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(b Kawasaki, Japan, May 3, 1949; d Sept 9, 1978). Japanese alto saxophonist. Self-taught, he played alto saxophone and reportedly had developed a distinctive style by the age of 20. He made his first recording in a duo with Masayuki Takayanagi in 1970, and during the 1970s he performed with Motoharu Yoshizawa, the avant-garde composer and violinist Takehisa Kosugi, Yosuke Yamashita, Derek Bailey, Milford Graves, and others; he also appeared frequently as an unaccompanied soloist, and made the majority of his recordings in this context. One of the legendary masters of Japanese free jazz of the 1970s, Abe also played bass clarinet, sopranino saxophone, harmonica, and other wind instruments.

(b Beirut, Aug 17, 1957). Lebanese ’ūd player and leader. He was classically trained on ’ūd and flute, and continued to study flute when he moved to Munich at the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in the late 1970s. He made two albums as a flute player, one in a duo with the pianist Michael Armann (1981), but neither attracted much attention, so Abou-Khalil resumed playing the ’ūd. In 1986 he recorded as the leader of a seven-piece group which included Charlie Mariano, Glen Moore, and the percussionist Glen Velez, all of whom have taken part in his later recordings. Among his other guests have been Kenny Wheeler and Steve Swallow, and Sonny Fortune toured and recorded as a soloist with him in 1988 and 1990. In the 1990s he led a group with the harmonica player Howard Levy, Michel Godard, Mark Nauseef, and the Syrian percussionist Nabil Khaiat; its combination of ...

[Rama IX Bhumibol; Phoemipol Aduldej]

(b Cambridge, MA, Dec 5, 1927; d Bangkok, Oct 13, 2016). Thai clarinetist and reed player. He was brought up in the USA and in Switzerland, where he learned to play clarinet; he later mastered the whole family of reed instruments, favoring soprano saxophone. Although he was interested in early jazz he was influenced predominantly by Benny Goodman, and participated in jam sessions with Goodman and other jazz musicians who visited Thailand, notably Jack Teagarden and Lionel Hampton. He occasionally played with his court orchestra in a swing style of the 1940s that was modified by the strong influence of traditional Thai music, but, on account of his official status as the king of Thailand, no recordings by him have been authorized for distribution. (H. Esman and V. Bronsgeest: “Een jazz king: Koning Phoemipol,” ...

(b Sendai, Japan, March 16, 1953). Japanese pianist and keyboard player. He grew up in Cleveland and studied piano, theory, and music history at the Cleveland Music School Settlement (1959–65). In his early teens he returned to Japan, where he read philosophy and composition at the International Christian University in Tokyo (1971–5); he then began, but did not complete, a doctorate in philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Apart from leading his own small groups, Akagi played with, among others, Art Pepper (1975), Blue Mitchell (1975), Eddie Harris (1976), Airto Moreira and Flora Purim (1979–86), Kazumi Watanabe (mid-1980s), Joe Farrell (1984–5), James Newton (from 1985), Allan Holdsworth and Jean-Luc Ponty (both 1986), Al Di Meola (1986–7), Miles Davis (1989–91), Steve Turre, Robin Eubanks (1990), Stanley Turrentine (from ...

(b Tokyo, Jan 17, 1955). Japanese guitarist. Self-taught, he took up drums at the age of eight and guitar when he was ten. In 1975 he made his professional début with Isao Suzuki’s group Soul Family. He performed with Mikio Masuda, Motohiko Hino, Hiroshi Murakami, Yoshio Suzuki (1985–8), Terumasa Hino (1990–93), and Kosuke Mine (1992–2007), and led the groups Next Page (1978–9) and Itshow (1985–8), as well as a trio. In 2012 he formed two new groups, Zmasa and Trial Trip. He can be seen on video in You Are the One: Quartet – Kazumasa Akiyama – Live (2015) and in a duo with the pianist Takeshi Shibuya in Kazumasa Akiyama & Takeshi Shibuya: Jazz Live at Nica’s (2021).

(b Tokyo, Sept 19, 1957). Japanese double bass player. His father was a film producer and his mother a kabuki dancer. He learned shamisen and taiko and received classical lessons on piano and guitar; later he took up double bass, and by the age of 17 he was performing on this instrument in jazz clubs around Tokyo. In 1976 he left Japan and studied film making at Ohio University and the Art Institute of Chicago (BA 1983, MA 1985). From 1978 he played electric bass guitar in local rock and “no-wave” bands, but he returned to jazz and the acoustic instrument in 1987. As an unaccompanied soloist he has performed regularly, augmenting his own playing with looped recordings of double bass and sounds derived from various objects such as soda bottles and chopsticks. In addition he has led Power Trio, with Paul Kim playing buk (a traditional Korean drum) and Mwata Bowden on saxophone (Kim was occasionally replaced by Afifi Phillard on drums), and Urban Reception, a trio with Francis Wong and the drummer Dave Pavkovic, which recorded in ...

(b Mie, Japan, March 14, 1966). Japanese double bass player. He started on electric bass guitar at the age of 16, changed to double bass two years later, and studied classical music when he was 25. In 1990 he joined the Bop Band, led by the trumpeter Hiroshi Murata. He performed with Junko Onishi, Fumio Karashima, Motohiko Hino, and others, including an appearance on a television broadcast from the German festival Jazzopen Stuttgart, Junko Onishi Trio (1996). He recorded with Tomonao Hara, Masahiko Osaka, Onishi, Nao Takeuchi, Seiji Tada, and Hino in the 1990s, and with his own band from 2000. His quartet can be seen on video in Aramaki Band: Live at Nica’s (2021).

(b Hanoi, Vietnam, April 26, 1950). French trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He discovered jazz at the age of 14 through listening to recordings by Louis Armstrong. In Paris he studied trumpet at the Conservatoire and became active in traditional jazz, most notably in the band Les Haricots Rouges (1969–73) and Michel Attenoux’s sextet, with which he recorded under Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis’s leadership in Antibes and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival New York (both 1975). In 1976 he joined the Anachronic Jazz Band. He recorded several albums with Claude Bolling’s orchestra and played with the Jazz Five (which included Sam Woodyard). As a freelance Artero worked in settings as diverse as Martial Solal’s big band (1983–4) and the classic jazz group Paris-Barcelona (1992–4).

[William ]

(b USA, c1890; d ? USA, after 1933). American alto and tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, and singer. His first known engagements were in China (1920) and Australia. After moving to England in 1925 he played in Bert Ralton’s Savoy Havana Band and recorded with Bert Firman (...

(b Moscow, June 12, 1946). Australian saxophonist of Russian Jewish birth. A jazz musician by the age of 15, he left the USSR in 1972, having played and recorded with many contemporary Soviet musicians. He worked in Israel, and then came to prominence in Australia (where he took citizenship in 1973) through his participation in Free Kata, probably the earliest free-jazz group in the country, mainly with Serge Ermoll (keyboards) and Lou Burdett (drums). The high energy of this group is well represented on their recordings, which include examples of their collaborations with the writer John Clare, who performed and to some degree improvised texts with and against the music. Bronson next went to the USA, where he played and studied with Bob Berg, Steve Grossman, Dave Liebman, Elvin Jones, and others. Back in Australia he worked with most of the country’s leading improvisers. Encounters at Moriah College (a center for rabbinical studies) led to his influencing a younger generation of sound improvisers, notably Oren Ambarchi, Max Lyandvert (piano), and Rob Avenaim (percussion, electronics, and sampling), with whom he performed in the group Ear Rational Music. Later he played with Misha Mengelberg. While Bronson is active mainly in ensembles that involve free improvisation, he sometimes plays in more formal groups; he is featured in the film ...

(Law )

(b Osaka, Japan, Sept 11, 1955; d New York, July 25, 2008). American electric guitarist. He studied classical piano at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and informally took up saxophone and then electric bass guitar before settling on guitar at the age of 16. While attending pre-law classes at the University of Miami he received lessons from Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius. In 1975 work with the singer Phyllis Hyman took him to New York; there he met David Sanborn, in whose band he was noted for his amusing stage antics, which included lying on the floor and playing the guitar with one hand via the use of high volume and ligado technique. From 1979 to January 1981 he toured and recorded in Japan in the 24th Street Band, including Will Lee and Steve Jordan (ii); the group re-formed from 1982 to c1984. From 1981 Bullock played and recorded with Gil Evans, and during the 1980s he was also regularly on television on “The David Letterman Show” and “Night Music” (hosted by Sanborn); he may be seen in the video ...

(b Antioch, Syria [now Antakya, Turkey], Aug 17, 1933; d Paris, Dec 12, 2018). French trombonist. He made his début with Maxim Saury (1956–66), whose group accompanied Sidney Bechet, Jimmy Rushing, and Stuff Smith. He also played with Raymond Fonsèque’s group T4 (1960–62) and the pianist Jacques Denjean (1962). As a member of François Guin’s Four Bones he accompanied Paul Gonsalves (1969) and Roy Eldridge (1970). His versatility brought work with the soprano saxphonist Marc Laferrière, Irakli (1969), Dany Doriz (1970), the trumpeter Sonny Grey (1970, 1981), Claude Luter (1971), Claude Bolling (1971–92), the trumpeter Ambrose Jackson (1972), Jean-Loup Longnon (1977–8), Cat Anderson (1979), Aimé Barelli, Peggy Lee (1982), and Gérard Badini (1986). From the 1990s into the new century he worked with the Five O’Clock Jazz Group, led by the saxophonist Jacques Benhamou, while also appearing with numerous other ensembles, including the Swing Academy Big Band of the singer Gérard Meissonnier (...

(b Naharia, Israel, April 20, 1970). Israeli double bass player. He played piano from the age of nine and began formal lessons when he was 11. At the age of 14 he moved with his family to St. Louis, where he became interested in jazz, and a year later he took up electric bass guitar after hearing recordings by Jaco Pastorius. In 1986 he and his family returned to Israel, and in Jerusalem he attended a music and arts high school; however, in 1987 he left to pursue a career as a musician. He then played rock in an Israeli army band, and after his military service he took up double bass. In 1992 he moved to New York, where he studied briefly with Andy Gonzalez and worked with Brad Mehldau in a trio alongside Adam Cruz; Jorge Rossy replaced Cruz for a tour of Spain. Cohen was also active as a freelance with, among others, Paquito D’Rivera, Leon Parker, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, and Roy Hargrove, and he often performed at Small’s in a group consisting of Ravi Coltrane, Steve Wilson, the pianist Jason Lindner, and the drummer Jeff Ballard. In ...

(b New York, May 28, 1954). Drummer. He attended Bennington College (BA 1984) and studied there for three semesters with Milford Graves, who introduced him to percussion styles of traditional African and Indian music. After receiving a master’s degree in third-stream music and composition from the New England Conservatory he returned to New York, where he worked with Matthew Shipp (1990–95) and David S. Ware’s quartet (1992–6) and became well known for his aggressive, polyrhythmic playing style. From 1992 to 1993 he performed alongside Rob Brown and Joe Morris (ii) in the cooperative trio Youniverse. In 1997 he began to concentrate on his own compositions; he formed a trio with Brown and the double bass player Chris Lightcap which two years later became a quartet with the addition of Morris. Dickey has served on the board of directors of the Vision Festival from ...

(Konstantinovich )

(b Tashkent, Uzbekistan SSR [now Uzbekistan], Nov 24, 1949). Russian pianist, composer, and leader. He entered the conservatory in Tashkent in 1958 and graduated in 1968. After moving to Novosibirsk (1969) he appeared at the city’s third jazz festival and studied at the conservatory (to 1973). He worked in groups with Sergey Belichenko, among them Jazz Golden Years (1977), alongside the trumpeter Valery Kolesnikov, the trombonist Victor Budarin, Anatoly Vapirov, and the double bass player Ivars Galneiks; Vladimir Tolkachev also played with the group, as did the vibraphonist Igor Uvarov. Dmitriev taught jazz at Novosibirsk Musical College from 1976, and in that same year he organized his own trio, with which he performed at festivals in the USSR. In 1981 he formed a duo with Uvarov, and he also joined the Western Siberian Jazz Quartet. From 1984 he led the jazz quintet at the conservatory in Novosibirsk. In ...

(b Copenhagen, Feb 7, 1969). Danish bass player and leader, brother of Niels Lan Doky. His mother is Danish and his father Vietnamese. He learned classical piano from the age of five and played percussion in the Tivoli Garden Marching Band when he was 14. Two years later he took up electric bass guitar, and at the age of 18 he was inspired by Ron Carter to teach himself double bass. Doky worked as the house bass player at La Fontaine in Copenhagen (1984–6) and then lived in New York (August 1988–1991), where he played with, among others, Joey Calderazzo, Kevin Hays, Ben Perowsky, Bill Stewart, Larry Goldings, and Randy Brecker. In the late 1980s he toured Europe in groups led by Brecker and Bill Evans (iii), and from the same time through the 1990s he and his brother led the Doky Brothers with Tommy Smith, Ulf Wakenius, and Jukka-Pekka Uotila among their sidemen. In addition Doky was a member of Mike Stern’s trio, with which he performed in the USA, Italy, and France, and worked with Bireli Lagrene (...

(b Copenhagen, Oct 3, 1963). Danish pianist and leader, brother of Christian Minh Doky. His mother is Danish and his father Vietnamese. He played classical guitar before taking up piano at the age of 11, and when he was 15 he became a protégé of Thad Jones, who was then living in Denmark. On Jones’s recommendation he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston (1981–4), after which he moved to New York and played with, among others, Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, Charlie Haden, Ray Brown, David Sanborn, and Woody Shaw; he made his first recording as leader in 1985. As a leader or a sideman Doky has worked with Bob Berg, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Evans (iii), Tom Harrell, John Abercrombie, Gary Peacock, Randy Brecker, Al Jarreau, John Scofield, Michael Brecker, and Toots Thielemans. In the late 1980s he and his brother began leading the Doky Brothers, and in the 1990s he was also active as a record producer....

[Roberto T.]

(b Bacolod City, Philippines, May 20, 1943; d Stayton, OR, Aug 6, 1996). Filipino pianist. He was self-taught. Around 1960 he moved to Manila, where he performed in a group co-led by Tony Scott. He then left the Philippines and performed with Tito Puente in Hong Kong in 1961 before settling in Taiwan, where he worked in a house band on a US military installation. From 1964 to 1967 he lived and worked in Okinawa, Japan. In 1967, in Las Vegas, he arranged the music for and conducted the Filipino revue Moses and the Hi-Brows, then from 1968 to 1970 he was in Hawaii as music director for the singer Don Ho. After a further spell in Las Vegas he moved to San Francisco, where he led a trio at the Mikayo Hotel (1973–5), and back to Hawaii to lead a quartet and perform as an unaccompanied soloist at the Moana Hotel (...

[Ermolaeff, Serge Sergeivitch]

(b Shanghai, China, Aug 16, 1943; d Sydney, Australia, Oct 6, 2010). Australian pianist and composer. The birth name given here appears as published in his Sydney Morning Herald obituary. He studied piano before moving to Australia around 1951, and then also learned trumpet; he took Australian citizenship in the mid-1950s. By the age of 17 he was concentrating on piano. From 1963 to 1969 he led a trio at El Rocco in Sydney, except for periods during the years 1964–6, when he was in London. He returned there between 1970 and 1974 and worked at Ronnie Scott’s club and many other venues. In Australia again he formed Free Kata, probably the first Australian free-improvisation group, mainly with Eddie Bronson (saxophone) and Lou Burdett (drums). While continuing to play as an unaccompanied soloist and in small free-improvising groups he recorded in conventional settings with such visitors to Australia as Anita O’Day, Art Pepper, Sonny Stitt, Herb Ellis, Richie Cole, and Ray Brown. Ermoll was influenced by karate and associated philosophies, as is superficially visible in his often aggressive, even violent approach to the keyboard; this connection also manifested itself in deeper, but intangible ways....

[Ahmed Muvaffak ]

(b Izmir, Turkey, Aug 30, 1930). Turkish trumpeter. He grew up in a musical family and first played jazz at clubs and parties while attending the conservatory of music in Ankara (1947–54). Having been discovered by Dizzy Gillespie when he played a welcoming salute when the famous trumpeter arrived at Ankara airport in 1956, Falay lived in Germany (1956–9) and then moved to Sweden, where he performed and recorded with Nils Lindberg; he also played and in 1960 recorded with Harry Arnold, the singer Boris Lindquist, and Arne Domnérus. With Quincy Jones he recorded (1961), performed at the Swedish Jazz Festival (1963), and collaborated on film music. He recorded in Germany with the Clarke–Boland Big Band (1961, 1963) and Kurt Edelhagen (1964), and later made recordings, principally in Stockholm, with Bernt Rosengren (1969, 1971, 1973...