, sometimes known professionally as Takashi, 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 major ...

pianist and composer.

Life and career

Matsunaga was born and raised 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 ...

. At the age of five he first played a piano and

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

that his father had. His father also took him to jazz clubs. After winning an electric organ competition at the age of ten, Matsunaga took lessons from Tadao Kitano, who also taught

Makoto Ozone is a Japanese jazz pianist. Career He was born in Kobe, Japan. He began playing organ at two and by seven was an improviser. He appeared on Japanese television with his father from 1968 to 1970. At twelve he switched to piano after being impres ...

. Matsunaga played his first concert as a professional when he was 15, appeared on television in 2002, then signed with

Toshiba-EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...

and released his first album the following year. As an 18-year-old, Matsunaga was promoted by Toshiba-EMI as "the youngest pro jazz pianist in Japan".McClure, Steve (3 March 2004
"A Prodigy of Piano and Japan's Jazz Master"
''The New York Times''. ''Storm Zone'', his 2004 release and debut album for

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

, contained only his original compositions. In 2012, he recorded for the anime

Kids on the Slope is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Kodama. It was serialized in the manga magazine '' Monthly Flowers'' from 2007 to 2012, and was published as ten ''tankōbon'' volumes (collected editions) by Shogakukan. The serie ...

, which narrates the story of two teenagers playing jazz, one piano the other drums.

Playing style

"Matsunaga has a busy, almost frenetic, bop-based playing style, with dense clusters of notes and a profusion of riffs and melodic ideas."

Composing style

A reviewer for ''The New York Times'' commented that Matsunaga composes in "various stylistic idioms, including Latin-tinged numbers ..gentle ballads ..and swinging tours de force".

Discography

An asterisk (*) after the year indicates that it is the year of release.

As leader/co-leader

Main source:"Discography"
AllMusic. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsunaga, Takashi 1986 births Japanese jazz pianists Living people 21st-century pianists