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Toshiko Akiyoshi
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Toshiko Akiyoshi was born in 1929 in Manchuria, where her Japanese family lived. After the war the family returned to Japan. She played piano in dance clubs for American soldiers and learned bebop from records by Bud Powell. When the pianist Oscar Peterson heard her in Tokyo, the producer Norman Granz had her make a record in 1953. In 1956 she went to Berklee in Boston as the first Japanese student. With her husband, the saxophonist Lew Tabackin, she started a big band in Los Angeles in 1973. For it she wrote pieces with Japanese elements, such as Kogun (1974), in which drums and voices from Noh theatre can be heard.
Listening
What Is This Thing Called Love? · Toshiko Akiyoshi, 1953
Long Yellow Road · Toshiko Mariano Quartet, 1960
Kogun · Toshiko Akiyoshi–Lew Tabackin Big Band, 1974
Discography
Studio albums
- 1954Toshiko’s Piano
- 1956Her Trio Her Quartet
- 1963The Country & Western Sound of Jazz Pianos
- 1974Toshiko Meets Her Old Pals
- 1978Finesse
- 1980Notorious Tourist From The East
- 1992Interlude
- 1992Remembering Bud: Cleopatra's Dream
- 1993Dig
- 1994Desert Lady / Fantasy
- 1994Night and Dream
- 1996In Japan
- 1997With Brazilian Friends - "Yes, I Have No 4Beat Today"
- 1999Sketches of Japan
- 1999The Many Sides of Toshiko
- 1999Toshiko Plays Toshiko
- 2006Hope
- 2006Toshiko Mariano Quartet
- 2007Let Freedom Swing
- 2010Classic Encounters
- 2010Toshiko & Modern Jazz
- 2016Jazz Conversations (The Other Side of Monday Michiru)
- 2016Porgy and Bess
- 2021Early Numbers
- 2023Toshiko’s Blues · Quartet & Trios 1953–1958
- ?farewell
Other work
- 1974Kogun · Akiyoshi-Tabackin Big Band
- 1975Long Yellow Road · Akiyoshi-Tabackin Big Band
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Jazz MapNL Map
- After Hours: Session 3NL Reader
- After Hours: Session 4NL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Japanese jazz Genre
The pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi left for Berklee in Boston in 1956; the saxophonist Sadao Watanabe followed in 1962 and brought bossa nova and new theory back with him on his return.