Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi (高柳昌行) (December 22, 1932 - June 23, 1991) was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 / free improvisation

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

 / noise

Noise

In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...

 musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he formed New Directions (later New Direction Unit), which recorded several albums throughout the 70s. He also recorded several albums with saxophonist Kaoru Abe

Kaoru Abe

was an influential Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as having the greatest abrasive saxophone sound.He generally performed solo. He was married to the author Izumi Suzuki, and a cousin to singer Kyu Sakamoto. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 29.-References:* Yuko...

, including Kaitai Teki Kohkan, Gradually Projection and Mass Projection.

Partial discography

• Independence: Tread On Sure Ground (Tiliqua, 1970)
• Call In Question (PSF, 1970, released 1994)
• Live Independence (1970)
• A Jazzy Profile Of Jojo (1970)
• Kaitai Teki Kohkan (with Kaoru Abe
  Kaoru Abe
  was an influential Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as having the greatest abrasive saxophone sound.He generally performed solo. He was married to the author Izumi Suzuki, and a cousin to singer Kyu Sakamoto. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 29.-References:* Yuko...
  
   1970)
• Mass Projection (with Kaoru Abe
  Kaoru Abe
  was an influential Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as having the greatest abrasive saxophone sound.He generally performed solo. He was married to the author Izumi Suzuki, and a cousin to singer Kyu Sakamoto. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 29.-References:* Yuko...
  
   1970)
• Gradually Projection (with Kaoru Abe
  Kaoru Abe
  was an influential Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as having the greatest abrasive saxophone sound.He generally performed solo. He was married to the author Izumi Suzuki, and a cousin to singer Kyu Sakamoto. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 29.-References:* Yuko...
  
   1970)
• Complete "La Grima" (1971)
• Free Form Suite (1972)
• Eclipse (1975)
• April Is The Cruellest Month (1975)
• Axis: Another Revolable Thing, Vol. 1 (1975, released 2006)
• Axis: Another Revolable Thing, Vol. 2 (1975, released 2006)
• Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation (1983)
• Dislocation (1983)
• Action Direct: Live At Zojoji Hall (1985)
• El Pulso (1990)
• Reason For Being (with Nobuyoshi Ino 1990)
• Inanimate Nature: Action Direct/Live At Jean Jean (1990)
• Three Improvised Variations On A Theme Of Qadhafi (1990)

External links

• Complete discography