Maki Asakawa

Maki Asakawa
Asakawa on the cover of the compilation album Darkness IV (2007)
Asakawa on the cover of the compilation album Darkness IV (2007)
Background information
Born(1942-01-27)January 27, 1942
Mikawa, Ishikawa, Japan
DiedJanuary 17, 2010(2010-01-17) (aged 67)
Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • lyricist
  • composer
  • music producer
Years active1967–2010

Maki Asakawa (Japanese: 浅川マキ, Hepburn: Asakawa Maki, January 27, 1942 – January 17, 2010) was a Japanese jazz and blues singer, lyricist and composer. Known as the "Queen of the Underground" (アングラの女王, Angura no Joō),[1][2][3] she was an important voice of Japan's urban counterculture.[4]

It was written in The Japan Times that she "made her name in 1970" with The World of Maki Asakawa and is known for songs like "Yo ga Aketara" and "Kamome", as well as for the Darkness collections.[5] Thom Jurek of AllMusic described her album Blue Spirit Blues (1972) as "perhaps her most memorable recording" and reported that works such as Maki II (1971) and Cat Nap (1982) are well-known.[6] Ben Ratliff wrote, "Some of the most intense recordings she made were English-language covers or Japanese rewrites of American jazz standards, blues songs, and spirituals, backed by only acoustic guitar and drums. (If you can get her 1972 album Blue Spirit Blues, you'll hear this tendency clearest.) She sang slowly, as if there were weights on her."[7]

  1. ^ "アングラの女王・浅川マキ、プロデューサー寺本幸司と辿る影と闇の世界". Rolling Stone Japan (in Japanese). May 16, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  2. ^ "アングラの女王「浅川マキ」当時プロデューサーが語る秘話". Nippon Hōsō News Online (in Japanese). Nippon Broadcasting System. January 12, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  3. ^ "【わがまちの偉人】 旧美川町 アングラの女王と呼ばれた歌手 浅川マキ". Chunichi Shimbun (in Japanese). October 15, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  4. ^ ""The World of Maki Asakawa" - Songs from the Japanese Post-War Counterculture | SOAS University of London". www.soas.ac.uk. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  5. ^ "Obituary: Maki Asakawa". The Japan Times. January 19, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  6. ^ Jurek, Thom. "Maki Asakawa | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  7. ^ Ratliff, Ben (October 28, 2015). "New Works by Negro Leo, Maki Asakawa, Ben Monder and Gemma (Published 2015)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 10, 2021.