Yoshida Minako

The blues diva of the seventies, Yoshida Minako continues to remain active even to this day, although her current musical style has changed quite a bit. Whilst it was clearly inspired by jazz and blues in the past, today it includes other influences such as rock and R&B. Her deep voice fits perfectly to her musical creations.

Singer, song writer and music producer Yoshida Minako was born on April 7, 1953 in Saitama. In 1969, whilst she was attending her senior high school, she met Hosono Haruomi, later known for his work as the bassist of Yellow Magic Orchestra, and songwriter Matsumoto Taka who encouraged her to write a song for the first time. A few months later she founded the duo Puff with Noji Toshiyuki (Blues Creation), in which she played piano. The duo later appeared in a school festival and they delivered a great performance.

A year later, even though the duo disbanded soon after, they held a few concerts. She married for the first time in 1972, but her marriage only lasted a year. The following year, the song Kaze toshi was produced by Torio Record label. The label also released Yoshida’s first solo album Tobira no fuyu a little while later. Through the remainder of the seventies, Yoshida Minako released a number of albums and had several tours, which included supporting her band member Yamashita Tatsurou with his solo projects. In 1976, she founded the band FLYIN’ KID SCREW and also toured with them.

The following decade ran similarly: she released albums such as MONSTERS IN TOWN (which had a funk tune and was released worldwide in 1982) and the limited edition BELLS (limited to 3,000 copies). She also held several tours and worked together with other artists to produce their work. In addition, she married her long-time partner Seita Akira in 1984.

The nineties was a decade of production for Yoshida Minako. Even in the spring of 1990 she produced her drummer Yamaki Hideo's album TENTELLETSQUE before recording her own, titled gazer, in New York. On December 5 of the same year she gave a Christmas concert at Tokyo GLOBE. In the next few years she focused once again on the production of other artists and in July 1993 she performed at the MEET THE WORLD event organized by Osaka FM802. This marked the revival of her own solo activities and she began holding lives in Tokyo and Osaka in December. The year 1995 saw a number of concerts around Tokyo, the release of her single Koe wo kikasete, three albums, including some re-issues, and the release of her first live VHS. The next few years leading up to the turn of the millennium were marked by outside productions and tours, such as the BEWITCH~Club Circuit Tour 1997. Furthermore, her activities with the jazz project PONTA BOX increased and included more concerts and an album release.

The years 2000 and 2001 were full of more tours and events. In July 2000 there was also a live held in the US. In addition to her activities with PONTA BOX there were collaborations such as YOSHIDA MINAKO & THE BAND and YOSHIDA MINAKO & THE 4 GIFTS. In the summer of 2002, she released her first single under avex io, after her long-standing releases via MGM, Victor and Universal. The release of TEMPTATION followed a number of radio appearances and October saw a promotional campaign for her new album, Stable. She went on tour with THE BAND again in November and continued giving concerts.

The following years followed in the same fashion as the previous with several jazz and blues events, releases and more tours taking place. In the meantime she also continued to produce and support other artists. For example, in 2003 she worked on the coupling track Nocturne -RAIN SONG- from BUCK-TICK’s maxi-single Gensou no hana.

In March 2012, Yoshida came to Paris, France, together with composer and guitarist Watanabe Kazumi where they performed songs from their 2008 album NOWADAYS at the JAZZ IN JAPAN festival.

As for now Yoshida Minako hasn't shown signs of tiring and will surely keep the music world on its toes with her own works, collaborations and concerts.