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JAZZ Organist & Pianist Welcome Ushio Sakai's homepage |
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Last update : 2005.05.06 |
Last update : 2005.05.06
CD / LP
Last update : 2001.06.30
Hammond Organ
Last update : 2003.01.25
PICTURE
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Life Profile I was born in Aoyama Tokyo, in 1934. My father's name was Takashi Sakai. He was an army lieutenant general in World War 2. He was in Hong Kong, the first place of occupation. He was the commander there. My father suffered the death penalty in China in 1946 after the war. At that time I was eleven years old and I couldn't imagine that I would rise in the world of Jazz. When I was a Gakushuin junior high school student, my music teacher was Mr.Kouhei Koide, who had very liberal opinions and liked all kinds of music. Thanks to Mr.Koide I moved towards jazz. I began to play in a jazz trio at my junior high school graduation party. After that, when I was at Gakushuin junior high school second grade, I mixed with professionals at dance halls and at the U.S. army camp where I played the piano. I was lucky because since entering Gakushuin elementary school in 1940, I automatically passed through the education system, eventually entering University. I am a lucky jazz player who has never had to take a school entrance exam and I am happy, as I had never taken any entrance tests for work either. My friends are envious about me not having a mandatory retirement age but I don't have any other skills. I am just going with the flow until I die, playing the piano every day. When I was at university, I played the piano in "The Rhythm candle", "Cool notes". After graduated from university I joined "Edie Iwata and Pork chops" and later "Toshio Kosaka and Emanonies". Then I moved again and joined "George Kawaguchi and Big four + one". At that time, they had Sadao Watanabe on saxophone, and Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar. Later I joined "Jun Sugihara and East sounds" during the Funky jazz period. I was in a piano trio in a place called "Civilian club" at the U.S. army camp in Tachikawa in 1965. The first time I saw the Hammond organ B-3 with a Leslie speaker was the first step towards my becoming an organist. The Civilian club is for people who are working for the army, equivalent to officers, so the club's customers are high-class people. People think that if you can play the piano, you can automatically play the Hammond organ. But this is not true, and in fact, there are very few people who can switch easily between them. For me, the organ and the piano are very different. The piano is more like a percussion instrument. I continued for about a year and practiced switching from piano to organ until I had the confidence to switch easily. The guitar, the drums, and the organ - this is The organ trio. Compare these two trios : the piano has piano, bass and drums. But the organ trio has no bass, so the organ has to compensate for this, by playing the bass lines as well, which makes it more difficult. What made it more difficult when I switched to the organ trio was this point. At the "Civilian", they had an organ at the club, but at other places I had to bring my own, which was a problem. At that time, I used a "Porter - B" which is a "Compact - size" organ, but very heavy. I had to carry this organ myself, and if there were stairs, it made it more difficult. Later I was discovered by the famous Sax player, Hidehiko Matsumoto. Then I played with Kazuo Yashiro on the TBS show "Honey Sound : live night on the rocks". After that, I jammed with Jimmy Smith at the "Junk" club in Ginza, Tokyo. Jimmy has a wonderful technique, and I really had a great time. Then I almost always played at Live houses sometimes with a horn section. At the same time, I was teaching the organ and jazz theories, which I still do now. My Jazz roots are be-bop and my favorite style is Earthy Jazz. My major influence on the piano is Bud Powell, but my aim is simplicity. My favorite musician is Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Horace Silver. Claude Debussy and Erik Satie are my favorite composers. Recent Jazz The music called Jazz is made of various elements, born and developed in America and has only been around for 100 years. Nevertheless it is played and loved all over the world. It been with the Blues, sung and played solo with one guitar. Jazz began the kind of music that touches people's feelings. Funerals always need Dixieland Jazz. Ragtime was born to be played by the piano. Boogie-woogie is a piano shuffle played with blues chords. But on the whole it is a comparatively cheerful style of music. These types of music were connected with dance from around the beginning of The 1900's. Then Jazz developed gradually from this, and becoming a definite style from around 1940. Then, alongside this, a new form of Jazz began to develop, evolving to a style of music that wasn't blues at all. I like this kind of music, which changes with times. My aim in music I think music should stir people's feelings. To me, that is real music. So here is my analysis of music, which I think is original one. Classical music is the music for the upper part of the body. Jazz is the music for the lower part of the body. How is that? How to play the organ Play all base lines with the left hand. Use the 16 draw base a little bit, and if it has foot pedals, play staccato with the left foot. Play it like a bass drum and don't worry about the interval. This is the special technique that is the secret of a good beat. |
| Ushio Sakai's homepage | Last update : 2005.05.06 |