The Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band was a 16 piece jazz

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

created by pianist

Toshiko Akiyoshi is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Akiyoshi received fourteen Grammy Award nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer awards in ''Down Beat'' magazine's annual Readers' Poll. In 1984, sh ...

and tenor saxophone/flutist

Lew Tabackin Lewis Barry Tabackin (born March 26, 1940) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and flutist. He is married to pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi with whom he has co-led large ensembles since the 1970s. Biography Tabackin started learning flute at age 1 ...

in Los Angeles in 1973. In 1982 the principals moved from Los Angeles to New York City and re-formed the group with new members under the name, The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. Akiyoshi arranged all of the music for the band and composed nearly all of the music recorded by the two groups over a 30-year period. Tabackin served as the bands' featured soloist on tenor saxophone and flute. The two groups recorded 23

albums An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, toured in North America, Asia and Europe and, after the move to New York, had regular performances at the jazz club Birdland before disbanding in 2003. The bands' recordings received several

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nominations and regularly scored high in ''

Down Beat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' magazine's critics' and readers' polls.

Discography

Awards and honors

'' magazine Critics' Poll winner: * Jazz Album of the Year
1978
('' Insights'') * Big Band
19791980198119821983
* Arranger
19791982199019951996
(Akiyoshi) * Composer
19811982
(Akiyoshi) * Flute
19801981
'
2010
'' (Tabackin) ''Down Beat'' Magazine Readers' Poll winner: * Big Band: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 * Arranger: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1995 (Akiyoshi) * Composer: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986 (Akiyoshi) * Flute: 1981, 1982 (Tabackin)

award nominations: * Best Jazz Instrumental Performance - Big Band: 1976 ('' Long Yellow Road''), 1977 ('' Road Time''), 1978 ('' Insights''), 1979 ('' Kogun''), 1980 ('' Farewell''), 1981 ('' Tanuki's Night Out''), 1984 ('' Ten Gallon Shuffle''), 1985 ('' March of the Tadpoles''), 1992 ('' Carnegie Hall Concert''), 1994 ('' Desert Lady / Fantasy''). * Best Arrangement on an Instrumental: 1981 (for "A Bit Byas'd"), 1983 (for "Remembering Bud"), 1985 (for " March of the Tadpoles"), 1994 (for "Bebop"). ''Swing Journal'' (Japanese jazz magazine) awards: * Gold Disk
1976
('' Insights''), * Silver Disk
1974
('' Kogun'')
1979
('' Salted Gingko Nuts'')
1996
('' Four Seasons of Morita Village'') ''Stereo Review''

NEA Jazz Masters The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), every year honors up to seven jazz musicians with Jazz Master Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships are the self-proclaimed highest honors that the United States bestows upo ...

Fellowships: Toshiko Akiyosh
(link)
Accessed 11 November 2007 Jazz Album of the Year: 1976 ('' Long Yellow Road'')

References

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akiyoshi, Toshiko American jazz ensembles Big bands Musical groups established in 1973 RCA Victor artists