Kazumi Watanabe

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Kazumi Watanabe ( Japanese 渡 辺 香 津 美 , Watanabe Kazumi ; born October 14, 1953 in Shibuya , Tokyo , Japan ) is a Japanese guitarist and band leader of fusion jazz . He has been voted "Best Jazz Musician" twenty-four times in a row in Swing Magazine's annual poll .

Live and act

Kazumi Watanabe (2006)

Watanabe, who was passionate about rock music as a child , studied at the Yamaha Music School in Tokyo and made his record debut in 1971. He then played with Sadao Watanabe and Keizo Inoue . In 1979 he founded the band Kylyn with musicians like Ryuichi Sakamoto , Akiko Yano, Yukihiro Takahashi, Yasuaki Shimizu, Toshiyuki Honda and Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami , which made a deep impression on the Japanese scene. In the autumn of the same year he took part in the successful world tour of the Yellow Magic Orchestra . In 1983 he formed his Mobo Band ; he then worked with Bill Bruford and Jeff Berlin and recorded the powerful albums The Spice of Life and The Spice of Life Too . During the 1980s he continued to work with Western musicians such as Tony Levin , Mike Mainieri , Sly and Robbie , Wayne Shorter , Patrick Moraz , Marcus Miller , Richard Bona and Peter Erskine . He has also been involved in productions by Eddie Gomez , Nobuyoshi Ino , Kazutoki Umezu , Mike Mainieri, Steps Ahead , Ryūichi Sakamoto and Jamaaladeen Tacuma .

Kazumi Watanabe has released more than thirty albums under his own name and several DVDs. He plays on instruments by Steinberger and Paul Reed Smith and "combines technically perfect with high-energy playing and great creativity."

Discography (selection)

  • To Chi Ka (1980, with Kenny Kirkland , Mike Mainieri, Warren Bernhardt )
  • Mobo Club (1983)
  • Mobo 1 (1984)
  • Mobo Splash (1985), with Michael Brecker and Dave Sanborn
  • The Spice of Life (1987)
  • The Spice of Life Too (1988)
  • Kilowatts (1989)
  • Pandora (1991)
  • Oyatsu (1994)
  • Tokyo Joe (1996)
  • One for All (1999)
  • Guitar Renaissance (2003)
  • Mo'Bop (2003)

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

Commons : Kazumi Watanabe  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Face to Face and Far Side Music / Ryuichi Sakamoto
  2. ↑ Ulf Drechsel, in Reclam's Jazzlexikon , p. 541
personal data
SURNAME Watanabe, Kazumi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 渡 辺 香 津 美 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese fusion guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Shibuya , Tokyo , Japan