(December 24, 1958 – November 30, 2008) was a Japanese musician and record producer. He is best known as the original drummer of the heavy metal band

Loudness In acoustics, loudness is the subjectivity, subjective perception of sound pressure. More formally, it is defined as the "attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud". The relat ...

, but first rose to prominence as a member of Lazy in the 1970s.

Career

From a young age, he was considered a talented drummer. During his high school years, Higuchi played in seven bands. But he was not happy with this situation, wanting to focus his time on only one band. At this point, schoolmate and future bandmate Akira Takasaki came along and they formed Lazy. Lazy was formed by very young musicians and started playing easy-listening

pop-rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

, that slowly progressed to more complex music. Higuchi was identified in the band by the moniker "Davy". When he and Takasaki shifted their musical interests to

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

and heavy metal, they founded

in 1981. During his time with Loudness, Higuchi released his first solo album, ''Destruction'', in 1983. In the same year he produced and played drums on Mari Hamada's studio albums '' Lunatic Doll'' and '' Romantic Night''. He left Loudness in 1992, and resumed his solo career in the late-1990s, working also on side projects, including Sly (with former Loudness' singer Minoru Niihara), Bloodcircus, Rose of Rose, and the Rock 'n' Roll Standard Club Band, besides collaborating with dozens of Japanese artists, both as producer and as drummer. In 1997, as "Munetaka Higuchi & Dream Castle", he released the album ''Free World''. The band featured many famous musicians from the jazz and rock/metal spheres, like

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai ( ; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a Transcription (music), transc ...

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fus ...

, Billy Sheehan,

Ty Tabor Ty Tabor ( ; born September 17, 1961) is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist for the hard rock band King's X. Tabor has a wide-ranging guitar style, from big guitar riffs to middling melodic passages ...

Terry Bozzio Terry John Bozzio (born December 27, 1950) is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons, U.K., and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missi ...

, T. M. Stevens, Ronnie James Dio, Richie Kotzen,

Paulinho Da Costa Paulinho da Costa (, born Paulo Roberto da Costa on May 31, 1948) is a Brazilian percussionist. Beginning his career as a samba musician in Brazil, he moved to the United States in the early 1970s and worked with Brazilian bandleader Sérgio Me ...

and others. The album was released on February 21, 1997, in Japan. In 1998, he produced '' Cozy Powell Forever ~ Tribute to Cozy Powell'', a tribute album to the recently deceased drummer

Cozy Powell Cozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, B ...

, very popular in Japan. For the album, Higuchi had the collaboration of the best Japanese heavy metal musicians and was able to reunite his former bandmates of Loudness. A tour in support of the album was made with musicians from Loudness and Sly. He returned to Loudness in 2000, maintaining his high profile in the metal genre. On April 14, 2008, just two months after Loudness released the album, '' Metal Mad'', it was announced that he was diagnosed with

hepatocellular carcinoma Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults and is currently the most common cause of death in people with cirrhosis. HCC is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. HCC most common ...

, a type of liver cancer. On November 30, 2008, Munetaka died at the age of 49 in a hospital in Osaka, Japan. His death had a vast echo in Japanese media and in the entertainment business.

Equipment

Higuchi endorsed

Pearl Drums , simply known as Pearl, is a multinational corporation based in Japan with a wide range of products, predominantly percussion instruments. History Time! Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa -who began manufacturing music stands in Sumida, T ...

, Sabian Cymbals,

Remo Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumheads, drums, and drum hardware, hardware, and various percussio ...

drumheads and

Vic Firth Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth (June 2, 1930 – July 26, 2015) was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. He was also known for his association ...

drumsticks.

Discography

*''Destruction'' ~破壊凱旋録~ (1983) *''Munetaka Higuchi with Dream Castle – Free World'' (1997) *'' Cozy Powell Forever'' (1998) *''Super Rock Summit – Cozy Powell Forever Tour'' (1999) *''Super Rock Summit – Stairway to Heaven'' (1999) *''Super Rock Summit – Rainbow Eyes'' (1999) *''Munetaka Higuchi Drum Collection'' (2006) *''Higuchi Project Team - Free World II'' (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higuchi, Munetaka 1958 births 2008 deaths Deaths from liver cancer in Japan Japanese rock drummers People from Nara, Nara Japanese heavy metal drummers Loudness (band) members Musicians from Nara Prefecture 20th-century Japanese drummers 21st-century Japanese drummers Lazy (band) members