Hirotaka Izumi (和泉宏隆, ''Izumi Hirotaka''; September 28, 1958 – April 26, 2021) was a Japanese

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, and composer who was a former member of the jazz fusion band

T-Square A T-square is a technical drawing instrument used by draftsmen primarily as a guide for drawing horizontal lines on a drafting table. The instrument is named after its resemblance to the letter T, with a long shaft called the "blade" and a sh ...

. Besides T-Square, he was also active in the bands Pyramid (ピラミッド) and Voyage (ヴォヤージュ).

Early life and education

Izumi was born in

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, ...

, Japan on September 28, 1958. He started playing the piano at the age of four and, after listening to Bill Evans, aspired to become a jazz pianist. He attended

Keio Senior High School is a private boys' high school in Kōhoku-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It is affiliated with Keio University. Overview The Keio High Schools No. 1 (第一高等学校) and No. 2 (第二高等学校) merged into Keio SHS in 1948. its student body was ...

where he was a part of the Jazz Circle of the school's Keio Light Music Society along with drummer

Akira Jimbo , is a Japanese jazz fusion drummer who combines electronic drum technology and acoustic drums. Aside from his solo work, he was the drummer for the Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea and had participated in side projects with Keiko Matsui, Sh ...

. After graduating, he attended Keio University and graduated from the Faculty of Law, Department of Law.

Career

In 1982, he joined the jazz fusion band

as a keyboardist and made his debut with their sixth studio album ''

Temptation of Shapely Legs is the sixth studio album by Japanese jazz fusion band T-Square, who was then known as ''The Square''. It was released on November 21 Events Pre-1600 * 164 BCE – Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, rededicate ...

''. At the same time of his debut, he was working on the

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

show ''

Waratte Iitomo! was a Japanese variety show aired every weekday on Fuji TV. The show was hosted by Tamori (Kazuyoshi Morita) and ran from 1982 to 2014. The show was produced in the Studio Alta building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The show featured a series of regular ...

''. He stayed in the band until departing in 1998, and during his 16 years he was in charge of piano, synthesizer, composition, arrangement, horn arrangement, and strings arrangement, playing a central role in the band's sound. In 1997, he released his first solo album ''Forgotten Saga'', and with it, became concentrated on playing piano, and left the group with the "Farewell & Welcome" tour the following year. After that, he continued to produce solo albums up until 2005 with the album ''Hirotaka Izumi Covers Love Songs''. In the same year, guitarist Yuji Toriyama formed a band with drummer Akira Jimbo and Izumi, calling themselves Pyramid. He also started playing in a band called Voyage with guitarist

Issei Noro is a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist who is one of the founding members and the main composer of the band Casiopea. He has released 6 solo albums and a compilation. He also works as an instructor of a guitar clinic, and as a producer. In 1983, ...

and percussionist Saori Sendō. Even after leaving T-Square, he continued to work with the members and occasionally participated in their recording sessions. His 16-year tenure in the band (1982 to 1998) is the second longest regarding keyboardists (with Keizoh Kawano in T-Square from 2000 to 2020) and 5th-longest overall, with drummer Satoshi Bandoh being in the band from 2004 to the present day, saxophonist Takeshi Itoh being in the band on two separate stints (1977-1990 and 2000–Present Day) and Guitarist Masahiro Andoh (1976 to 2021). In 2007, he formed a trio with bassist Kiyoshi Murakami and drummer Masami Itagaki. Since then, the focus of his activities had been shifted to this trio, releasing four albums by 2009 starting with the album ''Lights in a Distance'' and also touring nationwide while continuing as a solo artist. According to the Misty Fountain Hirotaka Izumi blog, the trio disbanded in the summer of 2010 and was restarted in October with bassist Komobuchi Kiichirou and drummer Masaharu Ishikawa. In 2012, he formed the group The Water Colors with bassist Keisuke Torigoe and drummer Masaharu Ishikawa, with Torigoe being replaced by bassist Hiroshi Yoshino in 2016. He also formed a duo with guitarist Kazuhiko Iwami called the Twilight Express Duo. In 2017, he and former T-Square members Andoh, Itoh, Toyoyuki Tanaka, Toru Hasebe reunited as The Square Reunion 1982–1985 "The Legend" and Andoh, Ito, Izumi, Mitsuru Sutoh, and Hiroyuki Noritake reunited as The Square Reunion 1987–1990 "Fantastic History." In 2019, he announced the album ''Complete Solo Piano Works'', a comprehensive project of his works produced through all musical activities as a pianist in a solo arrangement. In August 2020, he opened a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel. On April 28, 2021, it was announced on the official website that he died of

acute heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

, with his funeral held only by close relatives. Because of many inquiries, it was announced on May 2 of the same year that videos including unreleased live video will be distributed for free via YouTube premiere.

References

External links

Misty Fountain website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Izumi, Hirotaka 1958 births 2021 deaths Composers from Tokyo Japanese jazz composers Japanese jazz keyboardists Japanese jazz pianists Male jazz composers Musicians from Tokyo Keio Senior High School alumni