Results for "Toshiko Akiyoshi"

Toshiko Akiyoshi

Toshiko Akiyoshi's unique contributions to the jazz world have evolved like falling dominoes through a series of events that started with a piano-loving little Japanese girl in Manchuria and brought her to prominence as an unparalleled pianist, composer and leader of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. Manchurian-born Akiyoshi's interest in the piano started at age six, and by the time her family had moved back to Japan at the end of World War II. Toshiko had developed a real love for music. She soon began playing piano professionally, which eventually led to being discovered by pianist Oscar Peterson in 1952 during a Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan

Women in Jazz, Pt. 3: The International Women in Jazz Organization

By KARL ACKERMANN

In part 1 and part 2 of the Women in Jazz series, we looked at the historical marginalization of women in jazz from Lil Hardin Armstrong and Blanch Calloway in the 1920s to Tia Fuller in 2019. Part 2 focused on several prominent pioneering artists including the all-female International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Marian McPartland, and Melba ...

Migiwa Miyajima: Colorful

By ANGELO LEONARDI

Un nuovo debutto si aggiunge al ricco movimento di rinascita orchestrale cresciuto negli Stati Uniti nell'ultimo decennio. Che la bandleader sia donna e giapponese non è una novità (la via è stata aperta da Toshiko Akiyoshi oltre 60 anni fa ed oggi è tracciata originalmente da Miho Hazama) ma va segnalata la singolarità del suo percorso ...

Marcus Roberts And The Modern Jazz Generation At The Kimmel Center

By VICTOR L. SCHERMER

Marcus Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Perelman Theater Philadelphia, PA October 11, 2019 Marcus Roberts is one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, coming up in the 1980s in Wynton Marsalis' band and since then more ...

New York Japanese Jazz Festival 2019

By PETER JUREW

New York Japanese Jazz Festival Smoke Jazz & Supper Club New York, NY June 25-27, 2019 The Japanese people's love for jazz, rock, blues and other forms of music with African-American roots has been well established for decades. Working bands and musicians at all levels of fame regularly make the Land ...

Rick Lawn: The Evolution of Big Band Sounds in America

By VICTOR L. SCHERMER

From the latter part of the Jazz Age through the Swing Era, big bands dominated the jazz scene and a large part of the entertainment industry. After World War II, their fortunes declined, but their music soared to new heights, spurred on by innovative leaders, instrumentalists, and very importantly, the composers/arrangers who worked behind the scenes ...

I nuovi progetti di Miho Hazama

By ANGELO LEONARDI

È da mezzo secolo, ovvero dai tempi Toshiko Akiyoshi, che dal Giappone non emergeva una bandleader così talentuosa. A soli 33 anni Miho brucia letteralmente le tappe: presenta il terzo disco a capo del suo collettivo M_Unit Dancer in Nowhere e, quasi in contemporanea e sempre per la Sunnyside Records, la sua personale rilettura dei classici ...

Big in Japan, Part 3: Satoko Fujii’s Year of Living Dangerously

By KARL ACKERMANN

In the first two parts of this series we looked at the origins of jazz in Japan and its adherence to the American style of composing, arranging and playing. Though jazz has been popular in Japan from the earliest days, it was--as in the United States--hardly met with unanimous approval in a country that prized classical ...

2018: The Year in Jazz

By KEN FRANCKLING

The year 2018 was a busy one for the jazz world. The genre's version of the #MeToo movement resulted in a new Code of Conduct and other efforts to make the music workplace more equitable. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage to St. Petersburg, Russia. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which ran a high-profile ...