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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 (...

(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 has performed with Junko Onishi, Fumio Karashima, Motohiko Hino, and others....

(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).

Australian contemporary improvisation quintet. Its members were Elliott Dalgleish (reed instruments), John Rodgers (violin), Adrian Sherriff (bass trombone, flute, and south Indian percussion), Jon Dimond (six-string electric bass guitar, trombone, and various percussion instruments), and Ken Edie (drums). It was formed by Dalgleish in 1989 and performed at the Pinnacles Festival in Brisbane that year. Between 1991 and 1992 the ensemble invited established musicians from other parts of Australia (including Roger Frampton and Roger Dean) to play with them in Brisbane, where they were based, and in the latter year it made an eponymous recording, Artisans Workshop (Tall Poppies 028). After receiving government funding, it embarked on national tours in 1993 and 1994, performing at universities, art galleries, and clubs. In 1996 the quintet appeared in Bombay, India, and at the New Music Tasmania Festival at the University of Tasmania. Artisans Workshop was a collaborative group with a broad philosophical position on contemporary music whose members exhibited remarkable technical virtuosity; their performances usually included completely improvised pieces and their own rythmically elaborate compositions, often involving metrical modulation. (J. Clare [G. Brennan, pseud.]: ...

(b Armavir, Russia, March 15, 1919; d New York, Nov 22, 2017). Record producer and writer of Armenian descent. He grew up in New York, played piano (from 1930), and studied English literature at Yale University (BA 1941); while a student he began to work as a jazz critic for Tempo (1937). Later he was a contributing editor on jazz to Mademoiselle and Pic (1946–8), contributed to Esquire’s 1947 Jazz Book, and, with W.E. Schaap, revised and enlarged Charles Delaunay’s Hot Discography for its first American edition (1948). He wrote articles for Down Beat and Metronome and provided numerous liner notes for jazz albums. Avakian produced the pioneering documentary jazz album Chicago Jazz (1939–40) for Decca, and in early 1940 began to work for Columbia, where he established a series of jazz reissues. After four years of military service he returned to Columbia as a full-time record producer for jazz and popular music; he was director of the international department and later head of the popular album department. In ...

Record label formed in Japan in 1992 as a subsidiary of Disk Union, with John Zorn as its sole executive producer. Its initial issues were recordings of Zorn’s group Naked City, whose repertory went beyond the stylistic bounds of Nonesuch (the company to which he was otherwise contracted at that time). Avant has issued more than 70 recordings in various genres, especially free improvisation, avant-garde rock, and ethnic music. Representative jazz artists, or artists associated with jazz, include Derek Bailey, notably in a duo with the pipa (Chinese lute) player Min Xiao-Fen and in a trio with Zorn and William Parker; Wayne Horvitz’s group Pigpen, Joey Baron’s Barondown, and Bobby Previte’s Slay the Suitors; the duo of Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier; and Anthony Coleman, George Lewis (ii), Erik Friedlander, Dave Douglas, Joe Maneri, Misha Mengelberg, Duck Baker, Steve Beresford, and the percussionist Cyro Baptista. Avant has continued to make and issue recordings into the new century. (<...

(b Osaka, Japan, Sept 10, 1957). Japanese singer. She learned piano from the age of three, studied singing when she was 17, and in her youth undertook some work as a piano accompanist. After graduating from high school she lived alternately in Kobe, Japan, and Los Angeles. She then went to New York, where she sang from 1986 to 1991 as a member of the gospel choir of the Tabernacle Church in Harlem. In 1991 she returned to Japan and performed with the trio led by the pianist Hiroshi Minami in 1992 and Mikio Masuda’s trio in 1998. Among her recordings is an album (1996) on which she was accompanied by a quartet comprising the guitarist Satoshi Inoue, Junior Mance, Calvin Hill, and Akira Tana. Ayado was employed as a dietician until 1998 and then decided to work exclusively as a professional musician. Since then she has become one of the most successful jazz singers in Japan. She teaches gospel-style choirs in several Japanese cities and also plays piano and organ....

(b Palestine, TX, Jan 21, 1902; d Fort Worth, May 2, 1984). American singer and bandleader. He led his own band in Dallas (c1925) and toured Texas, then briefly led the Wolverines. In 1928 he worked as a banjoist in New York, but from 1929 he specialized as a singer. He made a large number of recordings as a leader (1929–31, 1934), as well as with such musicians as the Dorsey Brothers (1928–9), Irving Mills, the Goofus Five, and Ben Pollack (all 1929), the California Ramblers, Joe Venuti, and Frankie Trumbauer (all 1929–30), the violinist Ben Selvin (1929–31), Duke Ellington (1930, notably Nine Little Miles from Ten-Ten-Tennessee, Vic. 22586), and Red Nichols and Benny Goodman (both 1931). During the early 1930s his band held many residencies in New York, and Ballew also led an all-star group which included Bunny Berigan and Glenn Miller. Later he appeared in many films....

[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 (...

(Marie Wolffe )

(b Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka], June 1, 1940). Sri Lankan singer. She studied piano and cello as a child, and first heard jazz in broadcasts on Voice of America. She won a trip to Australia to sing with Graeme Bell in 1954, presented her own radio program in Ceylon, and toured Japan, Korea, and India with Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1955. The following year she moved to London, where she acted with the BBC Repertory Company and sang at jazz clubs. In 1959 she performed frequently at the Blue Note in Paris. She met Jon Hendricks and Dave Lambert in London in 1962 and moved to New York to join their vocal group as a replacement for Annie Ross, who had left because of illness; Bavan performed and recorded with the group until it disbanded in 1964, and may be seen with it in the documentary film Newport Jazz Festival 1962...

(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 ...

[Alexander ]

(b Izatnagar, nr Bareilly, India, Feb 25, 1929; d London, March 15, 1975). Scottish clarinetist and bandleader. The son of a Scottish railway engineer, he returned with his family from India to Edinburgh in the early 1930s. He was self-taught, and from 1946 led his own band in Scotland, playing traditional jazz and swing. In autumn 1954 he moved to London, where he played occasionally with Humphrey Lyttelton, Ken Colyer, and Chris Barber. He formed his own band, which included Al Fairweather, who took over its leadership in 1957; the two men served as co-leaders from autumn 1958 to autumn 1966, when Fairweather joined Acker Bilk and Brown assumed sole leadership. A Fairweather–Brown reunion band performed in 1975. Brown recorded frequently as a leader (1949–73) as well as under the name of his trumpeter Fairweather (1955–6, 1959–62), and with Sammy Price (1969), Brian Lemon (...

(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 (...