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Jazz Articles about Toshiko Akiyoshi
Homage To Artists Lost, Favorite 2023 Recordings Part I, Birthday Shoutouts To Toshiko Akiyoshi, Una Mae Carlisle, Rebecca Parris, Edith Piaf & More
by Mary Foster Conklin
The final broadcast of 2023 includes two new singles from Kayle Brecher and Carol McCann, Part I of my favorite recordings of 2023 with birthday shoutouts to Toshiko Akiyoshi, Kayle Brecher, Una Mae Carlisle, Rebecca Parris, Kerry Politzer, and Edith Piaf, among others plus a nod to some of the artists that left the planet this past year. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of pandemic so they can ...
read moreJitterbug Waltz, Toshiko Akiyoshi and some electro/electro acoustic works
by David Brown
This week, we celebrate Fats Waller's tune “Jitterbug Waltz," recorded 81 years ago this week, with interpretations by Cécile McLorin Salvant, Eric Dolphy & Tyshawn Sorey; we'll also check out a set of works featuring pianist composer & arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi. Ikue Mori was in Philly this week so let's hear a solo from her+ some electro/acoustic works. And of course, new releases, acquisitions and favorites are in the mix. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at ...
read moreToshiko Akiyoshi Trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
by Keith Henry Brown
Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola Lessons from Our Masters New York, NY September 3, 2017 At 87, the brilliant pianist/bandleader/composer Toshiko Akiyoshi knows by now what works for her and what doesn't. As she ambled onto the stage at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center on a warm Sunday evening as part of the club's Lessons From Our Masters series the still vibrant musician joked with the crowd about her advanced age ...
read moreToshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band: Mosaic Select
by Ken Dryden
Pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi overcame numerous challenges during her long career, immigrating to a new country, establishing herself as both a top bandleader and composer/arranger, in addition to the difficulties of maintaining a large jazz ensemble. Her husband, tenor saxophonist and flutist Lew Tabackin, was a star soloist in her big band and he helped her recruit top musicians when she formed the band in 1973. Akiyoshi recorded numerous albums until disbanding the group in 2003, though many of these excellent ...
read moreToshiko Akiyoshi - Lew Tabackin Big Band: Mosaic Select
by Samuel Chell
Jazz was never more schizophrenic than in the 1970s. On the one hand, musicians equally savvy about mixing genres and running mixing boards were selling out arenas and producing lucrative, widely played albums, with bass-heavy danceable beats or soothing instrumental sounds tailor-made for air play on FM radio. At the other extreme, many of the jazz masters who came up with, or slightly before and after, saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Thelonious Monk could be heard in ...
read moreToshiko Akiyoshi: Fine Wine
by Ken Dryden
Toshiko Akiyoshi's reputation as a brilliant composer/arranger is widely heralded. She was the first woman to lead a big band for an extended period of time, while she was also the first Japanese jazz artist to achieve international acclaim. A pianist of incredible talent, Akiyoshi's abilities were somewhat hidden within her orchestra, though she made a number of small group and solo recordings, many of them only issued in Japan. She is also very proud of her 2007 NEA Jazz ...
read moreToshiko Akiyoshi: Hiroshima: Rising From The Abyss
by AAJ Staff
Composer, bandleader and pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi has tucked yet another significant feather into her cap with Hiroshima. Her new CD was recorded live at the composition's debut performance in its namesake city on August 6th, 2001, the 56th anniversary of that fateful 1945 day.The 15-minute first movement of the emotional three-part suite begins with “Futility," a seasonal blowing of reeds and brass. Swirling leaves touch ground then take flight. Flutes and reeds join the brass horns as the ...
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