Tokyo Jazz Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary with an ensemble of top-notch musicians
Tokyo Jazz Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year and its lineup is a healthy mix of up-and-coming artists and giants of the genre. Among the heavy hitters will be pianists Makoto Ozone, Herbie Hancock and Hiromi Uehara. Ozone will front a big band ...
Kansai jazz act Golden Senior Trio sets Guinness record as the world's oldest
After more than 60 years of passion for jazz music, a Japanese jazz trio has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the band with the world's oldest average age — 83 years. The group, Golden Senior Trio, is based in the Kansai region. Its ...
Emi Meyer ups her standards on jazzy new album 'Monochrome'
Singer-songwriter Emi Meyer says she's never been one for covers — though she admits a one-off performance of Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" went over really well with a South Korean audience recently. Her latest album, "Monochrome," isn't a covers album per se, but ...
Jazz pioneer Bob James' Japan-inspired concerto to premiere at the Tokyo Jazz Festival
Smooth jazz pioneer and inadvertent godfather of hip-hop break-beats, Bob James is about to add another accolade to his list of accomplishments. At this weekend's 14th Tokyo Jazz Festival, the keyboardist will debut his first piano concerto. While James has worn many hats in the ...
Defying death and all that jazz: Shunzo Ohno's story
Shunzo Ohno, trumpet at his side, buzzes his lips as he loosens up for the next song — his vibrating mouth a thing of marvel, given all he has been through. To look at him on stage, a laid-back musician in an orange blazer and ...
Ornette Coleman, a self-taught alto saxophone player who polarized the jazz world with his unconventional "free jazz" before coming to be regarded as an avant garde genius, died on Thursday morning in New York at the age of 85, according to his publicist. Ken Weinstein ...
Tokyo jazz landmark Pit Inn celebrates 50 years
Tokyo is a jazz lover's paradise — only New York can claim to have as many clubs and live houses to choose from. Though, the high-end clubs that pull in the big acts can cost a fortune, populated with patrons who are more interested ...
Makoto Ozone set to step out with his other family
During his years in New York, pianist Makoto Ozone fronted a number of small combos and gigged with such heavyweights as Branford Marsalis, Gary Burton and Christian McBride. But the collaborators he has come back to time and time again are his Japan-based big ...
Jazz trumpeter Toshinori Kondo issues a challenge to modern-day musicians
On a chilly Friday afternoon in December, trumpet player Toshinori Kondo reclines in the clutter of his Kawasaki recording studio, pours out two cups of shōchū liquor, and starts to explain what prompted him to abandon a lucrative career in Japan and move to ...
Robot jazz singer serenades audience in Tokyo
Who says you need soul to sing jazz? A humanoid robot vocalist was the centerpiece of an ensemble serenading onlookers at the Marunouchi Building near Tokyo Station on Wednesday. Viewed from a distance, the band looked like a regular quartet. Up close, the alluring female singer ...
Vibraphonist Locke to hit all the right notes
The vibraphone is one of the more unique instruments to infiltrate jazz. A holy mash-up of the piano and the percussive, it's the duck-billed platypus of musical instrumentation. In terms of cool, it's unfairly lodged somewhere between the tuba and the clarinet. Its old-school ...
Tokyo Jazz Festival impresses again
Sitting in a muddy field is taken as par for the course, and possibly even part of the attraction, at major summer festivals like Fuji Rock. But rain would certainly have put a damper on any jazz festival set in the heart of the ...
