Saxophones and sushi
Koh Mr Saxman serves up jazz and Japanese cuisine at his new eatery
The soft sound of saxophone drifts into the night air on Silom Soi 19 as you push open the door to Jazz Sushi. Part Japanese restaurant and part jazz bar, it’s a cool place to chill while dining on such dishes as sashimi and teriyaki prepared with a Thai touch.
“Jazz, sushi and even life are all about improvisation,” says Sekpol Unsamran, aka Koh Mr Saxman, Thailand’s top saxophonist and the owner of the sushi shop on the ground floor of the Sax Society.
Improvisation in jazz is easy enough to understand – that, after all, is what the genre is all about – but life and sushi?
“We all have to improvise in life too,” Koh insists. “People spend their lives with their parents and families while earning their living from a career that has nothing to do with the subject in which they graduated. They have to improvise. With sushi, it’s more about adaptation, Here at Jazz Sushi, we don’t serve the traditional dishes of Japan but a fusion of Thai favourites.”
Koh hasn’t, however, improvised with the decor of his venue, which bears the hallmark of a 1950s-style jazz club with dark-painted walls designed like picture frames. The “frames” are made of white-painted bricks and showcase photographs of jazz musicians, among them His Majesty the King.
“It’s a raw look that epitomises that era,” says Koh.
In the restaurant that seats 25, the menu offers sushi and other dishes varying in price from Bt99 to Bt240. They include grilled and fresh gindara, tako and hokkigai sashimi, spicy kani and salmon dishes and saba teriyaki.
A favourite, says Koh, is the “Mr Saxman Salad” (Bt220), which features mixed abalone, imitation crabstick and tako with mayonnaise. The sushi bar boasts a sign that read: “You can’t touch music but music can touch you.”
“We try to create signature dishes all the time,” says Koh. “And of course we emphasise quality and the freshest of ingredients.”
The place buzzes on weekends when various bands perform. Students entertain customers during the week. A recent Sunday night featured the Jazz Brothers, an ad-hoc group comprised of ETC keyboardist Manlak “So” Thumkanon, Infinity drummer Suthipong “Duck” Pankong and Koh himself. “We perform together twice a month,” says the saxophonist.
“I want Jazz Sushi to serve as a stage for my students to help them learn about performing live – everything from holding the microphone the right way to introducing themselves to the audience and setting their song list. They should know how to be responsible for the audience. I pay them too,” he says.
The restaurant is part of Sax Society, a saxophone community formed eight years ago. The building houses a saxophone shop on the second floor and a school on the third. Just about every size, shape and brand of sax is available at the shop, with prices ranging from Bt10,000 to Bt200,000.
“It’s where saxophonists and people who love the instrument come to talk,” says Koh. “My dream has always been to build a proper community for saxophonists, a place where they can learn everything about the saxophone. I had to learn about things like mouthpieces, reeds and straps on my own, so it was very much trial and error.
“I want to transmit our knowledge to the new generation. In fact, making a business out of saxophones isn’t as profitable as one might expect though I’m happy to make enough to pay our staff. We have no salesmen but we do have specialists, who know all about saxophones and provide a comprehensive customer service.”
Koh says that Sax Society is the only saxophone community not just in Thailand but the whole of Southeast Asia. He hopes it will be a role model for the region.
“With the Asean Economic Community coming in just a couple of years, I am hoping to set up the Asean Saxophone Community, which will feature meetings, seminars and shows alternating between several countries,” says Koh.
The sax school offers individual instruction for Bt600 an hour. Most of students live near the building but others come from Samut Prakan, Rayong, Pattaya and Chanthaburi.
“I have a nine-year-old student who decided to learn saxophone course after discovering that her brother played saxophone in front of the King,” says Koh, whose idols are the Monarch and veteran saxophonist Thewan “Tong” Sapsanyakorn.
Today, Koh Mr Saxman is something of an idol himself, with young players calling themselves “Koh 2”.
“We all look for idols at the beginning. I know many saxophonists who’ve been influenced by Sadao Watanabe and David Sanborn. When I was growing up, everyone wanted to play sax like Kenny G and Tewan. But it’s only when we have experience and our own songs and compositions that we are really ourselves,” says Koh.
Wailing wasabi
_ Jazz Sushi is on Silom Soi 19. It’s open daily except Monday. Find out more at www.saxsociety.com and “JazzSushi” on Facebook.
