Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto (松本英彦) (October 12, 1926,

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

– February 29, 2000, Tokyo) was a Japanese

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

saxophonist and bandleader. Born in

and raised in

Fuchū, Hiroshima 270px, Aerial view of central Fuchū 270px, Panorama of Fuchū 270px, Fuchū Park is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 36,326 in 17013 households and a population density of 190 pers ...

, Matsumoto played

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

in Japan in the late 1940s with the group CB Nine, then joined The Six Josés and The Big Four, a group which included

George Kawaguchi Joji "George" Kawaguchi (川口譲二) (June 15, 1927, Fukakusa, Kyoto - November 1, 2003, Tokyo) was a Japanese jazz drummer and bandleader. Kawaguchi was raised in Dairen, Manchukuo, at that time a Japanese-occupied territory. He played in his f ...

Hachidai Nakamura was a Japanese songwriter and jazz pianist. Biography Hachidai Nakamura was born in Qingdao, Republic of China, to Japanese parents, before moving to Kurume at a young age, where he attended high school. He graduated from Waseda University in Tok ...

, and

Mitsuru Ono Mitsuru (みつる, ミツル) is a unisex Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: Written forms Forms in kanji can include: *, "full/fullness" *, "grow/raise" *, "light flow" People with the name *, Japanese manga author *, ...

. In 1959 he became a member of Hideo Shiraki's small ensemble, and played with

Gerald Wilson Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. He arranged music for D ...

at the 1963

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and

Toshiko Akiyoshi is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Akiyoshi received fourteen Grammy Award nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer awards in ''Down Beat'' magazine's annual Readers' Poll. In 1984, sh ...

in 1964. Starting in 1964 he led his own ensembles, which have included as sidemen Takeshi Inomata, Akira Miyazawa, George Otsuka, and

Isao Suzuki was a Japanese jazz double-bassist. Biography Born in Tokyo, Japan, Suzuki learned to play bass on United States military bases, and played early in his career with Shotaro Moriyasu, Hidehiko Matsumoto, and Sadao Watanabe. He led his own ense ...

. On July 22 and 24, 1966, he played with the

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

quintet in Tokyo while the group was touring Japan.

References

*"Hidehiko Matsumoto". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed.

Barry Kernfeld Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians. Education In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsumoto, Hidehiko Japanese jazz saxophonists Japanese jazz bandleaders Musicians from Hiroshima Prefecture Musicians from Okayama Prefecture 1926 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Japanese saxophonists