On October 3, 2018, Tadao Kitano died of pneumonia in a Kobe hospital, aged 84, after years of treatment for Parkinson's disease. A self-taught pianist from Wakayama, he had formed a Gene Krupa-style trio at 17 with drummer Takeshi Inomata to play American military camps, then went to Kwansei Gakuin University. In 1958 he founded the house band at Club Arrow, the top nightclub in Osaka's Kita district and spent his whole career leading it from Kansai. The Arrow Jazz Orchestra backed Ella Fitzgerald in 1967, Marlene Dietrich at the 1970 Osaka Expo and Patti Page in 1981, with Hibari Misora and Anita O'Day also on the ledger. Kitano wrote more than 3,000 arrangements for it, ran a West Coast-style side unit called the Gravy Eight, and retired after the band's 50th-anniversary recital in June 2008. The band, renamed AJO, is still working.
Sources: 北野タダオ — Japanese Wikipedia (1934年3月3日 – 2018年10月3日; Krupa-style trio with Takeshi Inomata at U.S. camps; Club Arrow house band from 1958; retired 2008; died of pneumonia at a Kobe hospital) , 北野タダオ氏が死去 ジャズピアニスト — Nikkei (died October 3, 2018, of pneumonia, aged 84; founded Arrow Jazz Orchestra in 1958 and led it until 2008) , Profile — Arrow Jazz Orchestra official site (founded 1958 as Club Arrow's house band; Ella Fitzgerald 1967, Marlene Dietrich at Expo '70, Patti Page 1981; founder's death 2018) , 北野タダオ — Jazz Encyclopedia (over 3,000 arrangements; Gravy Eight; retired after the June 2008 50th-anniversary recital)
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