Ryo Kawasaki

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Ryo Kawasaki
川崎 燎
software programmer
Instrument(s)
  • Guitar
  • keyboards
Years active1967–2020
WebsiteRyoKawasaki.com

Ryo Kawasaki (川崎 燎, Kawasaki Ryō, February 25, 1947 – April 13, 2020) was a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer and band leader, best known as one of the first musicians to develop and popularise the fusion genre and for helping to develop the guitar synthesizer in collaboration with Roland Corporation and Korg. His album Ryo Kawasaki and the Golden Dragon Live was one of the first all-digital recordings and he created the Kawasaki Synthesizer for the Commodore 64. During the 1960s, he played with various Japanese jazz groups and also formed his own bands. In the early 1970s, he moved to New York City, where he settled and worked with Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Chico Hamilton, Ted Curson, Joanne Brackeen amongst others. In the mid-1980s, Kawasaki drifted out of performing music in favour of writing music software for computers. He also produced several techno dance singles, formed his own record company called Satellites Records, and later returned to jazz-fusion in 1991.

Life

Early life (1947–1968)

Ryo Kawasaki was born on February 25, 1947, in

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1919. Torao worked at several Japanese consulates and embassies, including San Francisco, Honolulu, Fengtian (then capital of Manchuria, now Shenyang in China), Shanghai, and Beijing while active as an English teacher and translator for official diplomatic conferences. Ryo's mother, Hiroko, was also multilingual, and spoke German, Russian, English, and Chinese aside from her native tongue Japanese. Hiroko grew up in Manchuria and then met Torao in Shanghai
. Torao was already 58 years old when Ryo was born as an only child.

Kawasaki's mother encouraged him to take piano and ballet lessons, and he took voice lessons and

solfege at age four and violin lessons at five, and he was reading music before elementary school. As a grade scholar, he began a lifelong fascination with astronomy and electronics (he built his own radios, TVs and audio systems including amplifiers and speakers as well as telescopes). When Ryo was 10, he bought a ukulele and, at 14, he got his first acoustic guitar. The album Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell and Stanley Turrentine
inspired Ryo to study jazz.

In high school, he began hanging out at coffee-houses that featured live music, formed a jazz ensemble and built an

TBS Music, where he learned mixing
and editing.

Early career in Japan (1969–1973)

He recorded his first solo album for

B.B. King at a blues festival and also met George Benson
(they jammed for five hours at Kawasaki's house).

He also has recorded and worked with notable Japanese jazz musicians such as drummer Takeshi Inomata and Sound limits, saxophonist Jiro Inagaki and Soul Mates, saxophonist Keiichiro Ebisawa, saxophonist Seiichi Nakamura, pianist Masahiko Sato (佐藤允彦), saxophonist Hidehiko Matsumoto (松本英彦) and many others.

Developments in New York City (1973–2002)

1973–1979 (as guitarist)

Ryo Kawasaki with Gil Evans at Sweet Basil in New York City, 1982
David Williams, Elvin Jones and Kawasaki in Rochester, N.Y. 1976

In 1973, Kawasaki arrived in New York. A friend picked him up at the airport and offered him an immediate gig with Joe Lee Wilson playing at the Lincoln Center as part of the Newport Jazz Festival. Soon Kawasaki was jamming regularly as part of the jazz community's "loft scene", and was invited to play with Bobbi Humphrey. A few months later, Kawasaki walked up to his apartment and found a stranger waiting for him at his front door. It was Gil Evans and he invited Kawasaki to join The Gil Evans Orchestra (David Sanborn, Howard Johnson, Tom Malone, Lew Soloff) which was then working on a jazz recording of Jimi Hendrix compositions, The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had dreamed up the concept with Evans, but Jimi died a week before the project started in 1970. Kawasaki also played on another Gil Evans album on RCA, There Comes a Time, with Tony Williams on drums. Kawasaki rehearsed for a month with the third edition of Tony Williams' Lifetime with trio format with bassist Doug Rauch working with Carlos Santana at that time, but Tony left to spend a year in Europe before the band got the chance to perform in public.

Kawasaki followed in the footsteps of Jim Hall, Gábor Szabó and Larry Coryell by becoming the guitarist in the Chico Hamilton Band, playing on a U.S. tour and working on various film scores that Chico recorded in Hollywood. Kawasaki made his debut U.S. album, Juice, in 1976 for RCA and was one of the first Japanese jazz artists to sign with a major label in the States. Sidemen on the project included Tom Coster (Carlos Santana) and Sam Morrison (Miles Davis). Kawasaki followed that recording with two more albums, Prism and Eight Mile Road, for the Japanese label East Wind. He also joined the Elvin Jones Band for a year-long tour of North and South America and Europe. By 1978, Kawasaki was tired of touring with other bands and returned to his own projects.

He explored

Nana Vasconcelos, Buddy Williams, Larry Willis, and Alex Blake
. He also recorded an album called Sapporo for the Swiss label America Sound in 1980 while touring Switzerland and Germany.

1979–1990 (as inventor and programmer)

Kawasaki invented his own

Joaquin Rodrigo's well known Concierto de Aranjuez – Adagio
movement. He did another similar recording, Lucky Lady, the next year.

When the

computer programs and devoted 16 hours a day for two years creating four music software programs—Kawasaki Synthesizer, Kawasaki Rhythm Rocker, Kawasaki Magical Musicquill, and Kawasaki MIDI Workstation—distributed by Sight and Sound Music. The first three programs were for school and home use, and the last one was for professional studios. He created an all-synthesized album, Images, in 1987; and the soundtrack, Pleasure Garden, in 1990, for an IMAX
film about the preservation of the Earth's endangered tropical rain forests.

From 1986 to 1990, Kawasaki produced a series of high-charting

koto
master Kicho Takano and produced "Crystallization" in 1986.

1991–2000 (return to jazz guitarist)

Kawasaki's musical direction took another dramatic turn when he was signed by the new jazz and adult contemporary Japanese label One Voice as an artist and record producer. Kawasaki's return to jazz, and his first album for the label, was the 1992 acoustic solo guitar album Here, There and Everywhere (released on One Voice in Japan and on Satellites Records in the U.S.). Kawasaki has produced and performed on three albums by Brazilian singer and guitarist

Gershwin), the electric jazz guitar-oriented Love Within The Universe (which received considerable airplay across the country), "Remixes Remixes Vol. 1" (also featuring Benson), "Sweet Life" and CD releases of "Mirror of my Mind" (a jazz ensemble recording with Harvey Mason, Michael Brecker, Anthony Jackson
, Leon Pendarvis and vocalist Radha Shottam).

His 1999 release Cosmic Rhythm features British singer lyricist Clare Foster along with Kawasaki's rhythm section Victor Jones on drums, Lincoln Goines on bass. The album also features David Kikoski on piano and Shunzo Ohno on flugelhorn. All the songs were arranged and recorded by Kawasaki including original ten songs by Ryo himself.

During 1995–1999, three

Keith Murray, recorded Kawasaki's original composition "Bamboo Child
" on their latest albums more than twenty years after its original recording.

Developments in Estonia and beyond (2000–2020)

In 2001, Kawasaki released the live studio album Reval, recorded in

English horn
.

His other projects include being a composer, music director as well as a guitarist for the jazz ballet "Still Point" for the Estonian National Opera House during 2000-2002. This ballet is choreographed by Russell Adamson, a native Jamaican who resides in Helsinki.

Kawasaki released his third acoustic guitar solo album E in 2002.

From the year 2000 onwards, Kawasaki further expanded his live appearances into Russia and Baltic region jazz festivals. His quartet has appeared at Rigas Ritmi Jazz Festival in Riga/Latvia, Pori and other jazz festivals in Finland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Saransk Jazz Ark Festival. He also appeared numerous times at Nõmme Jazz Festival in Estonia while assisting the production of this jazz festival.

Kawasaki's projects during 2005–2008 included guitar trio project with American drummer

Agana
" was released in February 2007.

In 2008, Kawasaki formed jazz ensemble with Estonian pianist/keyboardist Tõnu Naissoo.[1] Also, his second duo CD with Yoshio 'Chin' Suzuki (鈴木良雄) and first CD with "Art of Trio" were completed and released during 2009, while his composition "Raisins" was included on the Grand Theft Auto IV radio station Fusion FM in 2008.

From 2009–2011, Kawasaki further expanded his performing activities in Lebanon with Syrian bassist, Omar Harb and Lebanese drummer, Fouad Afra. The album Live in Beirut which Kawasaki recorded with Lebanese organist, Arthur Satyan and drummer, Fouad Afra was released in 2011.

Overlapping the same time period, beginning in 2007, Kawasaki gradually developed his fourth acoustic guitar solo album Spain in Tallinn, Estonia, which was finally released in 2012.

In 2014, Kawasaki discovered a younger generation of Estonian musicians who inspired him to further develop a fusion, jazz-rock sound using his own compositions. His attention on these directions had somewhat faded away after recording in the early 1980s with his group Golden Dragon. In spring 2016, Kawasaki formed a new quartet called Level 8, exclusively with Estonian musicians: Raun Juurikas (keyboards), Kaarel Liiv (electric bass) and Eno Kollom (drums). Level 8 finished recording a self-titled album focusing on Kawasaki's compositions both from the past and present utilizing a funk/fusion/jazz-rock sound. The album Level 8 was released in March 2017.

In April 2016, UK independent label Nunorthernsoul released a vinyl EP titled Selected Works 1979 to 1983 by Ryo Kawasaki. A follow-up vinyl EP titled Selected Works Part 2 - 1976 to 1980 by Ryo Kawasaki was released in April 2017.

Kawasaki died in Tallinn, Estonia in April 2020 at the age of 73.[2]

Discography

As leader

  • Prism (East Wind, 1976)
  • Juice (RCA, 1976)
  • Ring Toss (Chiaroscuro, 1977)
  • Eight Mile Road
     (East Wind, 1978)
  • Nature's Revenge (MPS, 1978)
  • Mirror of My Mind (Satellites, 1979)
  • Little Tree (1980)
  • Live (Openskye, 1980)
  • Featuring Concierto De Aranjuez (Philips, 1982)
  • Lucky Lady (Continental, 1983)
  • Images (Ryka, 1987)
  • My Reverie (Videoarts, 1993)
  • Remixes Remixes Vol. 1 (One Voice/Satellites, 1994)
  • Love within the Universe (Videoarts, 1994)
  • Plays Solo Guitar Here There and Everywhere (Videoarts, 1995)
  • Sweet Life (Videoarts, 1996)
  • Cosmic Rhythm (One Voice, 1999)
  • Agana with Yoshio Chin Suzuki (DIW, 2007)
  • Late Night Willie with Yoshio Chin Suzuki (Studio Songs 2009)
  • Live in Beirut 2011 (Studio Songs, 2011)
  • Plays Solo Guitar: Spain (Studio Songs, 2012)
  • Level 8 (Vivid Sound, 2017)
  • Giant Steps (Studio Songs, 2019)
  • Level 8 Live (Studio Songs, 2019)

As sideman

Software

Video and film

  • Different Drummer with Elvin Jones (1979)
  • Jazz in Exile Documentary (1982)

References

  1. ^ "自由度が高い人気のホストで働いて高収入を得る". Archived from the original on 2017-02-15. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  2. ^ Suri Ryo Kawasaki
  • L. Feather and I. Gitler: The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies (New York, 1976/R1987).
  • D. Kastin: "Ryo Kawasaki," Down Beat xliv/15 (1977).
  • A. Berle: "Ryo Kawasaki: Leading Japanese Jazz-rock Soloist" Guitar Player xiii/11 (1979).
  • Scott Yanow: "The Great Jazz Guitarists..The Ultimate Guide" Hal Leonard (2013).

External links

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