Kazumi Watanabe

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Kazumi Watanabe, June 2006

Kazumi Watanabe (渡辺香津美) was born on October 14, 1953 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a jazz fusion and instrumental rock guitarist and composer. He has been chosen Best Jazzman 24 times in a row by Swing Journal's annual poll. Similar jazz performers are Jamaaladeen Tacuma, John Scofield, Vernon Reid, Marc Bonilla, Trevor Rabin and Al Di Meola.

In 1979, he joined a group of innovative musicians such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akiko Yano, Yukihiro Takahashi, Yasuaki Shimizu, Toshiyuki Honda and Shuichi 'Ponta' Murakami to form the legendary all-star band KYLYN, making an impact on the Japanese music scene. In autumn of the same year, he participated in the world tour of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Its huge success brought the name KAZUMI an international recognition. ^[1]^[2]

Throughout the 1980s, he worked with a stellar cast of established musicians, including Tony Levin, Sly and Robbie, Wayne Shorter, Patrick Moraz, Marcus Miller, Richard Bona and Peter Erskine.

Although sporadically active since the early 1990s, his output in the prior decade is considered some of the better instrumental jazz fusion of the time, informed with a particular bite and variety in approaches. His Spice of Life releases were in a quartet format in what was essentially a reunion of drummer Bill Bruford's late 70's outfit Bruford, featuring bassist Jeff Berlin and keyboardist Dave Stewart with Kazumi replacing Allan Holdsworth. Despite this, the Spice Of Life albums cannot easily be lumped together with those by Bruford a decade earlier.

He is known for heavy endorsement and use of guitars by Steinberger and Paul Reed Smith.