Kobayashi, Yoichi
[Monky
]
- Kazunori Sugiyama
Extract
[Monky ]
(b Akita, Japan, Nov 21, 1953). Japanese drummer and leader. He took up drums at the age of 15 and, before moving to the USA, performed with the trio led by the pianist Kunihiko Sugano, the band led by the vibraphonist and pianist Takashi Oi, and others. In New York he played on the streets, and in 1984 he made his first recording under his own name, leading a hard-bop group whose members included C. Sharpe, Junior Cook, Benny Green, and Lonnie Plaxico. From the early 1990s he worked in both Japan and the USA and established two groups named the Good Fellas. The American version of Good Fellas involved Vincent Herring, Dave Kikoski, and Ira Coleman; the Japanese version also performed and recorded at the Birdland, New York, in 1997. During the same period Kobayashi appeared as a sideman with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra (1991), the tenor saxophonist Seiichi Nakamura (...
