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Instantly Familiar Faces

In Japan, there is a word “縁” (en), which is used to describe not only connections between people but also the ties and relationships among various aspects of life.

I was invited to Tokyo by Vivid Sound Corporation in November of 2024 to record an album in collaboration with my longtime friend, guitarist Yoshiyuki Sahashi. I had met Sahashi-san through a longer-term friend, Yoshiro Nagato, owner of Pied Piper House record shop, which now resides in Tower Records in Shibuya. Yes, Tower Records still exists in Japan. Through Yoshi, I have met many people over many years. People who I might call, instantly familiar faces.

Here is a recent photo of Sahashi on the left with Yoshi. Note, Sahash is wearing an Ohio Knox t-shirt referencing my Warner/Reprise album of 1971, and on the table is my CD of Laura-The Music of Laura Nyro, which Yoshi had a hand in with the Japanese release on Vivid Sound this past fall.

There are too many names and stories to recount, but I have been to Japan many times now—to tour, produce, record, promote. I was invited to co-headline concerts with Iain Matthews in Tokyo and Osaka in February of 2023. Iain was another instantly familiar face, realizing we had known so many of the same people over the years, but had never met until we found ourselves in Tokyo sharing a stage and the same small hotel in Kabuki-cho.

I contacted Sahashi and he happened to be in Tokyo and free—being a very busy studio musician and touring artist as well as a husband and father—and he joined me at an in-store performance at Pied Piper House to promote our concerts, and then the next night at Shinjuku Mars, Sahashi accompanied me on guitar. Unfortunately, he was busy the next several nights and that is all we got to see of one another during that trip.

When I returned to the coast of Maine after the tour, I had the idea to do an album with Sahashi and asked if he might be interested and of course, he immediately said yes. A wrote a collection of songs and Sahashi sent me a number of his, and the long-distance collaboration began. One of the gifts of current technology is that songs and session files can be shared online, and contributions can be recorded anywhere. A year and a half later an agreement had been reached with Vivid Sound, who I had worked with at different times since 1978. A production plan and budget was crafted and the recording was to be done in the US with my musician friends in Woodstock and New York City, but shortly before recording was to start, the hard financial reality of the weakened value of the Japanese yen came to light and we had to put things on pause.

It was then I suggested we consider creating the album in Tokyo, bringing in the best of Japanese musicians that Sahashi has collaborated with over many years. And we all realized it was the perfect way to go. The universe delivered. And a special cast of talent was assembled by Sahashi, including musician friends I had met going back forty-five years, such as Taeko Onuki and Haruomi Hosono, and newfound connections for me were made with several different rhythm sections, along with Akiko Yano and Sahashi’s wife, Takako Matsu. And keeping it all going was Kaz Sakamoto from Vivid Sound. It was magic.

During the process it was discussed what the album, this collaboration, would be called. Several ideas were tried and discarded but in the end, Sahashi and Kaz came upon EN. I don’t know the Japanese language but my sense is words can have broad meaning dependent on context.

In our best selves we endeavor to do what is right and good, to have a voice, to contribute something, perhaps to even be remembered. Increasingly, as I travel this imperfect arc of a lifetime, and in these particularly concerning times, I can see it is the people along the way, the love that is shared, that is the greatest gift and the most lasting legacy. It is connection in all its richness and open-heartedness that matters in the end, and for that I am grateful. EN.