Biography
Yoshio began his career in the early ‘60s after transitioning from an early study in clarinet and piano to learning/mastering the alto saxophone at Tokyo’s Nihon University College of Arts. Fumio Itabashi, of Nature fame, would give him his first pro gig as a member of Itabashi’s short-lived jazz quintet. A not-so-brief stint in America studying at Berklee’s College of Music would find him catch the eye of renowned J-Jazz giant Sadao Watanabe who would spur him to come soon enough to Japan and create his own band, signing with Japan’s now iconic Three Blind Mice jazz label (early home of Isao Suzuki, Kimiko Kasai, and many others).
Known for his emotional “crying sax” sound, it was Yoshio who’s roots in bop jazz fused with the new school/soul influenced music other label mates were creating. Otomo contributed to his first Three Blind Mice masterpiece, the Takashi Mizuhashi Quartet’s quite meaningful reimaginings of soul standards on Live In “5 Days In Jazz 1974” – When A Man Loves A Woman, while joining up with fellow sax-brother-in-arms Hidefumi Toki a year later to create the hard-as-nails bop jazz of Lover Man. Just a year later Yoshio would go on that path leading him to As A Child. Working under the quartet format with an additional drummer, keyboardist, and bassist, Yoshio would create a recording and performing band to explore a more spiritual sound.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.