was a Japanese pianist, active in

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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and

video game soundtracks Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

. Sayama began playing piano as a child and became interested in jazz after seeing the film ''

The Glenn Miller Story ''The Glenn Miller Story'' is a 1954 American biographical film about the eponymous American band-leader, directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western collaboration. Plot The film follows big band leader Glen ...

''. He studied music at

Kunitachi College of Music The is a private music conservatory in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1926 as the Tokyo Conservatory of Music, Kunitachi now offers study programs in performance, music education, composition, computer music, and musicology, for bache ...

and began playing jazz professionally in the early 1970s, working with

Toshiyuki Honda Toshiyuki Honda (born April 9, 1957, Tokyo) is a Japanese jazz musician and composer. Honda's father was a jazz critic, whose name was also Toshiyuki Honda. As a jazz musician, he learned flute and saxophone, and worked in the late 1970s with Geo ...

Shigeharu Mukai is a Japanese jazz trombonist. Mukai attended Doshisha University but left before obtaining his degree to become a professional musician. Early in his career he worked with Yoshio Otomo, Ryo Kawasaki, and Hiroshi Fukumura, then led his own ens ...

, and Kazunori Takeda. He was a member of

Shuichi Murakami (January 1, 1951 – March 9, 2021) was a Japanese jazz drummer and session musician. Career Murakami was born in Nishinomiya. He first learned to play French horn, but switched to classical percussion as a teenager before settling on the ...

's trio Ponta Box and also led his own ensembles. In 1991 he began playing with Masahiko Osaka. Sayama also played for video game soundtracks, including ''

Final Fantasy X-2 is a 2003 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation 2. Unlike most ''Final Fantasy'' games, which use self-contained stories and characters, ''X-2'' continues the story of '' Final Fantasy X'' (2001). The ...

''. Sayama died on November 14, 2018, at the age of 64.ジャズピアニスト　佐山雅弘氏のご逝去について
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References

Japanese jazz pianists 1953 births 2018 deaths {{Japan-musician-stub