T-Square (band)

T-Square
Also known as "The Square"
(1978 - 1988, 2003)
"T-Square"
(1988 - 2000, 2002, 2004-2007, 2009-2012, 2014-Current)
"T-Square and Friends"
(1991, 1995, 2002, with people who previously were never official T-Square members)
"T-Square Plus"
(2001 - 2002, 2013)
"T-Square Super Band"
(2008, 2013)
"T-Square Super Special Band"
(Mid-to-Late 2008 - Early 2009, October 2013)
Origin 1978
Genres Jazz fusion
jazz
instrumental pop
smooth jazz
Contemporary Jazz
Pop Rock
Years active 1978 - Present
Labels Sony Music Japan (Japan)
Columbia Records (U.S.)
Associated acts Masato Honda, Hirotaka Izumi, Hiroyuki Noritake, Mitsuru Sutoh, Casiopea
Website http://www.tsquare.jp/
Members Masahiro Andoh (Guitar)
Takeshi Itoh (Sax, EWI)
Keizoh Kawano (Keyboard)
Satoshi Bandoh(Drums)
Shingo Tanaka (Bass)
Past members Shiro Sagisu
Miyagi Junko
Yuhji Nakamura
Yuhji Mikuriya
Michael S. Kawai
Kiyohiko Semba
Jun Aoyama
Eiji Shimizu
Daisaku Kume
Toyoyuki Tanaka
Tohru Hasebe
Hiroyuki Noritake
Hirotaka Izumi
Masato Honda
Keiji Matsumoto
Tadashi Namba
Takahiro Miyazaki

T-Square is a Japanese jazz fusion band[1] that was formed in 1978. They became famous in the late 70s and early 80s along with other Japanese fusion bands.[2] Its most successful lineup included its members from 1986 to 1990: guitarist Masahiro Andoh, bassist Mitsuru Sutoh, saxophonist/flutist/EWI player Takeshi Itoh, keyboardist Hirotaka Izumi, and drummer Hiroyuki Noritake. They are known for songs such as "Truth", "Japanese Soul Brothers", "Takarajima", and "Omens of Love" among others. "Truth" has been used as the theme for Fuji Television's Formula One (F1) coverage from 1989 to 2000 and since 2012. An arrangement of said tune, "Truth 21c" was used as the theme for Japan's F1 2001 and 2002, respectively, and other remixes of "Truth" were used from 2003 to 2006.

History

College Beginnings (1976 - 1978)

In 1976, The Square started as a small Jazz Rock band in Meiji University with a very basic Jazz line-up. The very first line-up was made of bassist Yuhji Nakamura, guitarist Masahiro Andoh, pianist Jun Hakama and drummer Shunichi Harada. According to Masahiro Andoh, the band's name was based on Madison Square Garden. Hakama and Harada were replaced by Junko Miyagi on keyboards and Michael S. Kawai on drums, and a young, debuting Takeshi Itoh joining in on saxophone and flutes, in 1977.

The Square (1978 - mid 1988)

With backing guitarist Yuhji Mikuriya, keyboardist Shiro Sagisu and percussionist Kiyohiko Senba joining in 1978, the band was then named "The Square". It had a semi-generic, disco-type sound. Lead saxophonist Takeshi Itoh adopted the Lyricon as a side instrument. The Square would then begin a tradition of writing one to three songs with the Lyricon in every new album thereafter. As the years progressed, the number of members had dwindled from eight members (two keyboardists, two guitarists, a drummer, a Percussionist, a sax player and a bassist) to five (a drummer, a keyboardist, a guitarist, a sax player and a bassist). The group's sound had also evolved to a more rock-oriented music when bassist Yuhji Nakamura, pianist Junko Miyagi and drummer Michael S. Kawai were replaced by drummer Jun Aoyama (better known as Tatsuro Yamashita's drummer from 1979 to 2003), bassist Toyoyuki Tanaka and Prism keyboardist Daisaku Kume. Kume only joined the band as a Support Member and left a year thereafter. Percussionist Kiyohiko Senba left the group altogether. Jun Aoyama was later replaced by Eiji Shimizu on drums in 1981. Pianist Hirotaka Izumi joined the band as the first long term keyboardist/pianist. In 1985, Tohru Hasebe replaced Eiji Shimizu drums. Hiroyuki Noritake would then replace Hasebe on drums in 1986 as their first long term drummer. In 1987, Mitsuru Sutoh joined the band and replaced Toyoyuki Tanaka on bass. Like Izumi and Noritake, Sutoh was the first long term bassist in the group. Takeshi Itoh would go on to swap his Lyricon for an AKAI EWI before the band made their first release in the United States. It is believed that their first performance in the U.S. was at the Cat Club in N.Y. Before they made their way to the Roxy in Los Angeles, they realized there was already a group from the U.K, called "The Squares". Thus, the band changed their name to "T-Square".

T-Square (mid 1988 - 2000)

The band's performance at the Roxy marked their first live album as T-Square. Two years later, Masato Honda debuted with them as a backing saxophonist on the album T-Square Live (featuring F1 Grand Prix Theme). The F1 theme being "Truth" from 1987. In 1991, T-Square's original saxophonist, Takeshi Itoh, pursued a solo career. Luckily, a Saxophonist named Masato Honda who recently joined a little-known group named "Witness" caught Masahiro Andoh's attention. That saxophonist replaced Takeshi Itoh. Honda also composed the opening track from T-Square's "New-S" Album (released in 1991), "Megalith". After the release of the "Blue in Red" album in 1997, Honda left the group to pursue his solo career. Takahiro Miyazaki would replace him on saxophone/EWI duties. At the same time, Hirotaka Izumi left T-Square and was replaced by Tadashi Namba. Namba played keyboards on the theme song from Gran Turismo, "Moon over the Castle" (from Masahiro's solo Album "Andy's", released 1996) as well as the T-Square arrangement of the song, called "Knight's Song" (from "Blue in Red", released in 1997). The group and all former and (at the time) current members played at Yaon de Asobu for their 20th Anniversary that same year. This is one of the last T-Square performances in which Masato Honda was involved (unlike Miyazaki and Itoh, Honda didn't particiipate in next three anniversary concerts in 2003, 2008, and 2013 respectively). In 1999, Tadashi Namba was replaced by Keyboardist Keiji Matsumoto. The new line-up of Miyazaki, Noritake, Sutoh, Matsumoto and Andoh was kept until mid-2000.

T-Square Plus and Session Members (2000 - 2002)

In mid 2000, the band was divided into T-Square (original and long-term guitarist Masahiro Andoh, returning saxophonist Takeshi Itoh and session musicians) and Trio The Square (bassist Mitsuru Sutoh, drummer Hiroyuki Noritake and keyboardist Keiji Matumoto). This trio was the main reason for why T-Square had to employ session musicians to record with the exception of the "Friendship Live" performance. The performance had ex-long term drummer, Hiroyuki Noritake, along with then-Support/Guest-keyboardist, Keizoh Kawano, and support bassist Kiyoshi Murakami. T-Square changed its name again to T-Square Plus. Former T-Square guitarist Yuhji Mikuriya as well as former Seikima-II bassist Shunsuke "Xenon" Ishikawa and session keyboardist Takehiro Kawabe, joined them briefly in 2002. T-Square Plus, as this incarnation of the group was called, dropped the "Plus" from their name, but kept using session musicians until 2003.

25th Anniversary, The Square/T Comes Back (2003)

In 2003, they released an album called "Spirits" under their original name, "The Square", and retained some of their original members (partly due to T-Square's 25th Anniversary that year) and kept their newcomer, Keizoh Kawano. The line-up was Itoh, Noritake, Sutoh, Kawano (support), Izumi and Andoh. They released another album, that featured new arrangements of some of their best known songs, called "T Comes Back".

New Band Members (2004 - 2008)

Since then, the group changed their name again to T-Square. In 2004, Katsuji Morioka joined and replaced Mitsuru Sutoh on bass. A year later, Morioka was replaced by Shingo Tanaka. Both Morioka and Tanaka are support bassists. In 2005, Keizoh Kawano became an official keyboardist. Drummer Satoshi Bandoh, who also composed several songs, replaced Hiroyuki Noritake in the same year. T-Square's original drummer, Michael S. Kawai, returned as a behind-the-scenes percussionist and producer from 2004 to 2008.

30th Anniversary and T-Square Super Band/Super Special Band, First Lineup (2008 - early 2009)

The band briefly changed their name to T-Square Super Band, to promote their 30th Anniversary Tour. Most former T-Square members were involved in recording their new album called "Wonderful Days". Adding even more former members (except for Shingo Tanaka, as he didn't become a permanent member until 2013). This began in Mid-to-Late-2008 after the end of their "Wonderful Days" Tour), the group changed its name to T-Square Super Special Band and played on Yaon de Asobu for their 30th Anniversary Show. This video was released on February 2009 as "The Square~T-Square since 1978: 30th Anniversary Festival".

Self-Cover Era (2009 - 2012)

With the release of their 2009 Album, Discoveries, only 3 months after the release of the aforementioned DVD, the group dropped "Super Special Band" from their name and cut the members down to keyboardist Keizoh Kawano, drummer Satoshi Bandoh, returning support bassist Shingo Tanaka and the two original T-Square members, Masahiro Andoh and Takeshi Itoh. Discoveries was sold with a DVD which chronicled T-Square performing and rehearsing in 2008. In 2010, An almost-exact year after "Discoveries", they released a brand new album, "Jikan Ryoko"—which is the Japanese phrase for "Time Travel". This album was meant to showcase more of the songwriting abilities of the younger members of the group. In the Summer of that same year, they decided to re-record some of their Older songs and release them in October as an album called Takara no Uta: T-Square plays The Square. They would go on to release another original album, "Nine Stories" on April 2011. Some current and former T-Square members would tour with Satoshi Bandoh to promote his solo album, "Happy Life!" in late 2011. T-Square recorded another T-Square plays The Square album, released late in October, much like last year. Keizoh Kawano recorded and released his own solo album, Dreams, the month thereafter. At the end of 2011, they performed a new song, 'Bird of Wonder', which was released with their 2012 album, Wings. The group later released another cover album, this time employing the help of special guest musicians.

35th Anniversary, T-Square Super Band (Second Lineup) and Rumors of Takeshi Itoh's Second Departure (2013)

This marks the second time that T-Square has branded themselves The "T-Square Super Band", now in promotion of their 35th Anniversary. They Retained all members of the Super Band from 2008, except for pianist Hirotaka Izumi. Percussionist Kiyohiko Senba, who was also an original member of The Square, is a member of T-Square's Super Band as of 2013. Shingo Tanaka was also promoted from being a Support Member and is now an OFFICIAL member of T-Square. Upon the Release of "Smile", the new T-Square Super Band Album, A Picture was included in the release, with Japanese Text/Kanji clearly reading something to the effect of "Itoh's Resignation", thus making fans believe that Takeshi Itoh has once again left T-Square. Even in their last album of 2013, (T-Square Plus - History), Itoh only performed on 2 Tracks of the album, adding more reason for the rumor to be believed.

NEXT, Paradise, Treasure Hunter and REBIRTH (Late 2013 - Present)

T-Square's 35th Anniversary Festival video (A concert performed in 2013) was released as a Blu-ray in May 2014. Nearly a month later, their album was released, "NEXT". Both of these releases prominently featured Takeshi Itoh, thus, he continues to be a Member of T-Square.

The 40th T-Square album, Paradise, was released in July 2015.

Paradise is one of Ten T-Square Albums (along with, in Chronological order, Lucky Summer Lady, Midnight Lover (Both Albums released in 1978), Make Me a Star (1979), Magic (1981), Kyakusenbi no Yuuwaku (1982), Stars and the Moon (1984), SPORTS (1986), Yes, No (1988), and Friendship (2000)) not to be released in Spring.

T-Square's Paradise is the first T-Square Album to be released on iTunes in the United States, along with their Compilation of Concerts performed from December 19th to 24th of 2015 and their following Studio Album from 2016, Treasure Hunter. While these are all released in the American iTunes, they are the only 3 albums available there, while the Japanese iTunes has a more extense discography.

T-Square released their latest album, "REBIRTH", in April of 2017.

Offshoot bands

The following list includes bands that include multiple (former or current) members of T-Square.

AnMi2

AnMi2 are a guitar duo comprising the first two guitarists of T-Square, Masahiro Andoh and Yuhji Mikuriya.

Trio The Square/The Masato Honda Band/Voice of Elements

This group began as a result of Creative Differences between the Members of the T-Square Line-up of 1999-Early 2000, but the Trio began in Mid-1999, with Keyboardist Keiji Matsumoto, Drummer Hiroyuki Noritake and Bassist Mitsuru Sutoh as Trio The Square. Trio The Square disbanded in later 2000.

Later on that year, Hiroyuki Noritake and Keiji Matsumoto, along with Bassist Tomohito Aoki, Guitarist Jun Kajiwara, would become the Backing Band of Former T-Square Saxophonist, Masato Honda. The group didn't have an official name, but, was collectively dubbed by fans as "The Masato Honda Band".

The Masato Honda Band was put on hold in 2005, then fully deactivated in Early Mid-2006, to make way for Voice of Elements, which featured, again, Hiroyuki Noritake and Keiji Matsumoto. Tomohito Aoki, the original bassist of the Masato Honda Band, died of acute heart failure on June that year, therefore, he was replaced by Mitsuru Sutoh. As of Sutoh joining the group, Everyone who ever joined it was also a previous member of T-Square. Voice of Elements, as the band was called when they returned in 2006, continued performing and recording through 2007.

Ottottrio

This group was a Fusion Supergroup, led by 3 guitarists, T-Square's Masahiro Andoh, Casiopea's Issei Noro and KORENOS' Hirokuni Korekata. Along with Masahiro Andoh, Drummer Hiroyuki Noritake was another T-Square musician who was part of this group since 1988. Also, T-Square Bassist, Mitsuru Sutoh and (at the time) Future T-Square keyboardist, Keiji Matsumoto recorded with them at the end of 1998 (and actually joined T-Square a few months thereafter.).

KoreNoS

This band was formed in 2004 by Hirokuni Korekata, Hiroyuki Noritake and Mitsuru Sutoh. They released 2 studio albums, "Asian Street Style" (2004) and "Abracadabra" (2005). They also released a live album in 2007.

Casiopea vs. The Square

Although "Casiopea vs. The Square" was performed as a one-off event in 2003 (the dvd and the cd have different audio sources suggesting that there may have been 2 shows), This extension of 2 different Jazz-Fusion bands goes back to 1993. Former Percussionist of The Square, Kiyohiko Senba, played on one of the songs from Casiopea's 1993 album, "Dramatic". A year later, Both Groups played an arrangement of The Beatles' "Get Back" on a Japanese Broadcast. 3 years after that, Casiopea, T-Square and Jimsaku played at Tokyo Jam 1997, with the same song. In 2003, Both Groups played (with some of the players replaced), at the event called Casiopea vs. The Square. Both Groups still have somewhat of an alliance, seeing as Casiopea's 1993 - 1997 drummer, Noriaki Kumagai and Former T-Square Bassist, Mitsuru Sutoh are both in TRIX. And Sax player Takeshi Itoh performed with Casiopea's Keyboardist, Minoru Mukaiya in 2006.

Synchronized DNA

Drummers Hiroyuki Noritake of T-Square and Akira Jimbo of Casiopea made a Drum Duo in 2003, after the "Casiopea vs. The Square" concert.

Pyramid

Pianist Hirotaka Izumi, ex-Casiopea drummer Akira Jimbo and guitarist Yuji Toriyama along with other studio musicians, form the band "Pyramid". They have released three studio albums.

As Support Members for Other Artists

After the dissolution of Trio the Square, Mitsuru Sutoh and Keiji Matsumoto would later become Backing Musicians for Japanese Acapella Pop group, 'The Gospellers'. Sutoh also plays for TRIX (since they formed in 2004). Other recognized musicians in that group are Noriaki Kumagai (Casiopea drummer from 1993 - 1996).

Drummer Hiroyuki Noritake and Keyboardist Keizoh Kawano, along with Bassist Ko Shimizu (from Naniwa Express) would record as Support Members for J-Fusion/Rock guitarist Kumi Adachi in 2007-2008.

T-Square's current Bassist Shingo Tanaka is a former part of The 39's/The Thank You's (39 in Japanese is pronounced Sanjyu Kyu, which almost sounds like Thank You). The 39's were a band that accompanied Concerts performed by Vocaloids, specifically the "39's Giving Day" concert series (again, that would sound like "Thanksgiving Day"), although the concerts themselves wouldn't necessarily be held on said day. During the final 39's Giving Day Concert in March, 2012, the band were also accompanied by Takahiro Miyazaki.

Discography

This song, ever since the NHK Session '82 broadcast, was only performed live on tours. It was never given a proper studio release until 1998, as a Bonus Track to their 20th Anniversary album, "Gravity".

(* - Denotes T-Square albums sold under their native Japanese Names, rather than with the album sold in English, as T-Square usually does.)

References

  1. ↑ Atkins, E. Taylor. Blue Nippon: authenticating jazz in Japan. Duke University Press, 2001. p. 28. ISBN 9780822327219.
  2. ↑ Atkins, E. Taylor. Blue Nippon: authenticating jazz in Japan. Duke University Press, 2001. p. 255. ISBN 9780822327219.
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