Toshiko Akiyoshi

Born in Dairen, Manchuria, Toshiko Akiyoshi (born 1929) moved with her family to Japan in 1946. By the end of the decade she was playing the piano professionally and was leading her own group from 1951. During a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan in 1952, Oscar Peterson heard the Bud Powell-influenced Akiyoshi and encouraged JATP impresario, Norman Granz, to record her on his Verve label. In 1956, she moved to Boston to study at Berklee.

She married saxophonist Charlie Mariano in 1959 and formed a quartet with him, the Toshiko-Mariano Quartet, splitting their time between USA and Japan. She worked with Charles Mingus in 1962, including his famous Town Hall concert. In Japan, she had the first opportunity to compose and lead a big band, recording in 1965 with an almost entirely Japanese personnel, but with Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers rounding out the rhythym section. In the early 1970s, Akiyoshi formed a new band with her second husband, saxophonist and flautist Lew Tabackin. Living in Los Angeles for much of the decade, they also launched the big band, which became the multiple Grammy-winning Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra.

The jazz orchestra became Akiyoshi’s main vehicle for her distinctive compositions, until she retired it in 2003. She still performs in trio settings, or with Tabackin. In 2007, she was named an NEA Jazz Master, American jazz’s highest honour.

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