餐馆很棒，音乐很糟。坂本龙一决定亲自帮他们选歌

Last fall a friend told me a story about Ryuichi Sakamoto, the renowned musician and composer who lives in the West Village. Mr. Sakamoto, it seems, so likes a particular Japanese restaurant in Murray Hill, and visits it so often, that he finally had to be straight with the chef: He could not bear the music it played for its patrons.

去年秋天，一位朋友给我讲了个故事，说的是住在纽约西村的著名音乐人、作曲家坂本龙一。坂本看来是非常喜欢默里山一带的某家日本餐馆，频频光顾，乃至终于要跟主厨摊牌：他受不了餐馆给顾客放的音乐。

The issue was not so much that the music was loud, but that it was thoughtless. Mr. Sakamoto suggested that he could take over the job of choosing it, without pay, if only so he could feel more comfortable eating there. The chef agreed, and so Mr. Sakamoto started making playlists for the restaurant, none of which include any of his own music. Few people knew about this, because Mr. Sakamoto has no particular desire to publicize it.

问题不是音乐太吵，而是没放过心思。坂本提议说他可以来帮他们选音乐，不要报酬，只为他在这里吃饭时能舒心些。主厨同意了，于是坂本动手为餐馆做曲目表，完全没有用他自己的音乐。这件事很少有人知道，因为坂本没想刻意张扬。

It took me a few weeks to appreciate how radical the story was, if indeed it was true. I consider thoughtless music in restaurants a problem that has gotten worse over the years, even since the advent of the music-streaming services, which — you’d think — should have made it better.

过了几个星期我才意识到这个故事有多厉害，要是确有其事的话。我认为餐馆里播放的无脑音乐是多年来愈发严重的问题，哪怕是流媒体音乐服务到来之后——我们本来还以为那会改善这个情况。

If I’m going to spend decent money on a meal, I don’t want the reservation-taker, the dishwasher or someone from the back office to be cooking it; I want someone who is very good at cooking food to do it. The same should apply to the music, which after all will be playing before, during and after the eating.

要是花一笔可观的钱去吃顿饭，我可不希望是订位员、洗碗工或者什么后勤办公室的人来做这顿饭;我想要烹饪高手。对餐厅里的音乐应该也一样，毕竟饭前饭中饭后都一直在放着。

I would prefer that music not seem an afterthought, or the result of algorithmic computation. I want it chosen by a person who knows music up and down and sideways: its context, its dynamism and its historical and aural clichés. Such a person can at least accomplish the minimum, which is to signal to the customer that attention is being paid, in a generous, original, specific and small-ego way.

我希望餐厅的音乐不是被当作陪衬，也不是算法算出来的。我希望挑选音乐的人全面了解音乐：了解播放的环境，了解音乐的起伏，了解它在历史和听觉上的俗套。这样的人至少能做到起码的事：用大方、独特、明确而又谦逊的方式告诉顾客，这里的音乐是花了心思的。

In February, I went to Mr. Sakamoto’s favorite restaurant, on 39th Street near Lexington Avenue, with my younger son. It is a split-level operation: On the second floor is Kajitsu, which follows the Zen, vegan principles of Shojin cuisine, and on the ground floor is Kokage, a more casual operation that incorporates meat and fish into the same idea. (A Japanese tea shop, Ippodo, occupies a counter toward the front of the street-level space.)

今年二月，我带着小儿子去了坂本最喜欢的这家餐馆，在39街靠近列克星敦大道。餐馆分楼层经营：二楼的餐厅叫“嘉日”(Kajitsu)，主营“精进料理”的禅意素食，一楼叫Kokage，偏家常的菜式，在同样的料理概念中加入了肉和鱼。(一楼朝向街面的一片柜台辟为日本茶铺“一保堂”[Ippodo]。)

As soon as we sat down, the music pinned our attention. It came from an unpretentious source — a single, wide speaker sitting on a riser about a foot off the floor, hidden behind a serving table. (We were downstairs in Kokage, but the same music was playing upstairs in Kajitsu.) I asked a waiter if the playlist was Mr. Sakamoto’s. She said yes.

一落座，音乐就吸引了我们的注意。音源很朴素——一只单独的宽体扬声器，放在离地一英尺的架子上，藏在一张餐桌后边。(我们在一楼的Kokage，但楼上的“嘉日”也在播放同样的音乐。)我问一个服务员，这是不是坂本先生做的曲目。她说是。

Mr. Sakamoto, 66, is exemplary perhaps not only for his music but also for his listening, and his understanding of how music can be used and shared. He is a hero of cosmopolitan musical curiosity, an early technological adopter in extremis, and a kind of supercollaborator. Since the late 1970s, when he was a founding member of the electronic-pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, he has composed and produced music for dance floors, concert halls, films, video games, cellphone ringtones, and acts of ecological awareness and political resistance. (Much of this is detailed in “Coda,” Stephen Nomura Schible’s recently released film documentary about him.)

66岁的坂本龙一是音乐界的楷模，或许不仅因为他的音乐作品，也因为他的聆听，以及他对如何运用和分享音乐的理解。他是对世界音乐充满好奇的传奇人物，很早就激进地接纳技术，他还是一个超级合作者。从1970年代末与人合创电子流行乐三人组合“黄色魔术交响乐团”(Yellow Magic Orchestra)至今，他已为舞厅、音乐厅、影院、电子游戏、手机铃声、环保行动或政治抵抗行动作过曲或制作过音乐。(最近上映的斯蒂芬·野村·席博[Stephen Nomura Schible]讲述坂本的纪录片《终曲》[CODA]里，这些已大多讲得很详尽。)

Some of what we heard at Kokage sounded like what Mr. Sakamoto would logically be interested in. There was slow or spacious solo-piano music from various indistinct traditions; a few melodies that might have been film-soundtrack themes; a bit of improvisation. Where there was singing, it was generally not in English. I recognized a track from Wayne Shorter’s record “Native Dancer,” with Milton Nascimento, and a pianist who sounded like Mary Lou Williams, although I couldn’t be sure. This wasn’t particularly brand-establishing music, or the kind that makes you want to spend money; it represented a devoted customer’s deep knowledge, sensitivity and idiosyncrasies. I felt generally stumped and sensitively attended to. I felt ecstatic.

我们在Kokage听到的一些曲目，显然是坂本会感兴趣的那种。有一些舒缓或空灵的钢琴独奏，隐约源自某些传统音乐;有些旋律可能做过电影配乐主题;还有少量即兴音乐。有演唱的地方，通常不是英文的。有一曲我听出来是出自韦恩·肖特(Wayne Shorter)的唱片《土著舞者》(Native Dancer)，合奏的有弥尔顿·纳西门托(Milton Nascimento)，还有一位听起来像玛丽·卢·威廉姆斯(Mary Lou Williams)的钢琴家，但我拿不准。这些都不是那种可以塑造品牌形象的音乐，也不是那种让你想花钱的;这些曲目代表了一位忠实顾客的渊博知识、敏感与独特。总的来说，我感到不知该说些什么，但感官上得到了关照。我觉得心醉神迷。

He is not in the habit of complaining when he has a problem with music in public spaces, because it happens so often.

当他对公共空间的音乐有意见时，他没有投诉的习惯，因为这种事情太常见了。

I found out that Mr. Sakamoto had enlisted Ryu Takahashi, a New York music producer, manager and curator, to help him with the playlist. My son and I met them both, as well as Norika Sora, Mr. Sakamoto’s wife and manager, on a bright spring afternoon between services at Kajitsu, where the tobacco-earth smell of Iribancha tea permeated the dining room. Mr. Sakamoto was dressed in black down to his sneakers.

后来我知道坂本还邀请了纽约的音乐制作人、经理人兼策划人高桥龙(Ryu Takahashi)来帮他制作曲目表。我和儿子见到了他们两人，还有坂本的妻子兼经纪人空里香(Norika Sora)，那是个明媚春日的午后，在“嘉日”的营业间隙，餐厅里弥漫着焙番茶的烟草和泥土气味。坂本穿一身黑色，连运动鞋也是。

I asked if the story I’d heard was true. It was, he said. I asked if it would bother him if people knew. “It’s O.K.,” he said. “We don’t have to hide.”

我问坂本，我听说的那个故事是不是真的。他说是。我又问要是这事广为人知，会不会有些烦人。“没关系的，”他说。“也没必要隐瞒。”

He is not in the habit of complaining when he has a problem with music in public spaces, because it happens so often. “Normally I just leave,” he said. “I cannot bear it. But this restaurant is really something I like, and I respect their chef, Odo.” (Hiroki Odo was Kajitsu’s third chef, and worked there for five years, until March. Mr. Odo told me the music had been chosen by the restaurant’s management in Japan.)

在公共空间遇到有问题的音乐，他并没有抱怨的习惯，因为这太常见了。“通常就是一走了之，”他说。“我忍受不了。但这家餐馆我是真的喜欢，我敬重他们的主厨大堂。”(大堂浩树[Hiroki Odo]是“嘉日”的第三任主厨，到今年三月已在此工作五年。大堂告诉我说，以前的音乐是餐馆在日本的管理层选的。)

“I found their BGM so bad, so bad,” Mr. Sakamoto said, using the industry term for background music. (“BGM” was also the title of a Yellow Magic Orchestra record from 1981.) He sucked his teeth. “Really bad.” What was it? “It was a mixture of terrible Brazilian pop music and some old American folk music,” he said, “and some jazz, like Miles Davis.”

“我发现他们的BGM太差，太差了，”坂本说，他用了BGM这个行内叫法来表示背景音乐。(“BGM”也是“黄色魔术交响乐团”1981年出的一张专辑唱片的名字。)他牙缝间倒吸着气。“真的很差啊。”是什么样呢?“糟糕的巴西流行乐和一些美国老民谣混在一起，”他说，“还有些爵士乐，比如迈尔斯·戴维斯(Miles Davis)。”

Some of those things, individually, may be very good, I suggested.

我说这些音乐有的要是单独听，可能是很好的。

“If they have context, maybe,” he replied. “But at least the Brazilian pop was so bad. I know Brazilian music. I have worked with Brazilians many times. This was so bad. I couldn’t stay, one afternoon. So I left.”

“要是气氛对，有可能，”他答道。“但至少那些巴西流行乐太难听了。我了解巴西音乐。我和巴西人合作过很多次。但那些巴西流行乐太差。有一天下午我根本待不下去。我就走人了。”

He went home and composed an email to Mr. Odo. “I love your food, I respect you and I love this restaurant, but I hate the music,” he remembered writing. “Who chose this? Whose decision of mixing this terrible roundup? Let me do it. Because your food is as good as the beauty of Katsura Rikyu.” (He meant the thousand-year-old palatial villa in Kyoto, built to some degree on the aesthetic principles of imperfections and natural circumstances known as wabi-sabi.) “But the music in your restaurant is like Trump Tower.”

坂本回家后给大堂浩树写了一封邮件。“我喜欢你做的菜，我尊重你，我喜欢这家餐馆，但我讨厌餐馆的音乐，”他记得他这样写道。“谁选的音乐?把这个糟糕的集合混在一起是谁的决定?让我来做这个吧。因为你做的菜之好可以与桂离宫媲美。”(他指的是京都有千年历史的皇家别墅，在一定程度上是依据所谓“侘寂”的美学原则建造的，这种美学原则追求的是不完美的、自然的环境。)“但你餐馆的音乐却像特朗普大厦(Trump Tower)。”

A bad musical experience in a restaurant these days may be a kind of imitation of a thoughtful one, or at least a sufficient one: a good-enough one. It can be the result of the algorithmic programming from, say, a Pandora or Spotify station. It can be one of the many playlists made by human curators at one of those streaming services, meant for broad appeal. Or it can be the result of the safe or self-absorbed choices from someone in the restaurant. As with restaurant food, so with restaurant music: Good-enough isn’t good enough.

在如今的餐厅，糟糕的音乐体验也许只是在模仿一种有考虑的、至少是充分的——还不错的——体验。这些选择可能是来自一个Pandora或Spotify电台的算法程序的结果，可能来自这些流媒体服务根据大众口味人工编制的众多播放列表。也可能是餐馆里某个工作人员的保险选择，或只考虑自己的选择。餐馆里的食物与餐馆里的音乐一样：只是不错还远远不够。

Some feeling of lift or transcendence is essential.

有点提升或超越感必不可少。

I asked a few restaurateurs how they get beyond the good-enough in creating or controlling their own playlists. Gerardo Gonzalez, the chef at Lalito, in Chinatown, spoke of first encounters and parting impressions. He contends that music is the first and strongest sensory indicator of what a restaurant is about; he wants his customers to leave in a better mood than that in which they entered.

我问了一些餐馆老板，他们在制作或控制自己的歌单上是如何超越不错的。纽约唐人街餐馆拉利托(Lalito)的大厨杰拉尔多·冈萨雷斯(Gerardo Gonzalez)提到了初次相遇和离别的印象。他认为，音乐是一家餐馆方方面面的首个、也是最强烈的一个感官标志。他希望他的顾客们离开时的心情比他们进来时的好。

Well-known tracks, he suggested, can be useful. But some feeling of lift or transcendence is essential. (He cited the jazz-harp music of Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby as examples of music that does not go wrong.) Also, a great playlist for your customers is not equal to the music you listen to for own purposes. “I draw the line,” he specified, “at something I might listen to at home, which might be bleak and dystopic.”

他提出理由说，知名的曲目可能有用。但是，有点提升或超越感必不可少。(他提到爱丽丝·柯川[Alice Coltrane]和多萝西·阿什比[Dorothy Ashby]的爵士竖琴音乐，认为那是不会错的音乐的例子。)而且，为你的客户做好的歌单，和你自己听的音乐不是一回事。具体来说，“我在家里可能会听的一些东西，可能感觉暗淡的、反乌托邦的，我是不会碰的。”

Brooks Headley, the chef of Superiority Burger in the East Village, and a musician himself — he has played drums in punk bands since the early ’90s — sent an iPod around to some discerning friends so they could load it up with their suggestions. “Nothing too moody or serious,” he cautioned them. They took his request seriously, and he likes not knowing everything that plays. (A hit in his restaurant: the album “Rock and Rollin’ With Fats Domino,” played in its entirety, all 29 minutes.)

位于东村的Superiority Burger的主厨布鲁克斯·黑德利(Brooks Headley)自己就是一名音乐人，他从1990年代初开始一直在朋克乐队当鼓手，他把一个iPod交给了一些有识别力的朋友，让他们把建议的音乐添加上去。他提醒他们“不要太情绪化或太严肃的。”他们认真地按照他的要求去做了，他不见得知道正在放的是什么音乐，这是他乐见的。(他的餐馆有一次大获成功的尝试：全专辑播放《与胖子多米诺一起摇滚》[Rock and Rollin’ With Fats Domino]，共29分钟。)

Frank Falcinelli, a chef and partner at Prime Meats and the Frankies restaurants in New York, dreads restaurant-music clichés, and has developed ways to avoid them: playing original versions of songs made much more famous by covers, or playing deep cuts from well-known popular records. For instance: “Moonlight Mile,” from the Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers,” but not “Brown Sugar.” (Please, not “Brown Sugar.”)

弗兰克·法奇内利(Frank Falcinelli)是纽约连锁餐馆Prime Meats and the Frankies的主厨兼合伙人，他特别害怕听惯了的餐馆音乐，并想办法避免之：比如播放一首歌的原版，而不是被翻唱者唱得更出名的版本，或者播放有名的流行唱片中不广为人知但有代表性的曲目，比如，从滚石乐队《Sticky Fingers》专辑中选播《Moonlight Mile》，而不选《Brown Sugar》。(别放《Brown Sugar》，拜托了。)

Siobhan Lowe, manager of the restaurant (Reynard) and bar (The Ides) in the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn, hired the sound-design firm Gray V to make its varied and frequently updated playlists. She will give instructions — “make a playlist for a rainy afternoon in the Ides that would not freak out my dad but that music nerds will be impressed by” — and then lets the experts do their work. Like Mr. Falcinelli, she has seen the seductive power of the deep cut over her customers: Her example was a live version of Talking Heads’s “The Big Country.”

布鲁克林威思酒店(Wythe Hotel)餐厅(Reynard)和酒吧(The Ides)的经理西沃恩·劳(Siobhan Lowe)雇了声音设计公司Gray V来为餐厅和酒吧制作不同的且经常更新的歌单。她会提一些要求——“为酒吧的一个雨天下午做一个歌单，里面的音乐不会吓着我老爸，但能得到乐迷的称许”——然后让专业人士们去做他们的工作。与法奇内利一样，她也看到过不广为人知但有代表性的曲目令顾客神往的力量：她的例子是Talking Heads乐队一次现场表演《The Big Country》的录音。

I asked Mr. Sakamoto whether the exercise of creating a restaurant playlist was as simple as choosing music he liked. “No,” he said. “In the beginning, I wanted to have a collection of ambient music — not Brian Eno, but more recent.” He came to the restaurant and listened carefully as he ate. He and his wife agreed that the music was much too dark in mood.

我问坂本，制作餐馆歌单是否像挑选自己喜欢的音乐那样简单。“不是，”他说。“刚开始的时候，我曾想做一个氛围音乐集——不是布莱恩·伊诺(Brian Eno)，而是更近期的。”他来到餐馆，边吃边仔细地听。他和妻子一致认为那些音乐太阴暗了。

“The light is pretty bright here,” Ms. Sora said. “The color of the wall, the texture of the furniture, the setting of the room, wasn’t good for enjoying music with darker tones, to end your night. I think it depends not just on the food or the hour of the day, but the atmosphere, the color, the decoration.”

“这里的灯光很亮，”空里香说。“墙壁的颜色，家具的质地，房间的环境，都不适合在欣赏深沉音乐中结束你的夜晚。我觉得，这不只是取决于吃的东西，或一天的时段，还取决于氛围、颜色和装饰。”

Mr. Takahashi reckoned that he and Mr. Sakamoto made at least five drafts before settling on the current version of the Kajitsu playlist. Some songs were too this or too that — too loud, too bright, too “jazzy.”

高桥估计他和坂本至少改过五次，才确定了现在的嘉日版歌单。有些歌曲太这个、或太那个——太大声，太亮，太“爵士”。

“Playing jazz in restaurants is too stereotypical,” Mr. Sakamoto said. Jazz pianists are a particularly vexed issue for him. You will hear Mary Lou Williams, but not (at this point, anyway) Duke Ellington. You will hear Bill Evans, but not his famous “Waltz for Debby.” You will hear solo Jason Moran and Thelonious Monk.

“在餐馆里播放爵士乐太老套了，”坂本说。爵士乐钢琴家对他来说是一个特别棘手的问题。你会听到玛丽·卢·威廉姆斯，但不会听到艾灵顿公爵(反正不在这个时候)。你会听到比尔·埃文斯(Bill Evans)，但不会听到他著名的《黛比的华尔兹》(Waltz for Debby)。你会听到杰森·莫兰(Jason Moran)和塞隆尼斯·蒙克(Thelonious Monk)的独奏。

One of the solo-piano songs that slayed me turned out to be the first movement of John Cage’s serene “Four Walls,” played by Aki Takahashi. (“It’s so pop,” Mr. Sakamoto marveled. “It’s like a radio hit.”) Another was Gavin Bryars’s “My First Homage.” A few others that moved me, piano or not: David Shire’s “Graysmith’s Theme,” from the score to the film “Zodiac”; Roberto Musci’s “Claudia, Wilhelm R and Me.” All of this music stood at a particular angle with regard to the listener: It was riveting, moderate and unobtrusive.

后来发现其中一首征服我的钢琴独奏是高桥爱(Aki Takahashi)演奏宁静的约翰·凯奇(John Cage)《Four Walls》第一乐章。(“这么流行乐，”坂本惊叹道。“好像一首电台热播曲。”)另一首是加文·布莱尔斯(Gavin Bryars)的《My First Homage》。还有一些让我感动的钢琴曲和非钢琴曲，比如大卫·夏尔(David Shire)的《Graysmith’s Theme》(来自电影《十二宫》[Zodiac]的配乐)，罗伯托·穆西(Roberto Musci)的“Claudia, Wilhelm R and Me”。所有这些音乐都从一个特定的角度对待听者：吸引人、温和、不会打搅你。

Mr. Sakamoto objects to loud restaurant music.

坂本反对大声的餐厅音乐

It was also not very loud, and here we arrive at an issue that may concern older customers more than younger ones. Mr. Sakamoto objects to loud restaurant music, and often uses a decibel meter on his phone to measure the volume of the sound around him.

而且都不是很大声，这可能是年长一些的顾客会更关心的问题。坂本不喜欢餐馆的音乐太响，他经常用手机上的一个测量分贝的应用软件来测量周围的音量。

He has composed original music for public spaces before, he said — a scientific museum and an advertising-agency building in Tokyo. He used light and wind sensors to change the music during the day. But the only experience he has had making playlists of the music of others, for other people, has been for family members.

他说，他以前曾为公共场所写过原创音乐，比如为东京的一家科学博物馆和一家广告公司大楼。他使用测量光和风的传感器来改变一天中播放的音乐。但是说到给别人制作歌单，他此前唯一的经历是给自己的家人制作。

He made one for his son, when he was learning to play the bass guitar; Mr. Sakamoto carefully excluded the bassist Jaco Pastorius, for reasons of personal taste, but his son found out about Mr. Pastorius a week later and scolded his father for the omission. Mr. Sakamoto made one for his father, during a hospital illness. And he made one for his mother’s funeral. 在

儿子学习弹奏贝斯时，他曾为儿子做过一个。出于个人喜好，坂本刻意没有把贝司手杰可·帕斯透瑞斯(Jaco Pastorius)演奏的曲子选进来，但儿子在一周后发现了帕斯透瑞斯，并对父亲不选他的曲子很不满。坂本在父亲生病住院期间给父亲做过一个。他还为母亲的葬礼做过一个。

Was that, I asked, a collection of music she liked? Mr. Sakamoto paused and laughed and shook his head. “It was, kind of, my ego,” he said.

我问他，那是汇集了母亲生前喜欢的音乐吗?坂本停顿了一下，笑了笑，摇着头说，“那算是我的自我主张吧。”

Mr. Sakamoto and Mr. Takahashi plan to change their playlist with each new season. Mr. Odo’s next venture, a bar named Hall and a restaurant named Odo, is scheduled to open in the Flatiron district in the fall. Mr. Sakamoto, again, has been retained as chief playlister.

坂本和高桥打算在每一季更换一个歌单。大堂浩树的下一个项目、一家名为Hall的酒吧和名为“大堂”的餐厅，计划于今年秋天在曼哈顿熨斗区开业。坂本已经被聘为首席歌单师。