TOKU live at Java Jazz Festival 2009
Yes, there must be many names right now in the “must-see” list in your pocket for Java Jazz Festival 2009. I must remind you guys, don’t forget to watch this artist on Saturday, March 7, 2009. TOKU is a superb flugelhorn player that also is a great singer. He’s been living with jazz for quite some time. His first album was released right after the turn of the new millenium. And since then, he has released 8 albums, plus several singles and collaborated with many great artists in Japan or abroad.
Toku is one of the artist who seems to have jazz as his destiny. He was born in Niigata, and grew up with all kinds of music, influenced by his dad. He started with cornet, a brass instrument that looks quite similiar to the trumpet. One day, when he played “If I Were A Bell”, a song popularized by Miles Davis in 1956, a jazz drummer heard and spotted him, then invited him to join a jam session. Later he went to USA to learn English, and there he got a jazz pianist as his roommate. They played together in a band, and that was when he decided to have a serious career in jazz.
TOKU can play many kinds of styles. While mostly he’s into the mainstream and jazz standard, his flugelhorn style often sounds the big band era, the era when brass section dominated the music structures. He can just blend those styles altogether, creating nice musical environments to hear and to feel. TOKU has another gift, he is also a singer. His low key vocal with “breezy” vibrato is unique and nice to hear. Not only the mainstream and swing, he could blend in with other jazz genres like bossa for example, that appeared in quite many songs of his, he also played some blues, even J-pop in general, featured in many albums of other fellow Japanese artists or even abroad. He has worked together with many other super stars like Ken Hirai, Kenji Hino, Yosuke Onuma, Skoop on Somebody, Paris Match (several albums), Miki Imai, Mariko Takahashi and the famous m-flo. His work can be seen in various Japanese ads such as Hitachi and Honda. He also active performing in many live events. GINZA International Jazz Festival, Tokyo Jazz 2005, HK Asian Independent Film Festival, various live events across Japan, and now finally he will arrive in Indonesia, performing live at Java Jazz Festival 2009 in just a couple of days away.
You will enjoy his kind of jazz. Whether the mellow and romantic or fast track, TOKU‘s style of jazz is always enjoyable. I have two of his albums, and I can tell you TOKU should not be missed. You should add TOKU’s schedule at Java Jazz Festival 2009 in your “must-see” list right now before you miss it.
Discography:
2000 Everything She Said
2001 Bewitching
2002 Winds of Change
2002 Chemistry of Love
2003 Toku
2004 30
2006 Brand-New Beginning
2008 Love Again
Popularity: 30% [?]
[...] you’ll recognize right away as his. As what I called, a destiny-made jazzer (see his profile here and see some pictures taken from his performance at Java Jazz Festival 2009 here), TOKU has grown [...]
nice article. i watched toku at Java Jazz 2009 and instantly connected with his music if not fell in love with it
luckily, i got his CD Love Again as a souvenir from Japan from a good friend of mine and can’t stop from playing it over and over again. do you know where i can buy his other CD in Indonesia?
thanks a bunch!