Hisato Aikura (相倉久人, 8 December 1931 in Tokyo – 8 July 2015) was a Japanese

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

and

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 major ...

presenter. He was known for critique of musicians such as

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

Career

Aikura was born on 8 December 1930 in present-day

Ōta, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward located in Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. In English, it is often called Ōta City. , the ward has an estimated population of 716,413, with 379,199 households and a population density of 12,048.65 per ...

. Throughout childhood into his teenage years, he attended an , with

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ending during his enrollment. One of his classmates was novelist

Kyotaro Nishimura was a Japanese novelist in the police procedural genre. Career Nishimura is best known for his "train series" mysteries, most of which feature his characters, police detectives Shozo Totsugawa, Sadao Kamei and Tokitaka Honda. He won the Myste ...

.日本人は､根本的に戦争には向いていない　―作家･西村京太郎が経験した戦争と戦後―（2/3）
��洋経済 While a student at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

, he began frequenting local jazz group lounges and writing jazz criticism, debuting in ''Music Life'' journal. He would later drop out and in 1959 begin regularly writing for ', a monthly music magazine specializing in jazz. He would regularly quarrel throughout 1962 and 1963 with his peer in the same journal over writing styles. In 1967 he would break away from ''Swing Journal'' after the publication indirectly defamed him while criticizing sax musician Kazunori Takeda, going on to work with and form stronger bonds other publications and groups while forming some of his own. In 1970, he decided that "jazz" as he had defined it was dead, and retired from jazz criticism, moving on to rock and film critique throughout the following decades. He would however in his later years resume jazz criticism, and would lecture at in

Toshima is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the eight central wards of the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Located in the northern area of Tokyo, Toshima is bordered by the wards of Nerima, Itabashi, and Kita in the north and Nakano, Shinjuku, a ...

References

Japanese music critics People from Ōta, Tokyo People from Tokyo 1931 births 2015 deaths {{music-bio-stub