Sadao Watanabe, Classic and Smooth jazz Artist

This week’s Featured Artist has been a major influence on jazz in Japan.  He started playing the clarinet in his teens, and later picked up the alto saxophone which became his main musical instrument.  His musical style includes jazz fusion, jazz-Pop, crossover jazz and Bop.  Meet jazz saxophonist – Sadao Watanabe

Born in Utsunomiya, Japan

Genre: Jazz

Sadao Watanabe was one of five children (four sons and one daughter).  In the small town about 90 miles north of Tokyo, Watanabe’s father worked as an electrician but also played and taught the Japanese equivalent of the lute, called the biwa.  It would be his father’s acquiescence to his desires that would allow Watanabe to move from this small town to the world.

By the time Watanabe was a teenager, Japan had lost World War II, and the country became infused with American movies and music.  With the establishment of an Army camp near Utsunomiya, Watanabe was exposed to many aspects of American culture, and he was fascinated.  It was during this time that he saw the movie Birth of the Blues.  The film starred Bing Crosby as a young New Orleans clarinet player trying to get his music heard.  Birth of the Blues inspired Watanabe to ask his father to buy him a clarinet.

Watanabe got his clarinet, and for three cents a lesson he learned some basic fingering from a local man, and was on his own after that.  He listened to Armed Forces Radio as they played songs by Benny Goodman and other big bands.  To teach himself he would try to copy the sounds they made.  Later he would buy records and do the same thing.  With little more training than this, Watanabe eventually began playing in bands on the Army bases.  He remembers that early on, crowds weren’t very enthusiastic about his skills, or lack thereof, but with time he learned.

Although he got his start on the clarinet, Watanabe would eventually be inspired by Charlie Parker’s saxophone playing and the movies that starred big band leader Les Brown.  Once again, Watanabe asked his father for an instrument, this time a saxophone.  Watanabe explained to Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times website, “I don’t think that anybody in my hometown … knew what a saxophone was.  But that was it. Jazz became my life.”  With his saxophone in hand, Watanabe made another request of his father, to give him two years to prove himself as a jazz musician in Tokyo.

Once in Tokyo, Watanabe went right to work, forming a band that fused jazz and African music. He sat in on jams where they tried to figure out how to play like the musicians they admired, like Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.  After many late night sessions with jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, Watanabe was asked to join her Cozy Quartet.  Watanabe learned about being a musician from Akiyoshi.  He toldKalbacher, “She lives for music…. I saw how hard she worked to prepare, and I thought I should practice like her. Through her I learned a lesson about giving all your energy to music.”  His dedication and practice paid off in 1960, whenAkiyoshi accepted a scholarship to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music.  In her absence Watanabe became leader of the Cozy Quartet.

By 1962 it was clear that Watanabe had proven himself in the field of jazz.  He was constantly playing, improving, and experimenting.  Still, he and other jazz musicians of the time were learning by trial and error.  There were no schools for jazz and the only way to improve was in the jam sessions held nightly throughout Tokyo.

Watanabe spent his time not only playing saxophone but also studying classical flute with Ririko Hayashi, lead flutist with the Tokyo Philharmonic.  Upon her return, Akiyoshi recommended Watanabe for a scholarship to attend Berklee.

Watanabe made his first trip to the United States with little more than his saxophone, some clothes, and a pillow.  For three years he studied at Berklee.  At nights he played gigs in bars around Boston.  Within a year he had earned enough money to bring his wife and daughter over from Japan to live with him.  Watanabe remembers this as one of the most exciting times for him.  He felt that Boston was a great place for musicians and he learned as much from playing gigs as he did from taking classes.

In 1965 Watanabe graduated from Berklee.  Because he played flute he was recommended to Chico Hamilton and Gary McFarland to play in their samba band.  This experience was Watanabe’s first exposure to Brazilian music.  At first he was bored by the soft samba sound that he was playing, but through the band he was introduced to other Brazilian musicians.  The exposure opened up a whole new aspect of music for him, as he explained to Heckman.  “When I heard Brazilian music and African music and different approaches to jazz, I realized that what really matters is feeling.  The best music is the music that comes from life.”

Watanabe returned to Japan in 1966.  Not much had changed in the world of jazz.  The musicians were still trying to mimic the sounds they heard on records.  With his knowledge from Berklee, Watanabe became an important source of information.  Knowing that he needed to do something, he opened up a small jazz school in his hometown of Utsunomiya.  He also continued to play, forming his own quartet.

By 1968 Watanabe had begun a schedule of touring and recording that has been ongoing for more than 30 years.  He made his first appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival that year.  In 1970 he performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival.  By 2001 Watanabe had recorded over 60 albums, including works ranging from his early bebop days to his collaborations with a variety of regional stars like theJimbo Trio from Brazil, Robbie Shakespeare from Jamaica, and Dave Grusinfrom Manhattan.

With a career that spans over 50 years and 60 albums, Watanabe continues to expand his horizons.  He has published three books of photography; hosted a three-part documentary; and become one of the most recognized faces in Japan.  by Eve M. B. Hermann

Biographical information courtesy of Musician Guide; see link below for more details.

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003458/Sadao-Watanabe.html