Motohiko Hino

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Motohiko Hino (1946 to 1999), nicknamed Toko, was a Japanese jazz drummer, born in Tokyo. His father was a dancer and musician and taught him and his brother Terumasa, the later cornetist, to tap dance as children. He began drumming at the age of ten and from 1963 worked professionally, including with Hiroshi Watanabe and the Tokyo Union Orchestra.

Music and breakthrough

In the 1970s he often played with his brother. He performed with his quintet at JazzFest Berlin in 1971 and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1973. In 1971 he accompanied the singer Helen Merrill in the Gary Peacock Trio. When Terumasa left for the United States in 1975, he led trios of his own. The magazine Swing Journal repeatedly voted him Japan's best jazz drummer in the mid-1970s. His first record under his own name, First Album, appeared in 1971.

Influence

In 1978 he moved to New York. There he played with, among others, Joe Henderson, in 1979 in Hugh Masekela's band and from 1980 in JoAnne Brackeen's trio. He also worked with Sonny Rollins, John Scofield and Jean-Luc Ponty. In the 1990s two more records appeared under his own name, Sailing Stone and It's There. His drumming style was influenced by Tony Williams and Elvin Jones. He died in 1999 of cancer. His career shows how Japanese jazz passed on into the international circuit in the 1970s.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1971First Album
• 1977フラッシュ
• 1981Foo Fou Fool
• 1992Sailing Stone
• 1993It's There