Music HERstory: Toshiko Akiyoshi (b. 1929)

Toshiko Akiyoshi (b. 1929)

Biography and Compositions

Composer Toshiko Akiyoshi was born in 1929. She studied in Japan and at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After performing in symphony orchestras as a piano soloist, Toshiko made his way to the jazz field and found great success there. In 1959 she married Charles Mariano, saxophonist, with whom she had her daughter Michiru, and formed the Toshiko-Mariano Quartet. Divorced, she formed with her second husband the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band. Always highly praised, she has performed as a jazz player since 1952. She played with Charles Mingus, composed a soundtrack for the Swedish film The Platform 1964 and in the same year participated in the World Jazz Festival, performing the 5/4 beat on the piano. She had her merit recognized in 1984, for example, by winning the Ten Women of the Year (unidentified date) and the Down Beat Award as arranger and songwriter for Big Band4. She came to Brazil that same year.

In the course of her life, the pianist and composer stood out, indirectly but very strongly, as an activist. Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band's first vinyl was Kogun, first released in Japan and then in the United States. It is dedicated to the Japanese soldier found on a Pacific Island hidden in the jungles after the end of World War II. This LP has as its title track Kogun, which means 'one who fights alone', as Luiz Orlando Carneiro explains in his book They Also Play Jazz. Kogun's track mixes archaic Japanese sounds with jazzy sounds. This soldier - character in the movie, in absolute solitude, stood ready to continue fighting. Here the composer recalls the faithfulness of the Japanese people to their homeland and the Emperor, not accepting the end result of World War II

In 1999, Buddhist monk Kyudo Nakagawa asked her to write a play about Hiroshima. For her to get a closer look at what was happening, he sent her pictures of the post-bomb launch. She was horrified. And she kept that state of sheer terror until she saw a young woman coming out of an underground shelter with a smile in a photo. She then understood what that smile meant to the young woman in 1945, and to her, 54 years later: a message of hope. And so came Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss. The song premiered in Hiroshima on August 6, 2001, the 56th anniversary of the bombing of the Japanese city, which marked the end of World War II. The album Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss was released in 2002.

The Minamata Suite, which lasts 21 '37 ”, is recorded in the LP Insights from 1976. This work reminds us - and does not let us forget - of the environmental disaster that occurred in a small fishing village in Japan in 1953. Due to the release of mercury in the sea, since the founding of the Minamata factory in the 1930s, fish have become poisoned and transmitted this poisoning to the people and animals that ate them. The Minamata Suite has three parts: Peaceful Village, Prosperity & Consequence, Epilogue. The play begins with a vocalise by Michiru Mariano, the composer's daughter. After the brilliance of the Big Band wind, the Suzumi, ritual drums of Japan, are integrated with vocal effects by Noo artist Hisao Kanze. The artist's voice adds to the series of chords produced by the orchestra and completes the suite with intense drama.

In December this year, 2019, Toshiko Akiyoshi will be ninety years old.

To know her work:

Among the various composer dictionaries that emerged from the 1980s, two included the name of this pianist and composer: International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, by South African Aaron Cohen (1981), and Mulheres Compositoras Elenco e Repertorio (Women Composers - Cast and Repertory), written by me in 1987. The profile of the two books is somewhat similar in that both go beyond the scholarly and didactic field, which are the only ones among other books, and inform about composers of other musical genres. In this case, the jazz.

Toshiko Akiyoshi - The Village. Available at: https://youtu.be/X0t8WSu6Tcc.
Toshiko Akiyoshi - Long Yellow Road (Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio). Available at: https://youtu.be/HtQqhyqsS-g.
Toshiko Akiyoshi - Happy Hoofer (Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin Live in Tokyo 1984). Available at: https://youtu.be/LhYRbPtAbMI.
Toshiko Akiyoshi - After Mr. Teng (Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra). Available at: https://youtu.be/mS8MA1HWBYQ.

More information:

More information about activist pianist, arranger and songwriter Toshiko Akiyoshi, her career, discography and awards can be found at https://wikipedia.org/wiki/ToshikoAkiyoshi.
As for the environmental disaster, look for minamata - name of the place itself, or dancing cat disease (animals with mercury neurological disorders), and minamata disease.

Leia aqui em português