was 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 major ...

double-bassist.

Biography

Born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Suzuki learned to play bass on

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

bases, and played early in his career with Shotaro Moriyasu,

Hidehiko Matsumoto Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto (松本英彦) (October 12, 1926, Okayama – February 29, 2000, Tokyo) was a Japanese jazz saxophonist and bandleader. Matsumoto played bebop in Japan in the late 1940s with the group CB Nine, then joined The Six Jos� ...

, and Sadao Watanabe. He led his own ensemble in Tokyo from 1965–1969, also performing with

Hampton Hawes Hampton Barnett Hawes Jr. (November 13, 1928 – May 22, 1977) was an American jazz pianist. He was the author of the memoir ''Raise Up Off Me'', which won the Deems-Taylor Award for music writing in 1975. Early life Hampton Hawes was born on N ...

in 1968. He moved to New York City from 1969 to 1971, playing with

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

Paul Desmond Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld; November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977) was an American jazz alto saxophone, alto saxophonist and composer, best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group's biggest hit, " ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

, Jim Hall,

Wynton Kelly Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of ...

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

, and

Bobby Timmons Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he w ...

. Returning to Japan, he played with

Kenny Burrell Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 ...

and

Mal Waldron Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Wa ...

in addition to his own ensembles. Later in the 1970s, he began expanding his instrumental repertoire, playing

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

and

piccolo bass A piccolo bass is either an electric bass or acoustic double bass which has been tuned to a higher frequency, usually one octave higher than conventional bass tuning. This allows bass players to use higher registers during soloing while retaining ...

. He was a cofounder of the

Japanese Bass Players Club Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspo ...

with

Hideto Kanai was a Japanese jazz double-bassist. He was born in Tokyo. Kanai began playing bass in 1950, joining Fumio Nanri's ensemble the following year. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde collective Shinseiki Ongaku Kenkyusyo, co-founded the Jaz ...

, and opened a jazz club in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

in 1987. Suzuki played wildly, but pensively. He was awarded

Fumio Nanri was a Japanese jazz trumpeter nicknamed the "Satchmo of Japan" by Louis Armstrong. He was one of Japan's first jazz musicians to become known outside his native country. A long-standing prestigious music award, "The Fumio Nanri Award", was named a ...

prize in 2008. Suzuki died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the List of cities in Japan, eight ...

, on 8 March 2022, at the age of 89 during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Japan Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

References

* Kazunori Sugiyama and

Barry Kernfeld Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians. Education In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at U ...

, "Isao Suzuki". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd edn.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Isao 1933 births 2022 deaths 20th-century double-bassists 21st-century double-bassists Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan Japanese jazz double-bassists Musicians from Tokyo Rikkyo University alumni