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 ...

pianist and band leader. Honda was born in

Miyako, Iwate is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 51,150, and a population density of 41 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Miyako is located in central Iwate Prefecture, bordered by ...

. He started playing piano at age five and studied at the

Kunitachi College of Music The is a private music conservatory in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1926 as the Tokyo Conservatory of Music, Kunitachi now offers study programs in performance, music education, composition, computer music, and musicology, for bachelor ...

, where he played in a quartet with

Kazunori Takeda Kazunori (written: 一慶, 一典, 一則, 一謙, 一徳, 一矩, 一紀, 和典, 和則, 和徳, 和行, 和範 or 和憲) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese samurai *, Japanese footballer *, Ja ...

. By 1969 he was recording with a trio under his own name. He performed with Sadao Watanabe in 1973 and then formed the

jazz-fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and ke ...

band

Native Son ''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s. While not apologizing ...

with Kosuke Mine, which toured internationally. Other credits include performing or recording with

Hiroshi Murakami is a Japanese jazz drummer. Murakami began playing percussion as a teenager, and was playing in a group with Takehiro Honda at age 19. He would go on to play with Masabumi Kikuchi, Kosuke Mine, and Sadao Watanabe in the 1970s, in addition to dr ...

Hiroshi Fukumura Hiroshi Fukumura (福村博) (born February 21, 1949, Tokyo) is a Japanese jazz trombonist. Fukumura played with Sadao Watanabe for much of the 1970s, excepting a period where he studied in the United States at the New England Conservatory of Mus ...

Motohiko Hino Motohiko "Toko" Hino (January 3, 1946 in Tokyo – May 13, 1999) was a Japanese jazz drummer. Hino's father, who was a dancer and musician, taught Hino and his brother, Terumasa Hino, tap dancing as children.Shigeharu Mukai is a Japanese jazz trombonist. Mukai attended Doshisha University but left before obtaining his degree to become a professional musician. Early in his career he worked with Yoshio Otomo, Ryo Kawasaki, and Hiroshi Fukumura, then led his own en ...

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 ...

, Tony Williams,

Eddie Gómez Edgar Gómez (born October 4, 1944) is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist, known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1966 to 1977. Biography Gómez moved with his family from Puerto Rico at a young age to New York, where he was raised. ...

and

Eliot Zigmund Eliot Zigmund (born April 14, 1945) is an American jazz drummer, who has worked extensively as a session musician. Biography Zigmund studied at Mannes School of Music and City College of New York, where he graduated in 1969. After moving to Cali ...

. His son is jazz musician

Tamaya Honda A is an altar used in Shinto-style ancestor worship, dedicated in the memory of deceased forebears. It generally has a mirror symbolizing the spirits of the deceased or a tablet bearing their names and is used not only to enshrine blood relativ ...

. He was the brother-in-law of Sadao and

Fumio Watanabe (October 31, 1929 – August 4, 2004) was a Japanese actor most known for his work with Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima. He was born in Tokyo and graduated from the University of Tokyo before joining the Shōchiku studio in 1956. Sele ...

Discography

*''The Trio'' (Trio, 1970) *''T. Honda Meets Rhythm Section Featuring S. Watanabe'' (Trio, 1970) * ''Jodo'' (Trio, 1970) * ''I Love You'' (Trio, 1971) * ''Flying to the Sky'' (Trio, 1971) *''This is Honda'' (Trio, 1972) * ''Misty'' (Trio, 1972) *''What's Going on'' (Trio, 1973) * ''Salaam Salaam'' (East Wind, 1974) * ''Another Departure'' (Flying Disk, 1977) * ''Reaching for Heaven'' (Flying Disk, 1978) * ''It's Great Outside'' (Flying Disk, 1978) * ''In a Sentimental Mood'' (CBS/Sony, 1985) * ''Aguncha'' (Polydor, 1987) *''Earthian Air'' (Fun House, 1991) * ''See All Kind'' (Fun House, 1992) * ''Earthian All Star Ensemble'' (Fun House, 1993) * ''Boogie-Boga-Boo'' (Fun House 1995) * ''My Funny Valentine'' (Sony, 2006) * ''Earthian Air'' (BMG/Fun House, 2007) * ''Back On My Fingers'' (BMG/Fun House, 2007) *''Live at Kagoshima USA Vol.1 "Oleo"'' (Aketa's Disk, 2007) *''Live 1974'' (Owl Wing Record, 2020)

References

Japanese jazz pianists 1945 births 2006 deaths Musicians from Iwate Prefecture 20th-century pianists 20th-century Japanese musicians {{Japan-musician-stub