Akiyoshi was born in
Liaoyang,
Manchuria, to a Japanese family, the youngest of four sisters. In 1945, after
World War II, Akiyoshi's family lost their home and returned to
Japan, settling in
Beppu. A local record collector introduced her to jazz by playing a record of
Teddy Wilson playing "
Sweet Lorraine." She immediately loved the sound and began to study jazz. In 1953, during a tour of Japan, pianist
Oscar Peterson discovered her playing in a club on the
Ginza. Peterson was impressed and convinced record producer
Norman Granz to record her. Akiyoshi studied jazz at the
Berklee School of Music in
Boston. Soon after, she appeared as a contestant on the 18 March 1956 broadcast of the CBS television panel show ''
What's My Line?'' In 1998, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee, by then known as the Berklee College of Music. Akiyoshi experienced some difficulties as a Japanese-born jazz musician in America. Some music fans saw her as an oddity more than a talented musician, a Japanese girl playing jazz in America. According to Akiyoshi, some of her success was attributed to her being an oddity, saying in an interview with the
Los Angeles Times, “In those days, a Japanese woman playing like Bud Powell was something very new. So all the press, the attention, wasn’t because I was authentic ... It was because I was
strange”. Despite being born in Manchuria, Akiyoshi considers herself Japanese and, , had not obtained American citizenship. Akiyoshi married
saxophonist Charlie Mariano in 1959. The couple had a daughter,
Michiru. She and Mariano divorced in 1967 after forming several bands together. That same year she met saxophonist
Lew Tabackin, whom she married in 1969. Akiyoshi, Tabackin, and Michiru moved to
Los Angeles in 1972. In March 1973, Akiyoshi and Tabackin formed a 16-piece
big band composed of studio musicians.
Kogun was commercially successful in Japan, and the band began to receive critical acclaim. Although Akiyoshi was able to release several albums in the U.S. featuring her piano in solo and small combo settings, many of her later big band albums were released only in Japan. On 29 December 2003, her band played its final concert at
Birdland in
New York City, where it had enjoyed a regular Monday night gig for more than seven years. Akiyoshi explained that she disbanded the ensemble because she was frustrated by her inability to obtain American recording contracts for the big band. She also said that she wanted to concentrate on her piano playing from which she had been distracted by years of composing and arranging. She has said that although she has rarely recorded as a solo pianist, that is her preferred format. On 24 March 2004,
Warner Japan released the final recording of Akiyoshi's big band. Titled
Last Live in Blue Note Tokyo, the album was recorded 28–29 November 2003. ==Music==