Blue Note Tokyo

The second set, shorter, looser and cheaper than the first

Open since 1988 and booking at a level that brings the same American musicians who play New York and Paris, often for week-long residencies. The room seats about three hundred across a floor and a mezzanine, with table service and sightlines engineered so that nobody sits behind a pillar.

Tokyo audiences listen in near silence, which changes how musicians play, and several artists have said publicly that this is where they record.