Collection: Jojo Takayanagi

Masayuki “Jojo” Takayanagi began as a technically gifted straight-ahead guitarist, a professional by his early twenties who was known for sight-reading anything put in front of him, then spent the 1960s and 1970s pushing beyond swing, bop and modal jazz into free improvisation. He played a 1963 Gibson ES-175 for most of his career and led a run of short-lived, experimental groups, including the New Direction for the Arts trio and quartet, which performed at the 1973 Inspiration & Power 14 free jazz festival in Shinjuku. His records range from the Victor release A Jazzy Profile of Jojo (1970) to Free Form Suite (TBM, 1972), the live Lonely Woman (1982) and the later Cool Jojo (TBM, 1980), plus a stream of posthumous archive releases. He died in 1991.