Saturday, July 26, 2025

J.C. Higginbotham - Jazz Trombonist [From the Archives with Additions]]

 © -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.



I got to hear J.C. Higginbotham in performance during my first visit to a Jazz festival.

The occasion was a July 4, 1957 birthday tribute to Louis Armstrong that was held as part of the American Jazz Festival in Newport, RI. The following year, it changed its named to the Newport Jazz Festival.

On the night in question, J.C. Higginbotham performed as part of a group headed by his long time running mate from New Orleans, trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen. Also on hand were two other trombonists who had a long association with Pops: Kid Ory and Jack Teagarden.

Big T, Kid and J.C. made up one heckuva trombone section.

I really didn’t know much about J.C.’s earlier career until I read the following piece by George Hoefer which appeared in the January 30, 1964 edition of down beat magazine. I found it to be especially helpful because it also included a discography of J.C.’s earlier recordings.

This feature is part of a continuing effort by the JazzProfiles editorial staff to chronicle the careers of some of the earliest makers of the music to show our appreciation and to help keep their memory alive. No them; no Jazz.

It is also interesting to explore the earlier environments in which the music took place and some of the zany characters who were associated with it.


The Early Career of J.C. Higginbotham

“THE ORIENTATION of pre-bop trombone took a wide range of development, from the percussive tailgate of Kid Ory to the smooth, melodic playing of Lawrence Brown. Between these two extremes evolved playing styles based on the personal creativity of such men as Georg Brunis, Jimmy Harrison, Miff Mole, Tricky Sam Nanton, Jack Teagarden, and J. C. Higginbotham.

Higginbotham, who has acknowledged the influence of Harrison, once wrote, "If a man has technical ability and understands harmony (whether through formal training or sheer intuition), he should be able to express himself. But the result still depends on what is going on in his mind."

Higginbotham's most exciting and productive period came when he was a leading soloist with the late Luis Russell's Saratoga Club Orchestra between 1928 and '30. He was a blues player established in a New Orleans setting with such natives as trumpeter Red Allen, clarinetist Albert Nicholas, pianist Russell, bassist Pops Foster, and drummer Paul Barbarin; and his performances fit well into the scheme of things. His solos at fast tempos were characterized by his terrific drive, hot brassy tone, and fierce vibrato; and even on slow numbers he still played in a shout style.

To quote Higginbotham again, he has written, "The important things about a jazz musician are how he is thinking, the emotions that compel him to play, his attitude toward music, musicians, and people in general."

In his playing, Higginbotham has illustrated many of his personal characteristics, but his slap-bang, devil-may-care facade serves to hide from view his deep and sincere personal attitudes. While he could arrive in New Orleans in 1947 for an Esquire concert with two case — one holding his trombone, the other containing nine bottles of whiskey — and wind up playing seated on the floor, he could write, at the same time, in a national magazine, an article entitled Some of My Best Friends Are Enemies, illustrating a sensitive and keen judgment of the racial situation as applying to the Negro musicians.

JACK (JAY C.)  HIGGINBOTHAM was born in Atlanta, Ga., on May 11, 1906.   His family owned a restaurant and was fairly well-to-do.  He had an older brother, Garnet, who played trombone and was the coach of the football team at Morris Brown University. He also had a sister who was interested in his musical inclinations and bought him his first trombone. The other musical Higginbothams included, in later years, his niece, songwriter Irene, now married and living in Brooklyn.

Young Higginbotham's first instrument was a bugle he picked up for a dollar and with which he learned to play well-known tunes by ear when 13. On Sundays he played the Poet and Peasant Overture on his bugle in the chapel of his church.

A couple of years later his sister put $11 down on an old, caseless trombone she found in a shop in Decatur, Ga. He was now on his way, and the first tune he learned to play on his new horn was My Old Kentucky Home.

He was enrolled at a boarding school, connected with Morris Brown, and managed to sneak out three nights a week (he was forced to climb a gate to get back in) to play on a hotel roof garden in Atlanta with the Neal Montgomery Orchestra. The band had two girl musicians, pianist Marion Hamilton and drummer Mae Bates, one of whom wanted to marry the 15-year-old trombone player. When the girl tried to make up his mind for him by poking a pistol at his stomach, he decided to forfeit the sum of $9 that he had been making for the three nights of playing.

A short time later, he was sent to Cincinnati to study the tailoring business at the Cincinnati Colored Training School. After finishing the short course, he returned to Atlanta to finish up his education at Morris Brown, but he had taken to the Ohio city, and it wasn't long before he returned to work as a mechanic at the Cincinnati plant of General Motors. Nights he spent gigging with Wesley Helvey's band, a local territory outfit that later featured trumpeter Jonah Jones.

The young trombonist became a regular member of the Helvey band during 1924-25 and recalls the stars of the group were trumpeters Theodore (Wingie) Carpenter and Steve Dunn. The three brass men hung around together and frequently visited with the members of the Zack Whyte Orchestra when the latter was in town.

One-armed Wingie Carpenter was the first to go farther north, and in 1926 he sent for Higginbotham to come on up and join the Gene Primus Band then playing at the Paradise Ballroom in Buffalo, N. Y.

A short time later Higginbotham went with another Buffalo band led by pianist Jimmy Harris. Then he went to New York City in September, 1928, and joined Luis Russell's band at the Club Harlem on Lenox Ave. For the next two years, the peak period of the Russell crew, they played regularly at the Savoy Ballroom, the Roseland Ballroom on Broadway, the Sunday night sessions at the Next Club uptown, and toured the circuit from New York to Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Md., to Philadelphia, Pa. Finally, they settled down at the Saratoga Club, and though today Higginbotham says, "It was the swingingest band I ever played with," he began to get restless.

One of Higginbotham's favorite bands of all time was the Chick Webb aggregation, and when trombonist Jimmy Harrison's last illness took him out of the band, bassist Elmer James recommended Higginbotham to the drummer-leader as a replacement.

After several months with Webb, the Georgia trombonist switched to the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and remained until 1933. When Lucky Millinder took over the leadership of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band in 1934, Higginbotham, with his pal from the early Russell days, Red Allen, went with Millinder for several years. Then, in 1937, they both rejoined Russell, whose band at the time was fronted by Louis Armstrong.

Allen and Higginbotham finally left Russell for good in 1940 and organized a small jazz group. During most of the 1940s, some of the '50s (Higginbotham worked with his own group for long periods in both Cleveland and Boston), and occasionally today the brass team of Allen and Higginbotham has been together more often than not."                                     

Early Higginbotham Discography

New York City, Feb. 1, 1929
King Oliver and His Orchestra — Louis Metcalf, cornet; Higginbotham, trombone; Charlie Holmes, soprano saxophone; Greely Walton, clarinet; Luis Russell, piano; Will Johnson, guitar; Bass Moore,  tuba; Paul Barbarin, drums.
CALL OF THE FREAKS (48333)
Victor V38039, Bluebird B6546, B7705
THE TRUMPET'S PRAYER (48334)
Victor V38039, Bluebird B6546, B7705

New York City, July 16, 1929
Henry Allen and His New Yorkers— Allen, trumpet; Higginbotham, trombone;
Albert   Nicholas,   clarinet;   Holmes,   alto saxophone; Russell, piano; Johnson, guitar; Pops Foster, bass; Barbarin, drums.
IT SHOULD BE You (55133)
..... .Victor V38073, Bluebird B10235
BIFFLY BLUES (55134)
......Victor V38073, Bluebird B10235

New York City, Sept. 9, 1929
Luis Russell and His Orchestra—Allen, Bill Coleman, trumpets; Higginbotham, trombone, vocal; Nicholas, clarinet, alto saxophone; Holmes, alto, soprano saxophones; Teddy Hill, tenor saxophone; Russell, piano; Johnson, guitar; Foster, bass; Barbarin, drums.
FEELIN' THE SPIRIT (402939)
...........Okeh 8766, Vocalion 3480

New York City, Feb. 5, 1930
J. C. Higginbotham and His Six Hicks —Allen, trumpet; Higginbotham, trombone; Holmes, alto saxophone; Russell, piano; Johnson, guitar; Foster, bass; Barbarin, drums.
GIVE ME YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER
(403736)   ...............Okeh  8772,
Hot Record Society 14 HIGGINBOTHAM BLUES (403737)
___Okeh 8772, Hot Record Society 14,
Columbia 36011

Oct. 16, 1933
Benny Carter and His Orchestra—Eddie Mallory, Bill Dillard, Dick Clark, trumpets; Higginbotham, Fred Robinson, Keg Johnson, trombones; Benny Carter, Way-man Carver, Johnny Russell, Glyn Pacque, saxophones; Teddy Wilson, piano; Lawrence Lucie, guitar; Bass Hill, bass; Sid Catlett, drums.
SYMPHONY IN RIFFS (265162)
.................... .Columbia 2898


Wednesday, July 23, 2025

For Your Consideration - Just Published

 

This second volume o Jazz Drummers A Reader is now available as a paperback and eBook exclusively on Amazon.com.





TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION - “Jazz Drumming by Burt Korall,” pp. 7-19

Chapter 1. Mel Lewis - The Big Band Man by Dan Morgenstern, pp. 20-27

Chapter 2. Mel Lewis - A "Signature Drummer"by Loren Schoenberg, pp. 28-32

Chapter 3. Mel Lewis - "Silver Minus One" - Francis Davis, pp. 33-36

Chapter 4. Alan Dawson - The Poll Winner as Teacher by Dan Morgenstern, pp.37-40

Chapter 5. Alan Dawson - The 1977 Modern Drummer Interview by Peter Danckert, pp. 41-47  

Chapter 6. Frankie Dunlop - Monk's Drummer by Ira Gitler, pp. 48-51

Chapter 7. Frankie Dunlop - Monk's Drummer by Steven H. Siegel, pp. 52-61

Chapter 8. Frank Isola - "Le Scrupuleux":  The Gordon Jack Essay, pp. -62-68

Chapter 9. Osie Johnson: An Undistinguished Distinctive Drummer by Steven A. Cerra and Nat Hentoff, pp. 69-72

Chapter 10. Big Sid [Catlett] by George Hoefer, pp. 73-79

Chapter 11. Triple Play - A Metronome Interview with Buddy Rich by Bill Coss and David Solomon, pp. 80-83

Chapter 12. Connie Kay - One Drummer Who Doesn't Care to Solo by John S. Wilson, pp. 84-87

Chapter 13. Philly Joe Jones - The Return of Dracula by Dom Cerulli, pp. 88-92

Chapter 14. Sam Woodyard: A Real Swinger, Steven A. Cerra and Stanley Dance, pp. 93-98

Chapter 15. Jake Hanna - The Timeliest, Swinging Drummer by Marian McPartland, pp. 99-103

Chapter 16. Ed Thigpen – The Drummer as Colorist and Percussionist by Steven A. Cerra, pp. 104-106

Chapter 17. Ed Thigpen - "Boy with Drum" by Gene Lees, pp. 107-118

Chapter 18. Joe Dodge - The Gordon Jack Interview, pp. 119-124

Chapter 19. Jimmy Cobb: Seasoned Sideman by Rick Mattingly, pp. 125-131

Chapter 20. Steve Gadd - The Ben Sidran Interview, pp.132-142

Chapter 21. Ed Shaughnessy and The Joys of Jazz Drumming by Burt Korall, pp. 143-146

Chapter 22. Billy Cobham: The Atlantic Years, pp. 147-152

Chapter 23. Billy Cobham by Cheech Iero, pp. 153-160

Chapter 24. Paul Motian - "Poetry in Motion" by Howard Mandel with an Introduction by Steven A. Cerra, pp. 161-168

Chapter 25. Allan Ganley - "THE OLD CHING-CHING-CHING " by Simon Spillett, pp. 169-178

Chapter 26. Allan Ganley - The Complete Quartet and Jazzmakers Recordings by Simon Spillett, pp. 179-194

Chapter 27. Sonny Payne - Count Basie's Swinger by John Tynan, pp. 195-197

Chapter 28. Sonny Payne - "You've Got To Study All Forms of Music" -  Sonny Payne Advises Drummers - Crescendo International, July 1971, pp. 198-200

Chapter 29. Dave Bailey with Gordon Jack, pp. 201-206

Chapter 30. Johnnie Rae -  “Total Musicality” - MD March 1985 Charles Bernstein, pp. 207-218

Chapter 31. Billy Higgins - A Lesson in Lovemaking - Valerie Wilmer, pp. 219-224

Chapter 32. Louis Hayes Visits With Les Jeske, pp. 225-232

Chapter 33. Panama Francis - “The One Thing He Wanted for Christmas was a Drum” by Stanley Dance, pp. 233-239

Chapter 34. Bill Stewart: The Tie That Binds - Nate Chinen, pp. 240-245

Chapter 35. Wilbur Campbell - Hot House Drummer by Larry Birnbaum, pp. 246-250

Chapter 36. Gus Johnson, Jr. by Stanley Dance, pp. 251-261

Chapter 37. Chico Hamilton - The Jazz Spoken Here Interview - Wayne Enstice and Paul Rubin, pp. 262-268

Chapter 38. Barry Altschul - Traps in the South Bronx by Peter Keepnews, pp. 269-274

Chapter 39. Adam Nussbaum: The Josef Woodward Interview, pp. 275-289

Chapter 40. Jeff Hamilton — No Compromises - by Robyn Flans, pp. 290-300

Chapter 41. Kenny Washington by Paul Welles, pp. 301-307

Chapter 42. Kenny Washington on Melodic Drumming by Jon McCaslin, pp. 308-316

Chapter 43. Peter Erskine - Steppin’ Out by Bill Beuttler, pp. 317-321

Chapter 44. Peter Erskine - Playing with Intent by Rick Mattingly, pp. 322-329

Chapter 45. Saying "Goodbye" to Dick Berk: 1939-2014, pp. 330-332 

Chapter 46. The Melodic Joe La Barbera by Katherine Alleyne and Judith Sullivan McIntosh, pp. 333-343

Chapter 47. Jack DeJohnette - Naturally Multi-Directional by Les Jeske, pp. 344-348

Chapter 48. Jack DeJohnette - Drummer Drummer  by Howard Mandel, pp. 349-354

Chapter 49. Colin Bailey: The Epitome of a Jazz Drummer by Steven A. Cerra, pp. 355-363

Chapter 50. Eric Ineke - The Ultimate Sideman by Steven A. Cerra, pp. 364-369


Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Cinnamon Flower - The Expanded Edition - The Charlie Rouse Band

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


In addition to all the other sterling qualities that go into making a Master Jazz Saxophonist, Charlie Rouse [1924-1988] had something which all Jazz musicians strive for, whatever their instrument.


He had an instantly recognizable sound of his own.


Four bars of his playing and you knew it was Charlie Rouse.


As Richard Cook details in his Jazz Encyclopedia:


“Although Rouse did front eight albums of his own during a long career of playing, he is always remembered as the saxophonist in Thelonious Monk's quartet. This position came up after many years of work in the music; he joined Dizzy Gillespie's big band in 1945, worked in R&B hands, had brief spells with Duke Ellington and Count Basie, was on Clifford Brown's first record dates, and then led a hard-bop quintet called Les (Jazz) Modes [with French horn player Julius Watkins]. As that band was petering out in 1959, he sat in with Monk at a New York gig and went on to stay for the next 11 years. 


Where Johnny Griffin didn't change his style at all with Monk, and played in the same headlong fashion, Rouse, previously a typically fluent bop player, meticulously adapted himself to Monk's music: his tone became heavier, his phrasing more careful, and he seemed to act as an interlocutor between his leader and the listener. 


In the 1970s he studied acting for a time, and then found a new niche as a guardian of Monk's music in the group Sphere, which acted as a repertory band for the pianist's music [Kenny Barron, piano, Buster Williams, bass and Ben Riley, drums; “Sphere” was Thelonious’ middle name.]


He played a final tribute to his old boss a few weeks before his own death from lung cancer.”


Barry Kernfeld remarks about Charlie in his annotation about him for The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz:


“In the 1960s, Rouse adapted his style to Monk’s work, improvising with greater deliberation than most bop tenor saxophonists, and restating melodies often. His distinctive solo playing with Monk was marked by alternate reiterations of the principal thematic motif with formulaic bop runs.”


Orrin Keepnews who produced Charlie’s first album under his name - Takin’ Care of Business [Jazzland 919 JLPS, 1959], remarked that: “The trouble up to now has been that Rouse takes care of business so professionally and unflamboyantly, that it has been too easy for people to overlook him. Not fellow musicians: they’ve been aware for some time [and have accorded him the recognition of a full-fledged big leaguer].



With this by way of background you won’t want to miss -


THE CHARLIE ROUSE BAND'S BRAZILIAN SPECTACULAR

CINNAMON FLOWER GETS DELUXE REISSUE FROM RESONANCE RECORDS

AS A LIMITED-EDITION 2-LP SET, DELUXE CD & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ON SEPTEMBER 19, 2025

Vibrant 1977 Album Featuring Tenor Man Rouse's Star-Studded Group and Engineered by Resonance Founder George Klabin Will Be Issued in Its Originally Released Version and, for the First Time, in Never-Before-Heard Undubbed Form

Deluxe Package Includes Detailed Liner Notes by Author James Gavin and an Intimate Recollection by the Tenor Player's Son Charlie "Chico" Rouse, Jr.


Brazilian jazz fans will receive a special treat when Resonance Records, the genre's leader in archival releases, will issue the Charlie Rouse Band's Brazilian jazz classic Cinnamon Flower as an expanded two-LP set, single-CD and digital download on September 19, 2025.


The LP package will be issued in a limited edition of 1,000 copies pressed on 180-gram vinyl; the set has been transferred from the original tape reels and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. The first disc reprises the tenor saxophonist's album as it was released in 1977 by Douglas Records, the Casablanca-distributed imprint of producer Alan Douglas; the second LP presents the record for the first time in its original form, without Douglas' overdubbing, as it was engineered by


Resonance founder and co-president George Klabin, and includes an unreleased bonus track. The CD edition will also include both versions of the record and the extra track.


The '77 recording date featured Rouse, who had served as the tenor player in Thelonious Monk's combo for 11 years, playing potent Brazil-inflected music with elegance and soul. He had previously explored the Latin American country's sound on his 1962 Blue Note album Bossa Nova Bacchanal.


Rouse's 11-piece Cinnamon Flower band included such notables as trumpeter Claudio Roditi, pianist Dom Salvador, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Portinho. Before the album was released, producer Douglas — known for adding instrumentation on posthumously released material by guitarist Jimi Hendrix — sweetened it with such additional players as soul drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, keyboardist Roger Powell of Todd Rundgren's Utopia, and trombonist Clifford Adams of funk group Kool & the Gang.


Both packages include detailed liner notes by James Gavin, the author of widely praised biographies of Chet Baker, Peggy Lee, and Lena Horne, and an affecting remembrance of Rouse by his son, musician and educator Charlie "Chico" Rouse, Jr., who oversees the Rouse Estate. It reunites Resonance with Douglas' daughters Solo Douglas and Kirby Veevers, who worked with the label on its 2019 Eric Dolphy release Musical Prophet, which comprised Douglas' 1963 dates with the multi-instrumentalist.


Resonance co-president Zev Feldman says, "Many jazz enthusiasts know Charlie Rouse from the years he spent with Thelonious Monk, but he was much more than simply Monk's saxophonist. He had his own voice and his own style. He had an abiding interest in many musical genres and, as you can hear in this album, a particular affinity for Brazilian music."


The new edition is especially gratifying for Klabin, who racked up a long list of engineering and production credits before founding Resonance in 2008: "This music was originally recorded and engineered by yours truly at my Sound Ideas Studios in New York in the mid-70's. It remains one of my favorites because it combined great Brazilian music with great modern jazz and utilized only the very best players.


"We are pleased to release this memorable recording in two versions: the original, and as modified by Alan Douglas on his label. It is also a pleasure to present for the first time the track 'Meeting House,' written and performed by pianist Dom Salvador, which was not released on the Alan Douglas version."


Music historian Gavin notes, "Fortunately, Cinnamon Flower's original engineer, George Klabin, kept the unaltered tapes. Now, on his acclaimed jazz label Resonance Records, he is releasing the original unadulterated Cinnamon Flower for the first time. The Douglas issue is here too, allowing listeners to judge the difference for themselves. The heart of both versions is Charlie Rouse, a saxophonist whose uniqueness deserves reexamination.


"This Resonance release offers a fresh chance to revisit a musician who almost from the start was deemed 'underrated.' It's not too late for the prediction made in 1988 by Clifford Jordan, Rouse's tenor-playing peer, to come true: 'When someone dies, people stop and listen and realize that maybe he was a bit bigger than they thought. Now, people will start listening to Charlie Rouse."


Chico Rouse says, "I think now the album is going to be more appreciated than when it first came out because of the development and the exposure of Brazilian music here in this culture. I think that this record was a little ahead of its time. I hope that it shows a little bit about what my father was about in terms of being a soloist and having his own individuality, but being aware enough and strong enough to be able to take that and incorporate it into an ensemble to make the whole thing one whole."


For more information please contact;

Ann Braithwaite / Braithwaite & Katz Communications/ ann@bkmusicpr.com



Resonance Records is a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane's Offering: Live at Temple University for "Best Album Notes") that prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance's catalog. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Tawanda, Eddie Daniels, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega. www. Resonance Records.org





Upptankt

THE GIFT by Monty Alexander

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


Over the years, especially during its earliest beginnings, many Jazz musicians were self-taught. Monty Alexander, however, seems to have taken it to another level.


He’s joined by bassist Andrew Simpkins and drummer Frank Gant on the closing video.


THE GIFT


Dear Friends,

Somebody up there likes me.

I really don't know any music; I have not attended any music school or jazz academy.

At an early age I had a few piano lessons which I discontinued as I disliked the experience and what was being told to me.

I don't read music and I never had believed or planned that I could have a career with music to earn a living.

Away from only observing others from a distance, my ability to play music on the piano is something I can only call a GIFT given by a benevolent Spirit. To this day I don't understand it. I am grateful for it.

I feel this gift is a spiritual experience combined with my mind harnessing the ideas coming from various sources. My biggest objective and challenge is getting out of my own way. I give my gratitude to the great Giver of gifts because even now, after having had pancreatic cancer and 2 strokes. I am still able to receive the gift of inspiration and play my musical stories in a joyful way.

I have discovered that this Gift has also been something good for others; others have said they have received enjoyment and upliftment and most meaningfully: healing.

Thank you sincerely,

Monty Alexander, CD., D.Litt

New York City. June 2020



Monday, July 21, 2025

Inside Track (Live At The U.C. Berkeley Jazz Festival, 1984)

This features Tom Scott on alto, Robben Ford on guitar and pianist Victor Feldman and two of his sons making up the rhythm section.

Saturday, July 19, 2025

‘Kaz’ Kajimura, Bay Area Jazz-Club Impresario, Dies at 81

 

‘Kaz’ Kajimura, Bay Area Jazz-Club Impresario, Dies at 81


His club became the go-to spot for generations of musicians touring the West Coast, and a place for local students to play alongside legends

By Charley Locke

July 17, 2025 Wall Street Journal


For nearly five decades, Kazuo “Kaz” Kajimura ran the pre-eminent jazz venue on the West Coast, hosting legends of the genre: Ray Brown, Betty Carter, Hank Jones, Tito Puente.

But visitors to Yoshi’s Jazz Club likely wouldn’t recognize Kajimura as the owner of the club. Six days a week for 50 years, he biked to his job, and stayed largely behind the curtain—building and arranging furniture to create clear sightlines for audiences, fixing leaky toilets, planning artist residencies, clearing tables and picking musicians up from the airport. When friends would ask Toshi Holland, Kajimura’s sister, how they could meet the club owner, “I’d tell them, ‘Find a very tiny Japanese guy who looks like the janitor,’ ” she said. “He was wearing beat-up jeans with dirty hands, because he was always fixing something. That’s my brother.”

The club became proof of how a jazz club could endure, both as a waypoint for generations of artists as they toured the West Coast and as an anchor for the local scene. “To have a club like Yoshi’s, with national touring artists in six or seven days a week, and for it to be profitable, that’s an achievement in and of itself,” said Jason Olaine, vice president of programming at the Jazz at Lincoln Center organization in New York, who worked as the artistic director at Yoshi’s in the early 1990s.

“Yoshi’s is a symbol of how a community can support jazz,” Olaine said.

Kajimura died of Alzheimer’s disease on June 15 in Brentwood, Calif., at the age of 81. He is survived by his wife, Dadre Traughber, and four sisters.

Trumpet on a lake

Kajimura was born on Oct. 31, 1942, in Tokyo. His mother, Yoshi Kajimura, was a cooking teacher; his father, Noriyuki Kajimura, was an engineer. Kajimura’s interests in both music and making things with his hands started in childhood. Growing up after World War II, he would sew doll clothes for his three younger sisters. As a teenager, he decided to teach himself the trumpet, so in the evenings, he’d head to the local park, take a rowboat into the middle of the lake, and practice.

It was the start of a life lived on his terms, shaped by his own convictions. “In Japan, people were expected to live one way, and he wanted to break that,” said Holland. “He told me, ‘You have to make up your own reality.’ ”

In 1972, Kajimura moved to the U.S. and became a reporter, earning a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Stanford. His then-wife, Yoshie Akiba, opened Yoshi’s, a 19-seat Japanese restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., along with a chef, Hugh “Hiro” Hori. Kajimura quickly realized he liked the restaurant business more than journalism, and he started working there full time. Soon, Yoshi’s moved to a bigger location in Oakland. Members of the local Japanese community started to come by and play traditional instruments together in the parking lot: taiko, a koto, a shinobue, a samisen. Kajimura built a stage by the bar, and they started booking local jazz musicians.

As the small Japanese restaurant developed a reputation as a jazz club, Kajimura and Akiba lived in an apartment next to Yoshi’s, and he often worked 16 hours a day, six days a week. (Akiba and Kajimura later divorced and she eventually stepped back from Yoshi’s.)

“If something could be done by himself, Kaz would do it,” said Olaine. When a shipment of yakitori sticks were too long, rather than return them, Kajimura decided to trim them in the back shed with a circular saw—and cut off part of his finger. “When he got to the hospital, the doctors asked where his finger was, and it was back on the ground with the yakitori sticks,” said Olaine. Hori, the chef, wrapped the finger in ice and rushed it over to the hospital, where doctors reattached it. Within a few days, Kajimura was back at work.

Kajimura literally kept the doors open and lights on. In 1997, when the club expanded to a 300-seat venue next to the freight-train tracks in Oakland’s Jack London Square, he oversaw the extensive soundproofing and hand-built all of the tables. “Kaz literally was Yoshi’s,” said Olaine. “Yoshie’s spirit and vibe was what the club emanated, and Kaz’s work ethic and manic don’t-give-up ethos was what kept Yoshi’s going.”

Kajimura insisted on creating an elegant, welcoming experience for audiences and artists alike, a space far from a smoky jazz basement—and insisted on building it himself.


Legends and students

Kajimura’s efforts enabled the club to grow into a world-class music venue—and a first stage for generations of local musicians. “Running a jazz club is such a difficult endeavor, and Kaz was one of the very few who turned it into an institution that people felt really invested in,” said Andrew Gilbert, a journalist who has written about jazz since the early 1990s.

Kajimura placed Yoshi’s in a Bay Area jazz tradition, hiring local notables like Walid Rahman, former doorman of Keystone Korner, San Francisco’s beloved jazz club of the 1970s, to run the music room. He gave hundreds of Oakland and Berkeley jazz-band students a chance to play on the same stage as jazz pros; for one class of musicians at Edna Brewer Middle School, their concert at Yoshi’s led to them being recorded for a scene in Pixar’s movie “Soul,” about a middle-school band teacher.

For 50 years, Yoshi’s has been a space for audiences to hear jazz artists: international stars anchoring a West Coast tour, locals playing an album release, students dreaming of what a future in music could be.

By 2021, Kajimura was starting to show signs of dementia, and he stepped back from the club. For the last couple of years, Kajimura lived in a care home. He would have a glass of Chardonnay with dinner and listen to piano, which Holland would play for him and other residents.

“Music was part of his life until the very last day,” said Yoshi’s general manager Hal Campos, whom Kajimura referred to as his son. “He loved that.”

In Kajimura’s last hours, Campos played Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders for him in his room. By that point, Kajimura couldn’t speak anymore. But he could still listen to the music.