Recently, an article entitled Nobu, la historia del pianista ciego [Nobu, the story of the blind pianist] appeared in the Spanish publication El Correo. The writer CÉSAR COCA gets the facts right, including Nobu's age, the way Nobu learns music, Nobu's composing career and his discography. He also explains well the difference between jazz piano playing and classical piano playing. And it is especially heartening to me that, unlike many other Spanish language web postings about Nobu that I have come across, there is no mistaken mentioning that Nobu is autistic or an idiot savant. The article apparently won the approval of the Japan Embassy in Spain, which posted a tweet about it.
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Yet when I mentioned the article to American Nobu fan Linda, her reaction surprised me:
Linda, you see, took issue with the title of the article, which refers to Nobu as "the blind pianist". I too cringed at the title of that article, and years ago I would have reacted to it just as strongly as Linda. Let me explain.
In Japan, Nobu was commonly (and still is, occasionally) referred to as the 盲目天才 ピアニスト "blind genius pianist." I believe the term is not considered derogatory but is instead meant as a compliment. Yet I clearly remember that not long after Nobu's Cliburn Competition victory, his mother Mrs. Itsuko Tsujii was quoted as saying "Don’t call him the 'blind pianist'" in an article published in the Japan Echo Magazine (Vol. 36, No. 5, October 2009). That magazine article can no longer be found on the web; but in it Mrs. Tsujii decries her son being labelled as a blind pianist, and expresses her wish that he becomes recognized as a virtuoso pianist on his own merits, minus the label.
I myself seldom bring up Nobu's blindness. There is simply rarely any need for that. Nobu is a complete musician whose achievements fascinate me regardless of his blindness. I too hope Nobu will be able to shed the "blind pianist" label one day. But I have come to accept that we may have to wait for a long time for that to happen, if ever.
The truth is, outside Japan, Nobu is still mostly an unknown quantity. Consciously or not, Nobu's blindness is a factor in how most people evaluate his performance. Back in 2010 when his piano music first caught my ears and gripped my heart, I was not even aware that Nobu was blind (see How I Caught "Nobu Fever"). Still, I cannot deny that his performance is especially thrilling to me because I know just how incredible it is for someone to play that astonishingly well without the benefit of being able to see.
Another fact: virtuoso pianists are a dime a dozen these days. The competition for performance opportunities is cut-throat -- there are female pianists who perform half-naked to draw attention, and male pianists who take to bombastic gestures and outlandish costumes to establish their "brand." It cannot be denied that Nobu's blindness is a factor that distinguishes him from the rest of the pack, for him to get invited to perform on stages all over the world. Sure, there will always be people who go to see Nobu perform out of curiosity. Even from Japan, it is not unusual that I come across tweets that says "I want to see Mr. Tsujii perform at least once in my life time." But I do know there are people who, once they get over the curiosity factor, come to appreciate Nobu for his musicality and virtuosity. Italian commentator Gianguido Mussomeli is a case in point. In his blog post about Nobu's 2012 Stuttgart recital debut, he wrote (translated from Italian):
All things considered, I no longer take offense to postings that refer to Nobu as the blind pianist, so long as the writer is respectful, factual and not condescending. In terms of writing quality, the El Correo article that prompted this posting is head and shoulder above most of the other ones in Spanish that I have seen. I hope the article brings Nobu some recognition in Spain, where he has yet to perform publicly (although Nobu has visited the island of Majorca at least twice, as a tourist; and he is apparently fond of Spanish music.)
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It took Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Andrea Boccelli a long time to become recognized worldwide without the label "blind." I hope the same will happen to Nobu eventually. It is already happening in Japan, where these days he is only referred to as the blind pianist very infrequently. Nobu himself does not seem to particularly mind. For example, in recent interviews he has said that it is his dream to perform for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or Paralympics. Let's hope by the time the next Olympics comes around, Nobu will fulfill his wish by having a part in the opening or closing ceremonies, and he will be introduced as pianist-composer Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii, period.
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Yet when I mentioned the article to American Nobu fan Linda, her reaction surprised me:
"I totally understand that being blind isn't going to go away for either of us [Nobu and Linda were both born blind], it's just that I wish we were thought of as people first. I just wish we were recognized as people who do what we do well and who just happen to be blind. I wish that the blindness issue were not so much in the forefront. You know, Itzhak Perlman had polio and uses crutches to get on stage. He is generally not referred to as the crippled violinist, or the violinist on crutches. Yes, there have been articles about how he contracted polio at an early age, but he is basically thought of as a virtuoso violinist. And I would wish the same thing for Nobu."
Linda, you see, took issue with the title of the article, which refers to Nobu as "the blind pianist". I too cringed at the title of that article, and years ago I would have reacted to it just as strongly as Linda. Let me explain.
In Japan, Nobu was commonly (and still is, occasionally) referred to as the 盲目天才 ピアニスト "blind genius pianist." I believe the term is not considered derogatory but is instead meant as a compliment. Yet I clearly remember that not long after Nobu's Cliburn Competition victory, his mother Mrs. Itsuko Tsujii was quoted as saying "Don’t call him the 'blind pianist'" in an article published in the Japan Echo Magazine (Vol. 36, No. 5, October 2009). That magazine article can no longer be found on the web; but in it Mrs. Tsujii decries her son being labelled as a blind pianist, and expresses her wish that he becomes recognized as a virtuoso pianist on his own merits, minus the label.
I myself seldom bring up Nobu's blindness. There is simply rarely any need for that. Nobu is a complete musician whose achievements fascinate me regardless of his blindness. I too hope Nobu will be able to shed the "blind pianist" label one day. But I have come to accept that we may have to wait for a long time for that to happen, if ever.
The truth is, outside Japan, Nobu is still mostly an unknown quantity. Consciously or not, Nobu's blindness is a factor in how most people evaluate his performance. Back in 2010 when his piano music first caught my ears and gripped my heart, I was not even aware that Nobu was blind (see How I Caught "Nobu Fever"). Still, I cannot deny that his performance is especially thrilling to me because I know just how incredible it is for someone to play that astonishingly well without the benefit of being able to see.
Another fact: virtuoso pianists are a dime a dozen these days. The competition for performance opportunities is cut-throat -- there are female pianists who perform half-naked to draw attention, and male pianists who take to bombastic gestures and outlandish costumes to establish their "brand." It cannot be denied that Nobu's blindness is a factor that distinguishes him from the rest of the pack, for him to get invited to perform on stages all over the world. Sure, there will always be people who go to see Nobu perform out of curiosity. Even from Japan, it is not unusual that I come across tweets that says "I want to see Mr. Tsujii perform at least once in my life time." But I do know there are people who, once they get over the curiosity factor, come to appreciate Nobu for his musicality and virtuosity. Italian commentator Gianguido Mussomeli is a case in point. In his blog post about Nobu's 2012 Stuttgart recital debut, he wrote (translated from Italian):
I do not deny that I went to the concert on the basis of a curiosity [about blind keyboard virtuosos.] That said, let the record stand that on this evening Nobu Tsujii put on display a high level of musicality and technicality of a first-class virtuoso. A complete pianist who is capable of handling any thorny passage with a truly impressive nonchalance. The sound is powerful and resonant, albeit with some occasional sharpness and bitterness in touch. The control in dynamics is really exceptional. Among the things that most impressed me is the stunning quality of halftones and pianissimo. Few pianists today can get the soft sounds made with a "big" sound; usually many of them merely generate a rustling when they want to play softly. The young Tsujii, with his extraordinary sensitivity of touch and pedaling, is able to attain softness in pianissimo sounds that projects without difficulty across the hall. From the point of view of interpretation, taking into account that this is a young musician and therefore still susceptible to developments, his musicality and balance of phrasing are those of a high-class musician.
Amen! Mr. Mussomeli would go on to write another glowing review of Nobu's return to Stuttgart in 2014.All things considered, I no longer take offense to postings that refer to Nobu as the blind pianist, so long as the writer is respectful, factual and not condescending. In terms of writing quality, the El Correo article that prompted this posting is head and shoulder above most of the other ones in Spanish that I have seen. I hope the article brings Nobu some recognition in Spain, where he has yet to perform publicly (although Nobu has visited the island of Majorca at least twice, as a tourist; and he is apparently fond of Spanish music.)
Nobu and mother Itsuko in Majorca, 2009,as shown in a TV documentary
It took Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Andrea Boccelli a long time to become recognized worldwide without the label "blind." I hope the same will happen to Nobu eventually. It is already happening in Japan, where these days he is only referred to as the blind pianist very infrequently. Nobu himself does not seem to particularly mind. For example, in recent interviews he has said that it is his dream to perform for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or Paralympics. Let's hope by the time the next Olympics comes around, Nobu will fulfill his wish by having a part in the opening or closing ceremonies, and he will be introduced as pianist-composer Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii, period.
Image source: Rio flame goes out as Olympic flag handed over to Tokyo
