Masayoshi Takanaka

Masayoshi Takanaka
Masayoshi Takanaka
	Takanaka in 2015
Born	Masayoshi Ryū (劉正義); March 27, 1953 (age 71); Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Musician
	Musical career
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, pop, rock
Instrument	Electric guitar & Bass guitar
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Lagoon, Kitty
Website	takanaka.com

Masayoshi Takanaka (Japanese: 高中正義, Hepburn: Takanaka Masayoshi, born March 27, 1953) is a Japanese guitarist, composer, and producer. Takanaka's music was influential in the city pop genre of the late 1970s and 1980s.^[3]

Early life

Takanaka was born to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother. His father came to Japan from Nanjing, China after World War II and married his mother, whose surname was Takanaka.^[4]

Takanaka was born in Akabane ward, but moved to Oimachi, Shinagawa ward soon after birth. Masayoshi was naturalized in Japan when he was in the fourth grade of elementary school, and changed his name from Masayoshi Liu to Masayoshi Takanaka.^[4]

Career

Debut

Masayoshi Takanaka was already active in 1970, from the age of 17 he participated as a guitarist in The Evil and began his professional career in 1971 by playing guitar and bass guitar in the prog rock band Flied Egg under Vertigo.^[1]^[5]^[6] During his professional debut, he was made to play bass against his will. He took daily lessons from Shigeru Naruke, who taught him the basics of music theory and guitar playing. At the same time, he started working as a studio musician as a bassist through the introduction of Naruke.

Member of the Sadistic Mika Band

In 1972, after Flied Egg disbanded, he joined the Sadistic Mika Band^[1] formed by Kazuhiko Kato, and from there he began working as a professional guitarist. The band fragmented after the divorce of two of its main members. After the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded in 1975, he formed the Sadistics with remaining band members Yukihiro Takahashi, Tsugutoshi Goto, and Yutaka Imai. The following year, in 1976, he released his first solo album, Seychelles, and since then he has continued to pursue Sadistics and solo activities. The other members also engaged in solo activities, and as they all began to place more emphasis on their solo activities, the Sadistics disbanded in 1978, seemingly disappearing naturally.

Solo career

After the Sadistics disbanded, he began working as a solo artist, releasing one or two solo albums every year, consisting mainly of his own original songs and guitar instrumental songs. Takanaka released his first solo album, Seychelles.^[1] Throughout the '70s and '80s, Takanaka continued his output, releasing over twenty albums and singles under Kitty Records until 1984 and EMI from 1985 to 2000. In 2000, he formed his own record label, Lagoon Records.^[7]^[8]

Takanaka is known for his flashy guitars, including a gold colored Fender Stratocaster. He also has a trademark "lagoon-blue" Yamaha SG guitar that he plays during live performances.^[9]

He has collaborated with several other musical acts, notably Santana and Roxy Music.^{[citation needed]} His 1981 song "Penguin Dancer" was sampled by Grimes on her song "Butterfly" in 2015.^[10] His 1979 popular song "Blue Lagoon" was named the 14th best guitar instrumental by Young Guitar Magazine in 2019.^[11]^[12]^[13]