I’m about 50 pages into the new Haruki Murakami book and, like most of Murakami’s work, I’m drawn to the small bits of Americana and western culture that permeates his writing. Despite having read a bunch of his translated work, I’ve yet to pinpoint what it is that gives his work that Murikami-ness that is so pleasant to read – and no, I’m not talking about his fantastical plot elements and science fiction wackiness, since that’s only working for him some of the time.

I do like that one of the characters in the book plays the trombone, which seems like a motif cropping up in his work (not simply American jazz, but the trombone itself). I flip-flop regularly, but I’m pretty sure my favorite short story of all time is “Tony Takitani” for it’s startling simplicity. In it, Tony’s father is also a jazz trombonist. Hmmm….

In any case, I was drawn to the current novel’s explanation of why this character plays the trombone:

“When I was in middle school, I happened to buy a jazz record called Blues-ette at a used record store. An old LP. I can’t remember why I bought it at the time. I had never heard jazz before. But anyway, the first tune on Side A was ‘Five Spot After Dark,’ and it was great. A guy named Curtis Fuller played the trombone on it. The first time I heard it, I felt the scales fall from my eyes. That’s it, I thought. That’s the instrument for me. The trombone and me: it was a meeting arranged by destiny.”

It blew my mind reading this namely because I finally bought Blues-ette while in Chicago last month. My visit to the Jazz Record Mart led me to an oversized vinyl bag filled with jazz gems that were long overdue in my personal collection. Fuller is truly astounding on this, and when Murakmi’s two characters hum the opening bars of “Five Spot After Dark,” I’m right there with them. One of the moodiest, instantaneously catchy songs you’re going to find. I’ve been playing this album continuously in my class the last few weeks; it’s likely that many students’ impressions of “jazz” will be made primarily by the magic of Blues-ette.

The book’s other references so far are also telling, aforementioned trombonist wants to be in a band like Tower of Power (awesome), female protagonist questions the naming of a love hotel “Alphaville” (Godard references always make me tingle) and Ben Webster is innocuously playing on a stereo in a bar. Did I mention the opening of the book takes place in a Denny’s? I realize that there are several critics that have questioned Murakami’s fetishization of western culture; is this why hipster kids like Murakami so much? Though such a discussion is one for a lengthier debate I will say that Murakami’s style is iconic and one that cannot be trivialized by his occasional use of culture signals for the pop enthusiast.