Masayoshi Takanaka
Masayoshi Takanaka | |
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 Takanaka around 1979. | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Tokyo, Japan |
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| Years active | 1970–Present |
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| Website | takanaka |
Masayoshi Takanaka (Japanese: 高中正義, Hepburn: Takanaka Masayoshi; born March 27, 1953) is a Japanese guitarist, composer, and producer. Takanaka made his career debut playing progressive rock at various Japanese rock festivals throughout the early 70s, before composing various jazz/funk pieces and branching off into a solo career. He has worked with many other Japanese fusion musicians such as Jun Fukamachi, Rei Ohara, Nobu Saito, Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami, Naoya Matsuoka, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akiko Yano, and Kazumi Watanabe.
Takanaka has released 57 albums and 25 video releases.[1] He has gained significant notoriety in recent years, primarily due to his 1979 compilation album, "All of Me".
Early Life
Takanaka was born as Masayoshi Liu on March 27, 1953 in Akabane, Kita Ward, Tokyo, to a Chinese father (surname Liu) from Nanjing and a Japanese mother (surname Takanaka). His parents met (and married) in Japan, when Mr. Liu emigrated there after World War II. Soon after Masayoshi’s birth, the family moved to Ōimachi in Shinagawa Ward, where they ran a mahjong parlor called Sangenkaku in the local shopping district.
When he was in the fourth grade, Masayoshi was naturalized as a Japanese citizen, changing his name from Masayoshi Liu (劉 正義) to Masayoshi Takanaka (高中 正義).[2]
Growing up, he attended the private Ono Gakuen elementary school. Takanaka's interest in music started in 1964, aged 11, when his older brother of 3 years took him to see the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night". This sparked his interest in guitar, and together they bought a Teisco branded guitar. Throughout his childhood, he enjoyed listening to The Beatles and The Ventures, also playing guitar with his brother. In his teens, he moved on to Led Zeppelin, Cream, and Eric Clapton. He liked these groups, however he cites one of his biggest influences as guitarist Alvin Lee from the band Ten Years After.
Takanaka recounted this in a 1980 radio interview, saying, "Back then, I got into bands like [Ten Years After]. They played this super intense, hard-hitting rock n’ roll, with crazy fast riffs. And there was this guitarist in one of them, Alvin [Lee], I think it was. He was this guy with hands that moved at lightning speed. So I got a tape of his playing, and I slowed the tape speed down to half. That made it play slower, right? And it took me about two weeks to finally copy one song. Hmm, it was such a fast song. And then, at school festivals or whenever I got asked to play, like at those Hibiya hundred-yen concerts that were popular back then, I'd get to be the opening act or something like that. That's how I did it."
4 years later, in 1968, he began attending the Musashi Institute of Technology High School, where he always ranked at the top of his class despite spending much of his free time practising guitar. He had to attend this school because Ono Gakuen only transferred into an all-girls school at the secondary level. During his time at the Musashi Institute, he became a classmate with the older brother of Satoshi Takebe, who would later play keyboards in Takanaka's 1997 album "Rainbow Legend II The White Goblin". He had initially applied to Hibiya High School with the aim of entering the University of Tokyo, but was instead accepted into Kudan High School due to the school group system at the time. He wasn't happy with this, instead sticking with his first option of the Musashi Institute.
Around this time, he worked a part time job at Nippon Express, however it was so tough he quit after one day. This was the only job he held outside of being a musician. He attended university briefly, but dropped out to pursue a career in music.
Beginning of Music Career (Progressive Rock)
At age 16, Takanaka experienced his very first time playing music on stage. This happened at a 1969[cite] concert for the band Apryl Fool, where the guitarist was too drunk to play. He shouted to the audience, "does anybody know how to play guitar?", and Takanaka stepped up to the stage.
While still 16 years old (in early 1970), Takanaka performed with cover bands for Jimmy Hendrix and Grand Funk Railroad, often playing at various US military bases. One of these bands was The Evil, who are recorded playing at the Pace Camp of Fuchu Air Base in Tokyo.[3] These are the oldest known recordings of Takanaka playing.
Later that year, Takanaka formed his own band named Escape with Keizo Ishiyama, Hikaru Takeya, and Susumu Hatano. Escape is noted as having performed at Shibuya Jean-Jean some time in 1970. He also played in a band called Brush around this time, however very little info exists on either band. These are probably the bands he would play with at the Hibiya hundred-yen concerts.
In 1971, Takanaka made his first step towards a mainstream music career, joining the Hiro Yanagida Group as a support member. He initially wanted to play guitar, however the band was in need of a bassist, so Yanagida forced him into playing bass. Takanaka would go on to perform with the Yanagida Group as a backing band for Nobuyasu Okabayashi's "Mad Bloom" concert at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, on July 28th 1971. This was his first mainstream music concert, and a live album would be released that same year, marking his very first credited appearance on an album.
By the next month, Takanaka had left the Yanagida Group and had instead joined Strawberry Pass, the band of prog rock guitarist Shigeru Narumo. Once again, Takanaka was forced to play bass, as Strawberry Pass already had Narumo as their guitarist. Narumo would give daily music lessons to Takanaka, teaching him how to play bass better and to improve his music theory skills. Takanaka performed with Strawberry Pass at Hakone Aphrodite, a very large rock concert held at the Seikei Gakuen Hakone-ryo (a custom built music venue) over the course of 2 days (August 6th and 7th) in 1971. Strawberry Pass performed on the 6th, to be specific. Notably, this festival also included performances from the Sadao Watanabe Group and Pink Floyd.
One month after Hakone Aphrodite, Narumo decided to welcome Takanaka as a permanent member. With this change, Strawberry Pass was renamed to Flied Egg. Their popularity grew, and Flied Egg eventually became one of the most influential prog rock bands in Japan. Debuting in March 1972 with their first album, they played a handful of live shows throughout 1972 (only 3 of which are known) until their farewell concert on September 19th, 1972. Following this concert, the group disbanded.
Sadistic Mika Band
After the disbandment of Flied Egg, Takanaka
