Akiyoshi, Toshiko (EN)

Akiyoshi Toshiko, *12 December 1929 Dairen (Manchuria), American pianist, composer, and bandleader. Initially, she studied classical music but became interested in jazz after coming to Japan in 1947. Encouraged by jazz musicians who gave concerts there (including O. Peterson), she moved to the United States, where in 1956–59, she studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, she performed, among others, with C. Mariano and C. Mingus. In 1973, together with saxophonist L. Tabackin, she formed a big band, which was considered one of the best large-orchestral jazz formations of the 1970s and the mid-1980s. After the group disbanded (1985), Akiyoshi founded a new band called Toshiko Akiyoshi New York Jazz Orchestra. During this time, she also played with smaller bands. In 1979, together with her orchestra and L. Tabackin, she performed in Poland during the Jazz Jamboree. The documentary film Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Is My Native Language is devoted to Akiyoshi’s artistic activities (1984).

Akiyoshi is considered one of the most important figures in the history of modern big-band music. In her compositions and arrangements, she refers to the concepts of G. Evans and the style of M. Lewis/Thad Jones Orchestra, which she enriches with elements of free jazz and Japanese music. As a pianist, she comes from the bop tradition of B. Powell.