JAZZPROFILES lives in the music 409 Artists Catalogued, 389 fully Profiled! Kazumi Watanabe
Kazumi Watanabe performing in 2011. CC BY-SA 2.0 — Wikimedia Commons, photographer Helgi Halldórsson (file: Kazumi Watanabe 2011.jpg) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kazumi_Watanabe_2011.jpg
Kazumi Watanabe started on piano at seven, then switched to guitar at twelve, studying under Sadanori Nakamura at Tokyo's Yamaha Music School and drawing his first inspiration from the Ventures. At fifteen he heard Wes Montgomery, and the direction changed for good. His recording debut, Infinite, arrived in 1971 on the Express label when he was seventeen, backed by Motohiko Hino on drums.
Through the mid-1970s Watanabe built a career as an in-demand sideman on Tokyo's jazz scene alongside his own leader dates. Discogs credits confirm three separate, dated sessions with Sadao Watanabe: a live recording at Yubin-Chokin Hall in Tokyo on September 20, 1974 (released as Mbali Africa), a second live date at the same hall on October 19, 1976 (released as Recital on East Wind), and Echo (1979, CBS/Sony), a compilation drawing on live material recorded between 1969 and 1974. He also appears on Blue City (Three Blind Mice, recorded March 4, 1974), a session led by bassist and cellist Isao Suzuki, and on Toko, a July 20, 1975 live date by the Motohiko Hino Quartet, the working group of drummer Motohiko Hino, younger brother of trumpeter Terumasa Hino.
In 1979, at 25, Watanabe formed KYLYN, a one-off band with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akiko Yano on keyboards and drummer Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami. The studio album and its live counterpart, both released that year on Better Days, are still cited as a hinge point for the Japanese fusion sound of that era. He spent the same year on tour with Yellow Magic Orchestra.
The 1980s took him further outward. He worked as a guest soloist with Steps Ahead and the Brecker Brothers, and spent time inside Jaco Pastorius's Word of Mouth band. To Chi Ka (1980) and Dogatana (1981), both recorded partly in New York with players including Mike Mainieri, Larry Coryell, and David Liebman, came out of this stretch. In 1983 he formed his own fusion band, Mobo, with saxophonist Mitsuru Sawamura and pianist Ichiko Hashimoto; the Mobo albums that followed brought in New York rhythm-section names like Marcus Miller, Sly Dunbar, Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn. The Spice of Life (1987) and The Spice of Life Too (1988) paired him with bassist Jeff Berlin and drummer Bill Bruford. In 1981 he also appears, on guitar, on A Figure of Yosuke Yamashita Vol. 2, a Frasco-label session led by pianist Yosuke Yamashita. In 1991 he received the Fumio Nanri Award, one of Japan's own jazz honors.
Watanabe formed the all-Japanese ensemble Resonance Vox in the early 1990s, opening Pandora (1991) with instrumentation (tabla, pipa, charango) well outside his 1980s New York fusion sound. He kept recording steadily into the 2010s, including the solo classical-crossover Guitar Renaissance series (2003-2012), Live at Iridium (2012), and Spinning Globe (2013), which reunited him with Jeff Berlin. His most recent full studio album is Gracim (2016). Discogs credits him on 361 releases in total across more than five decades.
The most recent public word on Watanabe's health is from March 2024: he had collapsed at home in Karuizawa the month before, was diagnosed with a cerebral stem hemorrhage, and cancelled all activity for that year to focus on treatment. No further public update has surfaced since.
Watanabe's earliest influences were the Ventures on guitar and Wes Montgomery on jazz phrasing, the latter discovery at fifteen redirecting him toward jazz for good. His own catalog moves fluidly between register: hard fusion and jazz-rock in the Kylyn and Mobo eras, built on dense New York studio-musician arrangements, against a quieter, more exploratory acoustic and classical-crossover strain in later solo work like Guitar Renaissance. Recording repeatedly with major American fusion and rock-adjacent players, Steps Ahead, the Brecker Brothers, Jaco Pastorius, Bill Bruford, Jeff Berlin, kept his sound in direct, ongoing contact with the American fusion scene rather than a one-off crossover.
- Kylyn (1979, Better Days) - The one-off supergroup album with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akiko Yano, still cited as a turning point for Japanese fusion. Spotify - Kylyn Listen · Buy
- To Chi Ka (1980, Better Days) - Recorded in New York with Mike Mainieri producing; the clearest studio evidence of his 1980s American-fusion connections. Spotify - To Chi Ka Listen · Buy
- Dogatana (1981, Better Days) - A rare multi-guitarist record, pairing Watanabe with Larry Coryell and David Liebman. Spotify - Dogatana Listen · Buy
- Spinning Globe (2013, Warner Music Japan) - Reunites him with Jeff Berlin nearly three decades after "The Spice of Life," proof the same fusion language still works. Spotify - Spinning Globe Listen · Buy
Kazumi Watanabe: Full Discography (Discogs-Verified)
Discogs profile summary
- Real name / credited name: 渡辺香津美 (Kazumi Watanabe)
- Discogs artist ID: 119483
- Born October 14, 1953, Tokyo, Japan
- Name variations on file: K. Watanabe, K.Watanabe, Katsumi Watanabe, Katzumi Watanabe, Kazumi, Kazumi Watanabe First, Razum Wataname, 渡辺 香津美, 渡辺香津美
- Discogs attributes one clean artist ID to Watanabe, with no competing same-name identity to disambiguate; the other "Kazumi Watanabe [Quartet/Trio/Band/etc.]" entries are his own working-group names, not different people.
- Group/ensemble entities Discogs lists him as leading or belonging to: Sunburst, Steps (3), Isao Suzuki Quartet, Isao Suzuki Sextet, Tibetan Blue Air Liquid Band, Kenji Mori Quartet, Mabumi Yamaguchi Quartet, Masaru Imada NOWIN, Hidefumi Toki Quartet, Kazumi Watanabe Quartet/Trio/Band/With Friends/With Orchestra, Mobo Band, Shuko Mizuno Combo, Yoshio Otomo/Hidefumi Toki Alto-Madness, Motohiko Hino Quartet, Resonance Vox, Castle In The Air.
- Total Discogs credits: 361, spanning 1971 into the 2020s. Role breakdown: 84 "Main" (leader/co-leader), roughly 10 Producer/Co-producer/Mixed By, 256 Appearance/TrackAppearance, plus a handful of UnofficialRelease (bootleg) entries not itemized here.
LEADER — Deep-Verified
Personnel pulled directly from each release's Discogs extraartists credits. One representative release per title was used; this is not every pressing/reissue.
| Album | Year | Label / Catalog | Personnel (selected) | Notes | Listen | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinite | 1971 | Express, ETP-9038 | Yoshio Suzuki (bass), Motohiko Hino (drums), Kazumi Watanabe (electric guitar), Hideo Ichikawa (electric piano), Takao Uematsu (tenor saxophone); Tadashi Hirakata (producer) | Recorded May 1971, Teichiku Studio 19. His debut, subtitled "Kazumi Watanabe First." | not found | Amazon search |
| Kylyn | 1979 | Better Days, YX-7595-ND | Ryuichi Sakamoto (producer, mixed by), Kazumi Watanabe (producer, mixed by, guitar) | Recorded Nippon Columbia Studios, April-May 1979. Full session-personnel credit is thin on the studio release itself; the full working band is documented on the companion live album below. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| Kylyn Live | 1979 | Better Days, YB-7506-7 | Ray Ohara (bass), Shuichi Murakami (drums), Akiko Yano (keyboards, vocals), Pecker (percussion), Kazumi Watanabe (guitar, producer, mixed by), Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, producer, mixed by), Toshiyuki Honda (saxophone), Yasuaki Shimizu (saxophone), Shigeharu Mukai (trombone) | Recorded live at the Pit Inn, Roppongi, Tokyo, June 15-17, 1979; mixed August 1979. This is the full KYLYN lineup referenced in final-blog.md. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| To Chi Ka | 1980 | Better Days, YX-7265-ND | Kazumi Watanabe (co-producer, written-by), Mike Mainieri (producer), Ed Walsh (Oberheim programming), Doug Epstein (recording/mixing) | Recorded and mixed at Media Sound, New York, March 4-26, 1980. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| Dogatana | 1981 | Better Days, YF-7037-N | David Liebman (alto flute), Larry Coryell / June Yamagishi / Osamu Ishida / Kazumi Watanabe (Ovation Adamas guitars), Warren Bernhardt (piano), Mike Mainieri (vibraphone, co-producer), Hideo Yamaki (drums), Nobuyoshi Ino (electric upright bass) | Recorded Power Station, New York, spring-fall 1981, and Nippon Columbia Studios, Tokyo, fall 1981. A rare multi-guitarist "duet" record. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| Mobo | 1984 | DOMO, 28MX 2501 | Marcus Miller / Robbie Shakespeare (bass), Omar Hakim / Sly Dunbar / Steve Jordan (drums), Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone), Don Grolnick (organ, synthesizer), Kei Akagi (piano), Kazumi Watanabe (guitars, producer) | Recorded Media Sound, New York, August-September 1984. First album under his own Mobo banner, with an all-star New York rhythm-section roster. | not found | Amazon search |
| Mobo Splash | 1985 | DOMO, 28MX2525 | Nobuyoshi Ino (bass), Gregg Lee (electric bass), Shuichi Murakami (drums), Ichiko Hashimoto (vocals), David Sanborn / Michael Brecker / Kazutoki Umezu (saxophone), Kazumi Watanabe (guitars, keyboards, sampler, producer) | Recorded in New York and Tokyo. Two of American fusion's best-known saxophonists (Brecker, Sanborn) on one Mobo session. | not found | Amazon search |
| The Spice Of Life | 1987 | DOMO, 28MX 2535 | Jeff Berlin (bass, composer), Bill Bruford (electronic drums/drums/percussion, composer), Kazumi Watanabe (guitar, guitar synthesizer, producer, composer) | Recorded and mixed at Swanyard Studios, London, October-November 1986. | not found | Amazon search |
| The Spice Of Life Too | 1988 | Gramavision, 18-8810-1 | Jeff Berlin (bass), Bill Bruford (electronic drums), Peter John Vettese (keyboards), Kazumi Watanabe (guitars); Akira Yada (producer) | Same core trio-plus-Watanabe lineup as the first "Spice of Life," one year later. | not found | Amazon search |
| Pandora | 1991 | Polydor, 513 123-2 | Vagabond Suzuki (bass), Rikiya Higashihara (drums), Tomohiro Yahiro (percussion), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Jao Jing Yin (pipa), Kazumi Watanabe (guitar, charango, synthesizer, producer); credited to Kazumi Watanabe with Resonance Vox | First Resonance Vox-era album; a deliberately global, cross-instrument lineup (tabla, pipa, charango) distinct from his 1980s New York fusion sessions. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| Esprit | 1996 | DOMO, POCJ-1346 | Skúli Sverrisson (bass, composer), Mino Cinelu (percussion, drums, composer), Kazumi Watanabe (guitar, composer) | Includes a Stevie Wonder composition and a Beethoven adaptation alongside originals. | not found | Amazon search |
| Guitar Renaissance | 2003 | EWE Records, EWSA 0074 | Kazumi Watanabe (guitar, producer); Koko Tanikawa / Moto Uehara (co-producers) | DSD solo-guitar recording; includes a Bach cello-suite prelude and "Waltz for Debby" alongside jazz standards. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| Live At Iridium | 2012 | EWE Records, EWBS 0190 | Janek Gwizdala (bass), Obed Calvaire (drums), Kazumi Watanabe (electric guitar, producer) | Recorded live at the Iridium, New York; includes "Unicorn," a Watanabe original dating back to the "To Chi Ka" era. | not found | Amazon search |
| Spinning Globe | 2013 | Warner Music Japan, WPCR-15377 | Jeff Berlin (bass, composer), Virgil Donati (drums, composer), Kazumi Watanabe (guitar, producer, composer) | Reunites Watanabe with Jeff Berlin (his "Spice of Life"-era bassist) nearly three decades later. | Spotify | Amazon search |
| Gracim | 2016 | Warner Music Japan, WPCR-17040 | Kazumi Watanabe (leader; no further extraartists credits listed on file) | His most recent full studio album before the 2018 "Garuda" single/EP. | not found | Amazon search |
LEADER — Additional Titles (chronological)
Discogs lists 84 "Main"-role masters for artist 119483. Full extraartists-level personnel was pulled for the 16 historically significant titles above (the debut, the Kylyn era, the 1980s New York fusion run, the Resonance Vox era, and his most recent solo/studio work). For the remaining 68 titles below, Discogs-verified title/year/label only; individual personnel and Listen/Buy verification was not run for this build, consistent with the scale-note precedent set on the Terumasa Hino, Sadao Watanabe, and Toshiko Akiyoshi builds in this project. A not found Listen/Buy cell means a quick verification search did not turn one up this pass, not that none exists.
| Year | Title | Label | Discogs | Listen | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Put In Tune (Kazuo Yashiro Trio Featuring Kazumi Watanabe) | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1975 | Endless Way | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1975 | Mari Nakamoto III | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1976 | Monday Blues = マンデイ・ブルース | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1976 | Let's Swing Now | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1977 | Guitar Work Shop | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1977 | Olive's Step | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1977 | Mudari: Spirit Of Song (Jimmy Hopps, feat. Watanabe) | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1978 | Village In Bubbles | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1978 | Mermaid Boulevard | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1978 | Kaleidoscope = カレイドスコープ | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1978 | Lonesome Cat | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1978 | Live Space Fantasy = ライブスペースファンタジー (Hideki Matsutake, feat. Watanabe) | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1978 | Concierto De Aranjuez | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1979 | Tokyo Joe / California Gold (Part 1) | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1979 | Fusion Guitar Special | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1979 | Tokyo Joe / Mother Terra | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1980 | Unicorn = ユニコーン | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1982 | Sugarloaf Express / Gentle Afternoon / Jennifer Anne's Samba / Beginning Song | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1982 | Fantasic Guitar World | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1982 | Guitar Work Shop Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 Live | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1982 | The Best Performance | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1982 | Tokyo-Paris-London-New York, Dancing Night | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1982 | Tokyo Joe | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1983 | Favorite Performance | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1984 | Walk, Don't Run | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1984 | Mobo I&II | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1984 | Mobo I | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1984 | Mobo II | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1984 | Mobo (alternate pressing) | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1984 | Mobo 倶楽部 | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1985 | Mobo Special | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1985 | The Best Of Fusion Guitar | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1985 | Mobo Live | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1986 | Untitled | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1986 | Best Selection = フュージョン全曲集 | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1987 | Melancho | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1987 | The Spice Of Life In Concert | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1989 | Kilowatt | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1990 | Romanesque | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1994 | おやつ (Oyatsu) | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1995 | おやつ2 遠足 (Oyatsu 2) | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1997 | Better Days Of | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 1998 | Dandyism | - | link | not found | not found |
| 1999 | One For All | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2001 | Beyond The Infinite | - | link | Spotify | not found |
| 2004 | Kazumi Box (Better Days Years) | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2004 | One For All (Tribute To The Bottom Line N.Y.) | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2005 | Guitar Renaissance II | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2006 | Kaihogen | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2006 | Guitar Sam Guk Ji | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2006 | Guitar Renaissance III | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2007 | Guitar Renaissance IV | - | link | Spotify | not found |
| 2008 | Nowadays | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2009 | Acoustic Flakes | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2009 | Jazz Impression | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2010 | Early Years Box | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2011 | Tricoroll | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2011 | Lotus Night | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2012 | Word Of Mouth Band 1983 Japan Tour | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2012 | Dodes'kaden (Works By Toru Takemitsu) | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2012 | Guitar Renaissance V | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2015 | ¡En Vivo! | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2015 | Golden Best Better Days | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| 2016 | Guitar Is Beautiful KW45 | - | link | not found | not found |
| 2018 | Garuda | Jazzy Couscous, JC10 | link | not found | Amazon search |
| 2022 | Live Under The Sky... '80 | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| Undated | Olive's Step (undated Discogs entry, likely a duplicate/alt of the 1977 title above) | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
| Undated | Super Twin: Thousand Knives Of / Kylyn | - | not on file (no master ID) | not found | not found |
PRODUCER / CO-PRODUCER / MIXED BY (not his own performing credit)
| Year | Title | Artist | Role | Discogs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Intimate = インティメイト | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 1981 | Mountain = マウンテン | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 1981 | Talk You All Tight = 頭狂奸児唐眼 | - | Co-producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 1982 | Ganaesia | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 1984 | Boys, Be Ambitious! | - | Producer, Mixed By | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 1985 | Beauty | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 1986 | Jazz Sampler Volume 3 | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 2002 | For Two-Piece | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
| 2003 | Shanghai Red | - | Producer | search Discogs artist 119483 |
GUEST / SIDEMAN APPEARANCES — Notable, Discogs-Verified
Discogs lists 256 "Appearance"/"TrackAppearance" credits on artist 119483, spanning 1973 into the 2020s, the overwhelming majority being compilations, reissue samplers, and various-artists collections. The following are genuine original-session sideman dates that matter for tracing his career and this project's cross-artist connections, each individually pulled and confirmed via extraartists:
- Sadao Watanabe (already profiled, jazzprofiles.com/profile/ja-sadao-watanabe) — three separate, dated original-session credits, all guitar: Mbali Africa (CBS/Sony, live at Yubin-Chokin Hall, Tokyo, September 20, 1974), Recital (East Wind, live at the same hall, October 19, 1976), and Echo (CBS/Sony, 1979, a compilation drawing on live material recorded July 8, 1969 to September 20, 1974). All three are confirmed, dated Sadao Watanabe-led performances with Kazumi Watanabe genuinely credited on guitar, not a shared-compilation-only connection.
- Motohiko Hino Quartet — Toko - Motohiko Hino Quartet At Nemu Jazz Inn (Bellwood Records, live at Nemu no Sato, July 20, 1975), Kazumi Watanabe on electric guitar. Motohiko Hino is the drummer brother of Terumasa Hino, already profiled; this is Motohiko's own working quartet, not a Terumasa Hino session, so no claim is made here that Terumasa and Kazumi Watanabe played together.
- Isao Suzuki (bassist/cellist, Three Blind Mice; not yet profiled on this project) — a run of mid-1970s dates: Blue City (Three Blind Mice TBM-24, recorded March 4, 1974, Aoi Studio; Kazumi Watanabe on guitar alongside Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and Kunihiko Sugano as special-guest pianist), All Right! (Three Blind Mice TBM-36, recorded November 18-19, 1974), plus Orang-Utan (1975), Ako's Dream (1976), Hip Dancin' (1976), Touch (1976), and Cadillac Woman (1977), title/year confirmed via Discogs but not individually re-pulled for full personnel this pass.
- Yosuke Yamashita (already profiled, jazzprofiles.com/profile/ja-yosuke-yamashita) — A Figure Of Yosuke Yamashita Vol. 2 (Frasco, 1981), Kazumi Watanabe on guitar.
The remaining 249 or so Appearance/TrackAppearance credits (compilations, various-artists samplers, later reissue packages) were not individually verified in this pass; the raw list is available via https://api.discogs.com/artists/119483/releases for anyone who wants the exhaustive, unfiltered version.
- Motohiko Hino (drums) - his debut album's drummer (Infinite, 1971), and later the leader of the Motohiko Hino Quartet, on whose July 20, 1975 live date (Toko) Watanabe also appears; Motohiko is the younger brother of trumpeter Terumasa Hino.
- Sadao Watanabe (alto/sopranino saxophone, flute) - three confirmed dated sideman credits: two live recitals at Tokyo's Yubin-Chokin Hall (September 20, 1974, and October 19, 1976) and the 1979 compilation Echo.
- Isao Suzuki (bass, cello) - Three Blind Mice labelmate; Watanabe appears on his Blue City (1974) and All Right! (1974) sessions, among others.
- Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akiko Yano (keyboards) - co-members of KYLYN, 1979.
- Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami (drums) - KYLYN, 1979, and later a member of Watanabe's own band Mobo.
- Mike Mainieri (vibraphone, producer) - produced To Chi Ka (1980) and co-produced Dogatana (1981).
- Michael Brecker and David Sanborn (saxophones) - guest credits on the Mobo albums (1984-85).
- Jeff Berlin (bass) and Bill Bruford (drums) - the working trio-plus-Watanabe lineup on The Spice of Life (1987) and The Spice of Life Too (1988); Berlin reunited with him on Spinning Globe (2013).
- Yosuke Yamashita (piano) - Watanabe appears on guitar on A Figure of Yosuke Yamashita Vol. 2 (1981).
