Tuning up toshiko akiyoshi biography

Pianist, bandleader, and composer-arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of big band jazz.!

Born and raised in Manchuria, Toshiko started piano lessons at age six.

I was born in Manchuria, as it was called, where my father was a businessman.

Pianist, bandleader, and composer-arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of big band jazz.

Toshiko Akiyoshi is not only one of jazz's finest pianists, but also one of jazz's greatest living big band composers.

Since , when she first appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, Toshiko Akiyoshi has been a significant force in the jazz world, both as pianist and.

Born on December 18, 1929, in Dairen, Manchuria, China; daughter of Tatsuro and Shigeko (Hiraike) Akiyoshi; married Charlie Mariano (a saxophonist), 1959; divorced; married Lewis Tabackin (a saxophonist and flutist), 1969; children: Michiru Mariano.

Education: Graduated from Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA, 1959. Addresses: Record company--Columbia Records, 550 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022, (212) 833-8000.

Manchurian-born Japanese pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, as an Asian woman pursuing jazz in America, battled many prejudices and stereotypes at the onset of her career.

Indeed, upon her arrival in the United States in 1956, she generated more attention for her appearance than for her musicianship. "I got a lot of press.

History interview with composer, pianist, arranger, bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi, at her home in Manhattan, New York.

You know why? Because I was an oddity," she recalled to Zan Stewart in the Los Angeles Times. "In those days, a Japanese woman playing like [jazz pianist] Bud Powell was something very new. So all the press, the attention, wasn't because I was authent