Jazz Articles about Toshiko Akiyoshi

A Fireside Chat With Toshiko Akiyoshi

by AAJ Staff
April 20, 2003

The marriage of composition and arrangement is not an easy one in modern music. Dedication to history coupled with invention of tomorrow makes the task even more daunting. Toshiko Akiyoshi has been doing just that for the past thirty years with her big band. What is impressive is not the time, but the quality of her efforts. Hope from tragedy, hope from destruction, hope from loss, and hope for tomorrow are themes not easily translated to music. Akiyoshi's latest project ...

Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra: Hiroshima

by Jim Santella
March 3, 2003

Dedicated to the memory of a city that experienced the unfathomable horrors of war in 1945, Toshiko Akiyoshi’s extended work for big band sizzles. There’s a lesson here for all mankind. In the early movements of her suite, everything’s all right. The band swings with its usual Monday night balance and tips its hat to one soloist after another. Few big bands carry on the tradition as well.

Then comes the tragedy, and everything changes for a ...