Maki Asakawa, Date of Birth, Date of Death

    

Maki Asakawa

Japanese singer

Date of Birth: 27-Jan-1942

Date of Death: 17-Jan-2010

Profession: composer, singer, singer-songwriter, lyricist, jazz musician

Nationality: Japan

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius


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About Maki Asakawa

  • Maki Asakawa (????, 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, ?????? (Yo ga aketara; At the Break of Dawn) and ??? (Kamome; Gull) in 1969.
  • Her debut album, ??????? (Asakawa Maki no Sekai; Maki Asakawa's World), was released in 1970. In addition to writing and composing, she also released cover versions of traditional American folk and blues freely rendered into Japanese, such as "Kimyo na kajitsu (?????)" (Strange Fruit), "Asahi no ataru ie (???????)" (The House of the Rising Sun), "Gin House Blues", etc. 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.

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