Toshiko Akiyoshi | |
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![]() Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1978 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Toshiko Akiyoshi (穐吉 敏子, Akiyoshi Toshiko) |
Also known as | "Toshiko", Toshiko Mariano, 秋吉 敏子 |
Born | Liaoyang, Manchuria, China | 12 December 1929
Origin | Beppu |
Genres | Jazz |
Occupations |
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Instrument | Piano |
Years active | 1946–present |
Labels | Norgran, Columbia, Victor, RCA Victor, Discomate, Inner City, Nippon Crown |
Member of |
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Formerly of | Toshiko – Mariano Quartet |
Education | Berklee College of Music |
Signature | |
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Toshiko Akiyoshi (秋吉敏子 or 穐吉敏子, Akiyoshi Toshiko, born 12 December 1929)[1] is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader.[2]
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, she was the subject of the documentary Jazz Is My Native Language. In 1996, she published her autobiography, Life with Jazz, and in 2007 she was named an NEA Jazz Master by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.[3][4]
NEAJM
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).