Tuning up toshiko akiyoshi biography

Toshiko Akiyoshi's big band has long been recognized as one of the most innovative in the entire world of jazz. Over the course of fifty years of live performances and forty-some recordings, her work has received both critical praise and consistent popularity. However, it was not until last year that she received "official" recognition. The award was for her work in bridging cultures, by bringing Japanese musical influences and cultural themes into the language of American jazz.

Her bicultural work extended back to the post-war that's World War II period, when she learned jazz piano from records and honed her technique in the many servicemen's clubs that sprung up during the occupation.

Pianist, bandleader, and composer-arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of big band jazz.

Eventually, she was noticed by Oscar Peterson during a Japan tour and given a chance to record a debut release in After that recording, Akiyoshi had a chance to move to America and play with the musicians she had only heard on record. After a decade of hard-driving bop quintets and quartets in New York, she eventually formed her own big band, with husband and saxophone player Lew Tabackin.

This band remains one of the very best big bands in jazz ever. When she was in Tokyo last fall, she took time to talk, in fluent English, about her career and music over coffee in the coffee shop at her hotel.

Born and raised in Manchuria, Toshiko started piano lessons at age six.

As a veteran of countless interviews over the years, Akiyoshi was a lively and engaged talker, who clearly enjoyed discussing her great love of jazz music and jazz life. It was a Japan Foundation Award. Actually, I didn't even know that such a thing existed. Someone mentioned that a foundation had a fund for artists introducing Japanese culture to other countries.

I received that a couple times, once going to China with the whole band and once going to South America. The basic rule is you must reside in Japan, and I was living in the United States, but as you know every place I go they always say "from Japan.