleaze.\u201d Introducing Kanno to the stage, Richardson remarked what an honor it was to rehearse and share a stage with such a legendary and exuberant figure. The two shared a special chemistry, with the deadpan, mostly seated Kansas City native providing a contrast to the bouncy, crimson-clad Kanno, who rhythmically roamed every inch of the boards, conducting the various members of the orchestra from song to song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A pair of vocal numbers brought out additional guest vocalists, reprising their original contributions to recordings made more than two decades ago. Australia\u2019s Scott Matthew delivered the goods on \u201clithium flower\u201d from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex<\/em>, while Utica\u2019s own Steve Conte provided vocals, acoustic guitar and rock star swagger on \u201cCould You Bite the Hand?\u201d from Wolf\u2019s Rain<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Vocal number \u201cCALL ME CALL ME\u201d from Bebop<\/em>\u2019s original series gave way to \u201cWaltz in High Socks,\u201d a selection from the 2021 live-action Netflix adaptation that enjoyed a lively workout from the eight-piece string ensemble Little Kruta. This surprise tune was followed by the pair of \u201cHigh Heel Runaway\u201d and \u201cGo Dark\u201d from 2007\u2019s Darker than Black<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bringing things back to the realm of lively, effervescent big band jazz, the audience was treated to Cowboy Bebop\u2019s<\/em> \u201cRUSH\u201d and theme tune \u201cTANK!,\u201d an anime standard that could be considered the gateway soundtrack to fandom for many (indeed, the spoken intro of \u201cthree, two, one, let’s jam!\u201d was deafeningly reproduced by the audience without any prompting).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to follow that? Tradeoff can-you-top-this<\/em> vocals from both Matthew and Conte on \u201cGotta knock a little harder,\u201d the theme from 2001\u2019s Cowboy Bebop: The Movie<\/em>. This gospel-flavored gem, likely inspired by Parliament’s “Come In Out of the Rain,” had the crowd on their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The encores were the definition of spontaneous, as Kanno took the piano for Wolf\u2019s Rain<\/em>\u2019s \u201cParadiso,\u201d followed by some four-handed piano gracing Cowboy Bebop<\/em>\u2019s \u201cGreen Bird + Piano Bar I.\u201d A total surprise (not on the printed setlist) that brought the evening to a close was the world music anthem \u201cSpace Lion,\u201d in which Kanno ably conducted the entire audience in multi-part harmony. Now in her sixties, her enthusiasm of being with an American crowd that grew up on her music in the early 2000s thanks to Cowboy Bebop<\/em>\u2019s heavy rotation on Adult Swim was nothing short of electric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit must be given to Araya and her team at Town Hall, which in recent years has become the venue of choice for anime and game music orchestral performances like Final Fantasy<\/em>, Stardew Valley<\/em> and Shovel Knight<\/em>. Even more remarkable: the audience diligently followed the \u201cno phones, no photos\u201d rule of the evening, joining together as one for an unforgettable live experience. This deep appreciation of the continuum of musical history through new voices and media speaks to the progressiveness of the 100-years-plus Town Hall. For those in attendance on that special night, there is nothing but excitement for what the future holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the complete setlist, click <\/em><\/strong>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. For more <\/em>JQ articles, click <\/em><\/strong>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legendary Cowboy Bebop composer Yoko Kanno came to New York\u2019s Town Hall on March 29 for a sold-out one-night-only performance, and we\u2019ve got the review!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,26,53,291,21,58],"tags":[1614,1622,1620,1619],"class_list":["post-51195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-celebrity","category-events","category-jq-magazine","category-music","category-reviews","tag-justin-tedaldi","tag-logan-richardson","tag-town-hall","tag-yoko-kanno"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/01-Yoko-Kanno_Town-Hall_by-Anthony-Mulcahy_46-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-djJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51195"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51959,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51195\/revisions\/51959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}