Booked for Japan - 2012/11/24 - Toshiko Akiyoshi

Nov. 24, Sat.
Toshiko Akiyoshi: Music that lets you love yourself

Guest: Toshiko Akiyoshi
Presenter: Robert Campbell

Just after the end of the Second World War, Toshiko Akiyoshi, then 16 years old, noticed a wanted ad asking for jazz pianists. This was to be the beginning of a long and successful career. Akiyoshi soon moved to Tokyo, and found work playing in clubs, dance halls, and military camps. Her encounters with famous American jazz pianists prompted her to move to Boston, and, at age 26, to enroll at Berklee College of Music. After graduating from Berklee, she continued to live in the US, working as a pianist and composer. She experienced the joy of marriage and childbirth, but also the pain of divorce. And as an Asian woman, she also had to face being stereotyped. However, over the course of her career, Akiyoshi has amassed 15 Grammy nominations.

"What's the point of improvisation that is just a copy of someone else's improvisation?" It was this question that spurred Akiyoshi to be more than simply a Japanese female jazz pianist, a novelty act. She was driven to express herself through music in a way that only she could. Inspired by the Japanese soldiers discovered in the Philippines almost 30 years after WWII had ended, she wrote and recorded the album Kogun. She would go on to write other works about the Japanese people and their history, including Minamata, a jazz suite about the tragedies of environmental pollution.

Robert Campbell speaks with Toshiko Akiyoshi about what jazz has taught her, what she wants to express through her work, and what her goals are going forward.

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