Ryo Fukui

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Ryo Fukui

Ryo Fukui ( Japanese福 居 良Fukui Ryō ; born June 1, 1948 in Biratori , Hokkaido ; † March 15, 2016 in Sapporo ) was a Japanese jazz pianist. He played regularly in the "Slowboat" jazz club in Sapporo which belonged to him and his wife Yasuko. Fukui was touring the world as a teacher and pianist until his death in 2016. His works again received a lot of attention from May 2016 onwards due to their availability for YouTube streams and the rise of the lo-fi genre .

Fukui started with the accordion and learned to play the piano at the age of 22. He taught himself to play jazz piano in the early 1970s and attracted attention in Japan with his debut album Scenery (Trio Records) from 1976, in which, atypically for the time, he picked up on trends in modern jazz of the 1950s and 1960s (especially modal Jazz , bop). In 1982 he moved to Tokyo, where he had a trio, performed in jazz clubs in Nagoya , but returned to Hokkaido in 1986 and lived in Sapporo, where he had his own jazz club.

His second album (Mellow Dream) followed in 1977 and his third album (My Favorite Tune) in 1995. Like the other albums, it was only rediscovered later (although the distribution by fans via Youtube played a not insignificant role from around 2017). In 1999 a trio recording followed ( Ryo Fukui in New York , Sapporo Jazz Create, with Lisle Atkinson on bass, Leroy Williams on drums) and in 2015 a live recording ( A Letter from Slowboat ) from the Slowboat jazz club in Sapporo, the Fukui with his wife Yasuko since 1995. In New York he had contacts with Barry Harris , whom he regarded as a mentor.

Awards

  • 2012 Sapporo Culture Encouragement Prize

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1976: Scenery
  • 1977: Mellow Dream
  • 1994: My Favorite Tune
  • 1999: Ryo Fukui in New York
  • 2015: A Letter From Slowboat

Bootleg album

  • 1976: Live at Nika

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Search Results Ryo Fukui 2004-present world wide. Google Trends, accessed on October 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Heisei 24-nendo jushō-sha no shōkai yes: 平 成 24 年度 受 賞 者 の 紹 介. City of Sapporo , February 15, 2013, accessed October 4, 2019 (Japanese).
personal data
SURNAME Fukui, Ryo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Biratori
DATE OF DEATH 15th March 2016
Place of death Sapporo