Masato Honda

Masato Honda (本田雅人, born November 13, 1962), is a Japanese saxophone player, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.[1] Born in Nakamura City, Kochi Prefecture (now Shimanto City), he graduated from Kunitachi College of Music. He has a very high level of technical skill, which has inspired the nicknames of "Hyper Sax Player" and "Saxophone Hero."[2] His most notable work has been from the 90s, as T-Square's saxophonist and being heavily featured in Cowboy Bebop's soundtrack with The Seatbelts.

Masato Honda
Born (1962-11-13) November 13, 1962
NationalityJapanese
CitizenshipJapan
Alma materKunitachi College of Music

Biography

Early life and career

Masato Honda started playing the saxophone in the 3rd grade under the influence of his father who was a music teacher. He went to Kunitachi College of Music, where he studied classical saxophone until he won the 14th Yamano Big Band Jazz Contest in 1983. Afterwards, he turned his focus to jazz and fusion styles. In 1985, he graduated from Kunitachi College of Music at the top of his class and joined Nobuo Hara's Sharps and Flats. Afterwards, he worked as a session musician and formed the group WITNESS with Masaharu Ishikawa, and Jun Kajiwara.[3]

T-Square

The 1990 live, T-Square Live (featuring F1 Grand Prix Theme) theme was Honda's first time working with T-Square as a session musician. The then-current saxophonist Takeshi Itoh stepped down from the group to pursue a solo career. He proceeded to record T-Square Live - "Natural," and T-Square Live - Farewell & Welcome 1991, with Farewell & Welcome being his official send off from the group, and welcome to Masato Honda. Prior to this, Honda recorded his first album with T-Square in 1991, New-S, where he composed the opening track, Megalith.[4] Also in 1991, the group recorded the album Refreshest as T-Square and Friends, the first album under that name. It was composedly mainly of arrangements of previous songs, one of which being a version of It's Magic.[4]

Following the death of racing legend Ayrton Senna in 1994, T-Square released SOLITUDE, also as T-Square and Friends.[5] David Liebman, Michael Brecker, and Mike Stern joined T-Square and Friends for the album Miss you in New York in 1995.[6]

After the album Blue in Red, Honda left T-Square for unknown reasons and pursued a solo career. He participated in the 20th Anniversary Performance at Yaon de Asobu, and Farewell & Welcome Live 1998, which was recorded on April 28, 1998 and released on VHS the following July.[4] Berklee alum, Takahiro Miyazaki replaced him.[7]

Other Work

Honda has participated in the works of Shiro Sagisu, Ringo Sheena, Hiroshi Sato,[8] Toshiki Kadomatsu,[9] L'Arc-en-Ciel,[10] the Kukeiha Club, FictionJunction, Kohei Tanaka, Motoaki Furukawa, SunSet Swish, Nana Mizuki, Aiko Yuji Toriyama,[11][12] Masayuki Suzuki, Yui Makino, Sumire Uesaka, JUNNA, Ryo Takahashi, and Round Table[13] He has also recorded for the soundtracks of Cowboy Bebop, Souryuden, Gunstar Heroes, Tenchi-Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Mega Man X, Arc the Lad, F-Zero X, Shenmue, Napple Tale, Gensō Suikogaiden, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths, Detective Conan: The Private Eyes' Requiem, Angel Heart, Wild ARMs, Detective Conan: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure, Hayate the Combat Butler, Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus, Pandora Hearts, Evangelion Wind Symphony, One Piece, Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Cat Planet Cuties, Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Heaven's Memo Pad, Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!, Kids on the Slope, Nyaruko: Crawling with Love, The Third, Sound! Euphonium, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Wake Up, Girls!, Prison School, Active Raid: Special Public Security Fifth Division Third Mobile Assault Eighth Unit, JOURNEY OF MIDGARD / MICHIKO NARUKE×RAGNAROK ONLINE, ACCA 13-ku Kansatsu-ka, SQUARE ENIX JAZZ -FINAL FANTASY-, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion ORCHESTRA CONCERT, and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest.[13]

Since his work with T-Square he has led and been a part of several other bands. Honda founded the group B.B.Station as a "train station" in between the styles of jazz fusion and big band music.[14] Eric Miyashiro, acclaimed trumpet player is part of this group, and in turn, Honda has been a member of the Blue Note Tokyo All-Star Jazz Orchestra that Miyashiro leads.[15] [16] Honda has been in a number of fusion acts since leaving T-Square, such as Four of A Kind, which participated in the 2004 JVC Jazz festival in Seoul,[17] and Voice of Elements, which has notably started live-streaming performances because of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.[18][19] Also significant is his second solo album, Carry Out, in which he played every instrument and composed every song on the record.[20][21]

Instruments

Honda has experience on a variety of instruments. Aside from the four main saxophones, he has been observed playing the clarinet, flute, EWI, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, and recorder.[22][23] He also has ability as a jazz scat singer.[24]

On the alto saxophone he uses a refaced 7* Yanagisawa mouthpiece, as well as a model made specifically for him by the brand Saxz, and a Meyer 5M.[2][25] He used a Mark VII saxophone for most of his career, but switched to the more renowned Mark VI at some point in the 2010s[26] For his time in T-Square, he used a synthetic Fibracell reed, but now uses Vandoren's Green Java reeds.[27][28]

Discography

As leader
  • Growin (1998)
  • Carry Out (1999)
  • Real-Fusion (2000)
  • Illusion (2000)
  • What is Fusion (2001)
  • Cross Hearts (2001)
  • Crowded Colors (2003)
  • Assemble a Crew (2004)
  • Masato Honda with Voice of Elements (2006)
  • Across the Groove (2008)
  • Saxes Street (2015)

With T-Square
  • New-S (1991)
  • T-Square Live - Farewell & Welcome (1991)
  • Megalith (1991)
  • Refreshest (1991)
  • Impressive (1992)
  • Human (1993)
  • Summer Planet (1994)
  • SOLITUDE (1994)
  • Welcome to the Rose Garden (1995)
  • Miss you in New York (1995)
  • T-Square and Friends Live in Tokyo (1995)
  • B.C.A.D. (1996)
  • Blue in Red (1997)
  • 20th Anniversary Performance at Yaon de Asobu (1998)
  • Farewell & Welcome Live 1998 (1998)[29]

References
  1. "本田雅人と中川英二郎が【かわさきジャズ2020】で共演。気の合う二人が音楽の魅力を語る | Special". Billboard JAPAN (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  2. "CONTACT". saxz-mouthpiece-sax (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  3. "WITNESS - WITNESS (1988)". 네이버 블로그 | J-Fusion Review (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  4. "T-SQUARE (ティー・スクェア / 티스퀘어) - 앨범 (Discography) - GONSIOPEA". archive.is. 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  5. Gons. "Solitude -Dedicated to SENNA- - T-SQUARE (ティー・スクェア / 티스퀘어) - GONSIOPEA". gonsiopea.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  6. "SonyMusicShop". SonyMusicShop. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  7. heishi (2015-09-02). "BIOGRAPHY". 宮崎隆睦オフィシャルページ (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  8. "TOUCH THE HEART". www.hiroshi-sato.com. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  9. "Toshiki Kadomatsu - Sea Is A Lady 2017". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  10. "L'Arc~en~Ciel - Butterfly". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  11. "Yuji Toriyama". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  12. "SRCL-6436 | TORIYAMA - VGMdb" Check |url= value (help). website. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  13. "Masato Honda - VGMdb". vgmdb.net. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  14. "本田雅人 MASATO HONDA B.B.STATION -Big Band Night- BLUE NOTE TOKYO Interview & Live Streaming 2020 - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  15. "MASATO HONDA B.B.STATION -Big Band Night-｜LIVE REPORTS｜BLUE NOTE TOKYO". www.bluenote.co.jp. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  16. "【BLUE NOTE TOKYO】Celebrate". Blue Note TOKYO (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  17. www.yocello.net http://www.yocello.net/zboard/view.php?id=concert&page=2&page_num=20&select_arrange=headnum&desc=&sn=on&ss=off&sc=off&keyword=yocello&category=&no=20. Retrieved 2020-12-19. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. "VOICE of ELEMENTS". Masato Honda Official Site (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  19. "本田雅人 with Voice of Elements - TwitCasting". twitcasting.tv. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  20. "Honda Masato / Carry Out". www.suruga-ya.com. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  21. Gons. "Carry Out - Masato Honda (本田雅人 / 혼다 마사토) - GONSIOPEA". gonsiopea.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  22. "Masato Honda Live! Cross Hearts 2003 - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  23. Gons. "Carry Out - Masato Honda (本田雅人 / 혼다 마사토) - GONSIOPEA". gonsiopea.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  24. "Masato Honda Kazumi Watanabe ~ Milestones - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  25. "プレイヤーとマウスピースについて 【サックス】". 管楽器専門店 WINDPAL by イシバシ楽器 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  26. "プレイヤーとマウスピースについて 【サックス】". 管楽器専門店 WINDPAL by イシバシ楽器 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  27. "【樹脂リード】本田雅人氏の90年代スクエアで使用していたリードはなんと！". サックスプレイヤー@京都 | 川上弦太 オフィシャルサイト (in Japanese). 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  28. SAX, THE. "サックス記事詳細：本田雅人によるフュージョンサックスガイド │THE SAX SPECIAL特別号05". THE SAX ONLINE (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  29. Gons. "T-SQUARE (ティー・スクェア / 티스퀘어) - 앨범 (Discography) - GONSIOPEA". gonsiopea.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-12-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.