Toshiko Mariano Quartet

1980 reissue

Toshiko Akiyoshi has had an astonishingly long and productive career dating back to her debut in the 1950s.  She came to attention first as a pianist, then in the 1970s formed a big band with her husband and musical partner Lew Tabackin that has perhaps had a greater impact.  She was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2007.  Yet for all of her accomplishments, her music is hard to obtain.  Today, seaming platforms and cds on Amazon offer a fraction of her  her seventy-plus albums, most of which have been out of print for years or have never been released in the U.S..  My colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are familiar with her arrangements and "March of the Tadpoles" has been played at least a few times since I've been on board in 2015.  I will be writing about her music in the next few months.  

Toshiko Akiyoshi Mariano

Toshiko Mariano Quartet was recorded in 1960 with her former husband Charlie Mariano on alto saxophone and released on Nat Hentoff's Candid label.  It is an apt name for a record label that allowed artists the freedom to record their music on their own terms, including Charles Mingus' Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, Abbey Lincoln's Straight Ahead, and Max Roach's We Insist.  All contain highly biting, polemics and are among the first such criticisms by African Americans.  Toshiko Mariano Quartet fits with Hentoff's philosophy as he is supportive of Akiyoshi (I will refer to her as Akiyoshi and Charlie Mariano as Mariano).  

Right off the bat, he outlines the three hurdles Akiyoshi (b.1929) has had to overcome:  being Japanese, being female, and being a Bud Powell imitator and combined they have cast her and her music in a negative light that I feel has lasted through the present day.  The last point might not seem so offensive, but, especially at that time, it was a big deal.  Bebop really inspired the focus on the individual and having one's own sound was, and still is really, considered a prerequisite for any aspiring jazz musician.   Many alto saxophonists (like Mariano) were written off as Charlie Parker-knock-offs and this was legitimate criticism.   Akiyoshi addresses these issues and concedes that while she was influenced by Powell, she feels that she has reached a place where she has developed her own sound.  Listening to this album, I would agree, but I wouldn't so much think of her as a Bud Powell imitator rather than a musician with a strong base in bebop.  To some people this is probably the same thing, but there are nuances and other influences that are evident in her playing which weaken the premise of the former.

Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1953

The second hurdle, being female, has only been addressed in jazz recently with the #MeToo movement.  After a century of neglect, the jazz industry is finally acknowledging sexist practices that have long discouraged women jazz musicians.  As Hentoff says "a number of jazz listener automatically claim that by definition a woman cannot play with the fire and strength of a man.", but he concludes that her playing does not reflect her shy demeanor and that her "her work surges and sometimes bursts with emotions."  He quotes Kenny Clarke as saying "she has more guts in her playing than most of the men in town." and Leonard Feather observes that "her playing is fiery, powerfully articulated, and exceptionally fluent with nothing delicately feminine in it."  Of course these are their words and not Hentoff's.  I guess she passes that test and "plays like a man", but such stereotypical gender-assigned roles to playing is ridiculous.   David Ake talks about Ornette Coleman's emasculated approach to jazz improvisation that flew in the face of the robust sounds of hard bop musicians (compare, for example, Don Cherry to Clifford Brown).  While the approach has widened ever since (it began in the 1950s with cool jazz really). such attitudes still prevail and in 1960 was practically the law.  

Akiyoshi's first hurdle is being Japanese.  Then, as perhaps now, there exists a prevailing notion that only Americans can play jazz.  The notion that "whites don't swing" is another way of saying that only African Americans can swing.  Again, the same principle with gender is applied here with performances being racialized.  Akiyoshi was not affected and in the liner notes, she says that "anybody can play jazz if he or she feels the music and understands its traditions and language.  I cannot distinguish between 'American Jazz' and 'Japanese Jazz' as such.  Jazz basically is so individual a way of playing.  No matter what your color or background, if you have an affinity for the music and learn its requirements, your own experiences are bound to come out in jazz terms."  

I should also note that in the 1950s and 1960s, Japan was considered, and very much still is, a foreign and exotic land.  My father told me that when he came to New York to study in 1963, there was one Japanese restaurant.  Today, sushi has practically become part of the mainstream, but the culture was largely unknown to Americans then.  Today, jazz musicians from Japan, and more from Taiwan, Korea, and other countries in Asia, are common thanks to music programs in colleges and universities that have extended their open arms for young, aspiring jazz musicians from Asia (and other countries).  Akiyoshi was one of the first, attending Berklee in 1956 to 1959,  When she first appeared on the scene, Akiyoshi was probably considered a novelty and a passing fad, witness her 1956 appearance on national television in a kimono playing jazz.  Little did anyone know, she had the determination to outlast many of her contemporaries.  

Regardless, these were three tremendous hurdles to battle and she pressed forward. Toshiko Mariano Quartet showcases her excellent performance skills.  Her technique is flawless and she has a wide repertory of lines and ideas, all of which are based in bebop.  However, the modernist approaches which would mark her later playing, via the then 'trending' modal styles à la Bill Evans, is also evident.  Her composition "The Long, Yellow Road" is based on childhood memories growing up in Manchuria, and she would continue to explore Japanese culture as a basis for composition with her big band in the 1970s.  Her identity shines through here.

by John Gavreau — Program for Jazz Festival at Pleasure Island 1960

Toshiko Mariano Quartet

This album is co-led her with her then-husband Charlie Mariano (1923-2009) and they are joined by bassist Gene Cherico and drummer Eddie Marshall.  I had mentioned that Mariano was considered a Bird-rip-off and Hentoff states that that was his "main problem" for years.  While the bebop language might be solidly under his fingers, his sound is quite uniquely his own.  A passionate player, he has a biting tone and his upper register is particularly strong and piercing.  I would say it's more in the direction of a rhythm and blues player with just a bit of growl.  Originally from Boston, he came to prominence through his stint in the 1950s with Stan Kenton. 

Gene Cherico (1935-1994) is on bass and has had a busy career besides his long association with Akiyoshi, playing with Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Gary Burton, George Shearing and others before sadly retiring in 1984 having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Eddie Marshall (1938-2011) played with Bobby Hutcherson in the 1970s and was also the house drummer during this time at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco accompanying Dexter Gordon, George Benson, Toots Thielmans, and others.  A longtime and towering presence in the Bay Area, he was the grandson of early jazz drummer Kaiser Marshall who recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, though he didn't know him.  Together the group had been playing at Boston's Storyville for a while.  

Charlie Mariano

Side one features two originals by Mariano and they are both modern jazz tunes in 1960.  The first "When You Meet Her" features a sixteen bar section of 3/4 followed by eight bars of 4/4.  Brubeck's Time Out was released in December 1959 and it featured then-exotic odd-time signatures to jazz, but Mariano and Akiyoshi burn through the meter changes with no problem in their improvisations.  Akiyoshi's solo blends bebop lines with motivic ideas based on the modal 3/4 vamp.  She is absolutely fearless in her playing and just goes for it, reflecting her true nature evidenced by her career.  Cherico gets one chorus and his solo is rhythmic in nature, superimposing two against the 3/4 meter.  

"Little T" by Mariano begins with the composer playing solo and then accompanied by bowed bass.  Akiyoshi has a short solo section where she seems to be exploring modal voicings, before the Mariano launches into the tune, a modal tune over a swinging, medium groove.  His solo is excellent here and there's something about the timbre in his upper register that is reminiscent of avant-garde and free players.   He sounds like he's one or steps removed from those genres and I think his influence seems formidable.  Akiyoshi sounds like she's been absorbed into the sounds of Bill Evans and there are some really nice modern flourishes with piano clusters and lines that remind me of Herbie Hancock!  Cherico plays a terrific solo here and proves to be an excellent bassist, exploring his instrument's upper range, basing his solo in rhythmic ideas,  and contrasting longer lines with single-note rhythmic variations.  Prior to the bass solo, there was a short interlude and after a repeat of the interlude, the head out is played in reverse form ending with Mariano and bowed bass.

Original 1961 cover

"Toshiko's Elegy" is very much in the hard bop style with breaks, latin section, and some attractive harmonic changes.  In general on this album, the arrangements are filled with rhythmic hits and individual parts for members of the group similar to Oscar Peterson, who "discovered" Akiyoshi.  This tune also has a whole tone section which both Mariano and Akiyoshi just blow through with no problem.  It really feels like there isn't anything that Akiyoshi cannot play.  She is a virtuoso pianist and has superior technique.  Mariano, by contrast, is more overtly emotional.  His solo is as usual excellent and behind him, Akiyoshi and Marshall engage in rhythmic hits similar to what Red Garland and 'Philly Joe' Jones used to play in Miles Davis' first quintet.  

Mariano shines best on "Deep Deep River".  The spiritual is nicely arranged by Akiyoshi and played at a slow-medium tempo.  After a joyful gospel-like intro from Akiyoshi, a short rubato section with Mariano leads to a contemplative rhythmic vamp as a setting for the melody.  He is featured throughout and the spirituality aspect seems to resonate strongly with him.  It is his finest performance on the album.

The melody for "The Long Yellow Road" alternates written out parts for the group with straight-forward swing sections.  It is thoroughly modern in its sound and harmonic progression.  I mentioned the connection to her childhood, but it's clear from this and "Toshiko's Elegy" that omposition is important to her.  Her solo here is amazing.  

Altogether this is an excellent album and jazz is lucky to have someone like Hentoff with the foresight to document a lot of important music.  He recognized her importance and her plight only a few years after her debut. Her music deserves to be heard and understood, but is too often often ignored, mostly, perhaps, because, in the U.S. anyway it is not easily acquired.  For those interested, it can be found on YouTube, but this album was last released in the U.S. in 1980.  Much of her catalogue was issued only in Japan and there seems to be some gems in there.