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 ...

instrumental band consisting of five men, dubbed "The Samurai Jazz Band." They were signed onto

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

from 2008 until their split in 2015.

History

PE'Z began their music careers playing live on the streets of

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

in the center of

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 ...

during the summer of 2000. Word of mouth spread quickly and they began pulling in large crowds which sometimes totaled up to 600. In just three years, the band played in ten outdoor music festivals throughout Japan, including

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...

'02 in Madaro,

Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival Mount Fuji Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival held in August in the Lake Yamanaka area, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The three-day festival features musicians from Blue Note Records and others, performing on different stages, 1986–96. Alf ...

2002 in Shizuoka, and

Rising Sun Rock Festival Rising Sun Rock Festival is an annual rock festival held in Ishikari, Hokkaido, Japan. The two-day event is organized by WESS. It chiefly features Japanese rock and indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: ...

in Hokkaido. In September 2002 their first full album, ''Kugatsu no Sola'' (''September Sky'') was released, reaching No.10 on the billboard. In March 2003 they received an award for "New Artist Of The Year" at the 17th annual

Japan Gold Disc Awards The is an award presented by the Recording Industry Association of Japan The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Associa ...

. In August 2003 they participated in the re-mix of Japanese duo called Chemistry's 8th single "Ashita E Kaeru/Us" ("Return to Tomorrow"). That same year, Masayuki Hiizumi joined

Shiina Ringo , known by her stage name , is a Japanese singer, songwriter and musician. She is also the founder and lead vocalist of the band Tokyo Jihen. She describes herself as "". She was ranked number 36 in a list of Japan's top 100 musicians compiled ...

's backing band as a keyboard player for her nationwide tour. In 2004, he joined Shiina's new band

Tokyo Jihen , also known as Tokyo Incidents, is a Japanese rock band formed by Ringo Sheena, after leaving her solo career. The band's debut single " Gunjō Biyori" was released in September 2004, and they ended activities in February 2012. The band sold 2. ...

, but eventually left the group to focus his attention back to PE'Z in the next year. He later released a solo album entitled ''5+2=11'' under the moniker H Zett M. In October 2005 PE'Z performed at UK's In the City along with fellow Japanese artists

DMBQ DMBQ is a Japanese rock band from Tokyo, whose name stands for Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet. They are influenced by British and American rock music of the early 1970s, especially bands like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Deep Purple, and Led ...

and The Rodeo Carburettor. The quintet followed that with numerous performances in Europe (including a live show on the street in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

). The following year, 2006, they participated in both Canadian Music Week (CMW) and South by Southwest (SXSW), as well as giving a live performance in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in between. Their gig at SXSW was subsequently followed with their first-ever US tour as part of

Japan Nite Japan Nite is an annual music event in North America which began in 1996, featuring Japanese rock, pop, and alternative music artists. Originally centered around South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the event expanded in later years to include mu ...

, performing in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In September 2006, PE'Z released a three-track EP with the

British soul British soul, Brit soul, or (in a US context) the British soul invasion, is soul music performed by British artists. Soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s, and American soul was extremely popular among some yout ...

singer

Nate James Nathaniel James Speas, known as Nate James, (born 15 September 1979 in Lakenheath, Suffolk, England) is an English singer-songwriter. James released his debut soul album '' Set the Tone'' in 2005 which won him two MOBO Nominations for Best Newc ...

, featuring an original track, "Live for the Groove," a reworked Nate James track, "Universal," and a cover of " Hard to Handle" by

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

. They subsequently released a 32-track double album entitled ''Funny Day & Hard Night'' on March 25, 2007. This was followed by a second ''Realive'' DVD, which featured the band playing an outdoor Venue, with two sets which followed the Day/Night themes of the double CD, with the first played roughly at sundown and the second at night, with house and LED lighting. In 2014 they released a new original album called ''Chisou'', but in December 2014, drummer Kou posted to the band's official webpage that the group would dissolve in the following year. The band went on a final tour of Japan from January to April 2015 as well as appearing in several Japanese music festivals.

pe'zmoku

In 2007, the band collaborated with the alternative folk singer suzumoku, with whom they co-founded pe'zmoku. pe'zmoku performed for the first time during the encore of PE'Z's annual special live "EN-MUSUBI" at the end of the same year. In 2008, they started in earnest. They recorded the ending theme "Gallop" for the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series ''

Bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

'', and the ending theme "Ano Kaze ni Notte" for ''

Valkyria Chronicles ''Valkyria Chronicles'' is a series of military-themed tactical role-playing video games created by Ryutaro Nonaka and Shuntaro Tanaka, and developed by Sega. The series began with ''Valkyria Chronicles'', which was released for the PlayStation ...

''. Following a brief disappearance by suzumoku, impromptu cancellations of several concerts were forced on the band in March 2009. As of October 2009 the band is on an indefinite hiatus.

Personnel

* Wataru "B.M.W" Ohyama, born in

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Kouske "Jaw" Kadota, born in

Ehime is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,342,011 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Tokush ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

* Masahiro Nirehara, born in Niigata,

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

* Kou, born in

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Masayuki "HZM" Hiizumi, born in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Discography

Albums

* 9.11.2002Kugatsu no Sola * 1.29.2003Realive Tour 2002 (Odoranya Son Son In Tokyo) * 2.10.2003KIWAMARI ZUKI * 2.07.2005Pe'z Realive 2005 Fushi * 3.15.2006Best 1st Stage * 7.26.2006Nippon No Jazz - Samurai Spirit * 3.28.2007Kite Neru: Funny Day & Hard Night * 2.27.2008Samurai Meets The Enemy * 2.20.2008PE'Z BEST STAGE -YAMIKUMO- * 9.24.2010銀幕のジャズ -SAMURAI FLYS INTO THE SCREEN- * 3.16.2011Samurai Jazz - Compact Disc - * 4.20.2011Jazz-SAMURAI KILLS HIMSELF-of Kinema * 2.14.2012 OH! YEAH! PARTY!! * 3.06.2013 JumpUP!

Mini-Albums

* 2.21.2001pe'z * 6.21.2001Hayato * 0.24.2001OKOKOROIRE * 4.11.2002Akatsuki * 3.09.2003Tsu Ku Shi N Bow * 5.28.2003Hana Saku Don Bla Go! * 8.04.2004Suzumushi * 1.23.2005Chitose Dori * 2.03.20101・2・MAX * 6.09.2010I WANT YOU

Singles

* 7.17.2002Hale No Sola Sita - La Yellow Samba * 6.06.2003DRY! DRY! DRY! * 1.19.2003Daichisanshou * 9.21.2004AUCTION * 9.20.2006Live for the Groove * 8.19.2010Uha-Uha / Boushoku-kei Danshi!!

References

External links

* *
Pe'Z
at Oricon {{Authority control Japanese jazz ensembles Defstar Records artists Musical groups from Tokyo