About

TAV ESSENTIAL LISTENING

‘A good place to start… Her basic sound and image were interior-life bohemian, and in some ways she was cagey with her talent. She didn’t belt or improvise broadly. She picked a limited range of notes and climbed into them, applying a pinch of vibrato, letting her voice fade and crackle. These tracks clearly demonstrate her guiding desire, which was to explore the possibilities of the slow blues in the late 20th century, whatever that might mean. Some of the most intense recordings she made were English-language covers or Japanese rewrites of American jazz standards, blues songs and spirituals, backed by only acoustic guitar and drums. She sang slowly, as if there were weights on her. And after a while of her working and your listening, you’ll hear it: the way she connects intimately with her task but keeps something private for herself’ - New York Times 

Maki Asakawa (浅川 マキ? Asakawa Maki, January 27, 1942 – January 17, 2010) was a Japanese jazz and blues singer, lyricist and composer.

Born in Mikawa (now part of the city of Hakusan), Ishikawa Prefecture, after graduating high school she worked for a time as a teller in the local national pensions office before moving to Tokyo. Particularly influenced by the styles of Mahalia Jackson and Billie Holiday, she began her career singing at US Army bases and at cabarets.

Asakawa made her debut recording, "Tokyo Banka/Amen Jiro" with Victor in 1967. After appearing in a series of concerts organized by underground playwright Shuji Terayama in 1968, she signed with Toshiba, presently EMI Music Japan, and released the popular songs, 夜が明けたら (Yo ga aketara; At the Break of Dawn) and かもめ (Kamome; Gull) in 1969. Her debut album, 浅川マキの世界 (Asakawa Maki no Sekai; Maki Asakawa's World), was released in 1970.

In addition to writing and composing, she also released cover versions of US traditional folk and blues, freely rendered into Japanese, such as "Asahi no ataru ie (朝日のあたる家)" (The House of the Rising Sun).

She became popular in the 1970s and had made more than 30 releases by the end of the 1990s, after which she was mostly known for performing live.

Asakawa collaborated with musicians such as Yosuke Yamashita and Ryuichi Sakamoto. She continued performing live until the time of her death. Scheduled to perform in Nagoya January 15–17, 2010, she died before her show on the 17th, at the age of 67, of heart failure. – Wiki

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