Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese jazz composer/arranger, bandleader and pianist.
She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best Arranger and Composer awards in Down Beat magazine's Readers Poll. In 1984, she was the subject of a documentary film titled Jazz Is My Native Language. In 1996, she published her autobiography, Life with Jazz and in 2007 she was named an NEA Jazz Master by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.
Akiyoshi was born in Liaoyang, Manchuria to Japanese emigrants. She was the youngest of four sisters. In 1945, after World War II, Akiyoshi's family lost their home and returned to Japan, settling in Beppu. A local record collector introduced Akiyoshi to jazz by playing a record of Teddy Wilson playing "Sweet Lorraine." Akiyoshi immediately loved the sound, and began to study jazz. In 1952, during a tour of Japan, pianist Oscar Peterson discovered Akiyoshi playing in a club on the Ginza. Peterson was impressed, and convinced record producer Norman Granz to record Akiyoshi. In 1953, under Granz's direction, Akiyoshi recorded her first album with Peterson's rhythm section: Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on double bass, and J. C. Heard on drums. The album was released as Toshiko's Piano in the U.S. and as Amazing Toshiko Akiyoshi in Japan.
Akiyoshi studied jazz in Boston at the Berklee School of Music. In 1955, Akiyoshi wrote a letter to Lawrence Berk asking him to give her a chance to study at his school. After a year of wrangling with the State Department and Japanese officials, Berk secured permission for Akiyoshi to enroll. He offered her a full scholarship, and he mailed her a plane ticket to Boston. In January 1956, Akiyoshi enrolled to become the first Japanese student at Berklee. Soon after, she appeared as a contestant on the 18 March 1956 broadcast of the CBS television panel show What's My Line?. In 1998, Akiyoshi was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.
Lewis Barry Tabackin (born March 26, 1940) is a jazz flutist and tenor saxophonist. He is married to pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, with whom he has co-led large ensembles since the 1970s.
Critic Scott Yannow describes Tabackin as "one of the few jazz musicians who has been able to develop completely different musical personalities on two instruments", with his forceful hard bop style on sax contrasting with his delicate flute playing.
Tabackin first took up the flute at the age of 12, followed by the tenor saxophone at age 15. He has citied Al Cohn and Coleman Hawkins as influences on his sax playing, while his flute role models include classical players such as William Kincaid, Julius Baker, and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Tabackin studied flute at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and also studied music with composer Vincent Persichetti. In 1962 he graduated from the Conservatory and, after a stint with the U.S. Army, worked with Tal Farlow. He also worked with Chuck Israels in New York City, and a combo that included Elvin Jones, Donald Byrd, and Roland Hanna. Later he would have a chair in The Dick Cavett Show's band and The Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen. Tabackin moved from New York to California when The Tonight Show relocated in 1972. During this time he played with Shelly Manne and Billy Higgins, among others.
Tabackin met Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1967 while he was playing in Clark Terry's band and she was invited to sit in for Don Friedman. They formed a quartet in the late 1960s, married in 1969, and in 1973 co-founded the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles, which later became the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin, playing bebop in Duke Ellington-influenced arrangements and compositions by Akiyoshi. Tabackin was principal soloist for the big band/orchestra from 1973 through 2003.
Lew Tabackin was interviewed by Linus Wyrsch on "The Jazz Hole" for breakthruradio.com in July 2011 - Lew Tabackin Interview by breakthruradio.com
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日本、〒110-8716 東京都台東区上野公園５−４５ Map
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