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Masahiko Satoh

Masahiko Satoh (佐藤 允彦, Satō Masahiko, born 6 October 1941) is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and arranger.

Early life[edit]

Satoh was born in Tokyo on 6 October 1941.^[1] His mother was Setsu and his father, who owned small businesses, was Yoshiaki Satoh.^[2] The house that his family moved into in 1944 contained a piano; Masahiko started playing it at the age of five.^[2] He began playing the piano professionally at the age of 17,^[2][3] "accompanying singers, magicians and strippers at a cabaret in the Ginza district".^[2]

Later life and career[edit]

By 1959 Satoh was playing in Georgie Kawaguchi's band, together with alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe and tenor saxophonist Akira Miyazawa.^[2] Satoh graduated from Keio University.^[4]

At the age of 26, Satoh moved to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music.^[5] He stayed for two years,^[3] during which he read about composing and arranging.^[2] He earned money working in a food shop and playing the piano in a hotel.^[3] In 1968 he wrote the music for, and conducted, a series of pieces that were combined with dance and performed in New York.^[6] After returning to Japan, he recorded Palladium, his first album as leader, and appeared on a Helen Merrill album.^[4]

In his early career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Satoh played in a free, percussive style.^[7] Satoh played at the 1971 Berlin Jazz Festival as part of a trio; he used a then-unusual ring modulator to alter the sound.^[8] Also in the early 1970s, he recorded with Attila Zoller, Karl Berger, and Albert Mangelsdorff.^[4] He wrote the psychedelic music for the 1973 anime film Belladonna of Sadness.^[9]

Satoh has written arrangements for recordings led by, among others, Merrill, Kimiko Itoh, and Nancy Wilson.^[4] He also arranged for strings and quartet on Art Farmer's 1983 album Maiden Voyage.^[4]

In 1990 Satoh formed a large group, named Rantooga, that combined various forms of folk musics from around the world.^[10] In the early 1990s he composed music for a choir of 1,000 Buddhist monks.^[11] In the early 1990s he was reported as stating that 70% of his time was spent on arranging and composing, and the rest on playing and recording.^[2]

Compositions[edit]

Satoh has composed for film, television and advertisements.^[2] For instance, he made the music of Kanashimi no Belladonna, a film in which the sound is very important ; all the songs of this movie are performed by his wife, Chinatsu Nakayama.

Some of his compositions are influenced by the space in the works of composer Toru Takemitsu.^[12] Satoh has also composed for traditional Japanese instruments, including the shakuhachi and biwa.^[13]

Discography[edit]

An asterisk (*) after the year indicates that it is the year of release.

As leader/co-leader[edit]

As sideman[edit]

In popular culture[edit]

A fictionalized version of Masahiko Satoh appears in Izumi Suzuki's short story "Hey, It's a Love Psychedelic!" as the narrator's love interest.

References[edit]

Bibliography

• Suzuki, Izumi (2023). Hit Parade of Tears. Verso. ISBN 978-1-83976-849-1.