Eiji Kitamura ja, 北村英治 (born April 8, 1929) is a Japanese

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

clarinetist and tenor saxophonist originally from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

who made his debut at the age of 22. Kitamura devoted himself to clarinet playing while still an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

at Keio University in Tokyo. He first came to prominence in the U.S. at the 20th Anniversary Jam Session of the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1977. His following in Japan was built previous to this on his regular television program. He prefers to interpret traditional

swing jazz Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...

rather than modern jazz, and according to

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

is most strongly influenced by Benny Goodman and

Woody Herman Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...

Discography

* ''Swing Sessions'' (RCA, 1978) * ''Swing Eiji'' (Concord Jazz, 1981) * ''Seven Stars'' (Concord Jazz, 1982)

References

External links

Official website
(in Japanese) Japanese jazz clarinetists Musicians from Tokyo 1929 births Living people RCA Records artists Concord Records artists 21st-century clarinetists {{clarinetist-stub

Discography

See also

References

External links