Kiyoshi Kitagawa – Bass

Kiyoshi Kitagawa (born December 5, 1958, in Osaka) is a Japanese-American jazz double-bassist.

Kitagawa first played bass guitar, and was in a rock band as a high school student. He switched to double bass while a student at Kansei Gakuin Daigaku, and played in the 1980s with Sadayasu Fuji and Takashi Furuya. In October 1988, he immigrated to the United States, where he lived in New York City. Kitagawa joined to Winard Harper’s the Harper Brothers, and played with Kenny Barron, Andy Bey, Jon Faddis, Kenny Garrett, Jimmy Heath, Susannah McCorkle, Makoto Ozone, Ben Riley, and Terell Stafford in the late 1980s and 1990s. He worked with Barron again several times in the 2000s, as well as with Brian Blade and Danny Grissett, and worked in the 2010s with Regina Carter and Charles McPherson.

The complete transcription of ‘Wayne’s Thang’ comes from one of the albums Kitagawa did with saxophonist Kenny Garrett, ‘Trilogy’ from 1995. It is a trio performance featuring bass, saxophone and the fantastic Brian Blade on drums and the piece is worked around a bass ostinato that, alongside Blade’s creative drumming offers a great groove. For the solos, it launches into a straight swing section that rediscovers the main groove for the closing heads. Love the false endings!