Minoru Muraoka
村岡実
Born1923 (1923)
Yamada, Iwate, Japan
Died2 January 2014(2014-01-02) (aged 90)
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Shakuhachi
Years active1959–1982
Labels
Formerly of
  • The New Dimensions
  • The Life Theaters
Spouse(s)Chiaki Muraoka[1]

Minoru Muraoka (村岡実, Muraoka Minoru, 1923—2 January 2014) was a Japanese shakuhachi player. He became well-known for using the shakuhachi to play jazz music, which was influential on popularizing the instrument in contemporary Japanese music.

Life and career

Minoru Muraoka was born in 1923 in Yamada, Japan.[2] Muraoka learned from folk singer Tansui Kikuchi to play folk songs in the classical style of Nakao Tozan on the shakuhachi, a Japanese end-blown flute.[3] He worked in the editorial department of Zen-On Music Company until 1959.[3]

In 1962, Muraoka joined a shakuhachi trio called Shakuhachi San-Jyuso-dan, together with Katsuya Yokoyama and Kohachiro Miyata, with the aim of popularizing the instrument.[4] In 1964, he went on to become a freelancer and recording artist, and had several popular songs in Japan such as "Ju", "Oyaji no Umi", and "Yosaku".[3] He also played shakuhachi on Hibari Misora's Japan Record Award-winning song "Soft".[5] Muraoka released Harlem Nocturne, one of the first shakuhachi jazz albums, through Columbia Records in 1967.[3] In the late 1960s, as part of the group The Life Theaters, he released the album Shakuhachi Rock.[2]

Muraoka recorded and privately released his live album Osorezan, which was dedicated to Mount Osore, in April 1970. It was reissued through Yupiteru Records in 1976 as Osorezan Suite. His next album, Bamboo, was released later that year as part of the "New Emotional Work Series" for United Artists, and later reissued in 2019 through Mr Bongo Records.[6][2] He formed the group the New Dimensions in 1970, who released 11 albums, including 1972's Yuri Furi Suri.[3][7] He released the album So in 1973, and he and the New Dimensions collaborated with jazz flautist Herbie Mann on his album Gagaku & Beyond, which was recorded in 1974 and released in 1976 through the Atlantic Records subsidiary label Finnadar.[2]

Muraoka died on 2 January 2014 at 90 years old due to multiple organ failure.[1]

Musical style

Muraoka's music was mostly jazz, but included elements from a variety of other genres, including folk, pop, rock, psychedelia, enka, and free jazz.[6][2][5][7] He first started playing jazz music with the shakuhachi in the late 1950s, and his music has been considered influential on popularizing the shakuhachi in contemporary Japanese music.[2][5] His 1967 album Shakuhachi Rock was his first foray into jazz-rock, while his 1970 album Bamboo combined jazz-funk with psychedelic rock.[2][8][9] Other instruments used in Muraoka's music, specifically with his group the New Dimensions, were electric bass, organ, shō, shinobue, koto, shamisen, and taiko.[10][7] Muraoka's music was described by Now-Again Records founder Egon as "haunting, difficult-to-compare music that you file as 'jazz' only by default."[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Shakuhachi player Minoru Muraoka passes away". The Nikkei (in Japanese). 13 February 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Egon (3 April 2012). "The Shakuhachi Jazz Of Minoru Muraoka". NPR. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Profile - Minoru Muraoka". 日本コロムビア公式サイト (in Japanese). Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  4. ↑ "Katsuya Yokoyama, SHAKUHACHI KOTEN HONKYOKU: Practice, Techniques & Notation". www.shakuhachi.com. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  5. 1 2 3 "【エンタがビタミン♪・番外編】尺八界に相次ぐ訃報。村岡実さん、山本邦山さん。2つの巨星逝く。". Techinsight（テックインサイト）|海外セレブ、国内エンタメのオンリーワンをお届けするニュースサイト (in Japanese). 2014-02-11. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  6. 1 2 Padua, Pat (14 May 2019). "Minoru Muraoka: Bamboo". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Mawdsley, Alan (2 September 2021). "10 Japanese Album Covers That Will Rock Your World". Muse by Clio. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  8. ↑ Gorton, TJ (4 June 2019). "Mr Bongo reissues rare Japanese spiritual jazz-funk 'Bamboo' by Minoru Muraoka". Beat Caffeine. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  9. ↑ Dennis, Jon (19 June 2017). "Why Take Five owes its existence to the US State Department". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  10. ↑ Sheppard, William Anthony (2019). "Beat and Square Cold War Encounters". Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 323. ISBN 9780190072704.
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