Despite the heat, the calendar claims autumn is just around the corner. One of autumn’s best local attributes is the Japanese Tea Garden’s Jazz in the Garden, which brings live, local jazz artists to play in that one-of-a-kind setting.
The San Antonio Park Foundation’s Mary Jane Verette said it's one of her favorite events. “We do it in collaboration with KRTU, the jazz station at Trinity University," she explained, "and we work together to bring small concerts at the Japanese Tea Garden, where people can bring their own chair and listen to some great local talent."
This fall there will be three concerts, the first in just more than a month.
“The first concert will be on Sept. 20, and it'll be Katchie Cartwright and a Brazilian trio,” Verette said. That kind of soft music that is trademark of Brazilian jazz.
The next performance will be in the middle of October. “Toro Flores, a very big local favorite, Toro Flores quintet on Oct. 18, and then the ever popular Jose Amador and Terra Nova on Nov. 8, which brings a lot of salsa and dance to the garden at that time,” she said.
The Japanese Tea Garden is just south of the Zoo. The idea was originally a brainstorm by a parks superintendent, Ray Lambert. The five acre property was a depleted cement foundry. Verette said there wasn't much life on the barren site.
“The Japanese Tea Garden is a historic structure that's located in the middle of Brackenridge Park that was built in 1919, so it's a Japanese Tea Garden with a 1919 Texan point of view, but it is historic,” she said. “I see it as being a steward of a sacred place. That's how our entire board of directors sees it.”
A Japanese-American family, the Jingus, lived in a big stone house in the garden. “The Jingu family moved in in 1926 in order to be kind of stewards of the garden, Verette explained. "In 1938, Mr. Jingu passed away, and the family continued to run the Jingu house.”
When the Japanese Empire attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, the family’s welcome was gone, and the city compelled them to leave. Eventually, most of family moved to California, and the name of the park was changed to the Chinese Tea Garden.
By the 1980s, sentiments had changed. “Due to the work of the Parks Foundation, together with at that time, Mayor [Henry] Cisneros and Lila Cockrell and Bonnie Connor, the garden was the name was ultimately changed back to the Japanese Tea Garden as it should have been,” Verette said.
She said the Garden today represents a place of serenity and pleasure. “It's so fun to just be out there and just being free, having a nice something to drink and listening to great music, reconnecting with your neighbors and your community — connecting with the out of doors is really a wonderful experience,” she said.
The music concerts are free. Learn more at saparks.org.
