Toshinori Kondo

Dec 15, 1948 - Oct 17, 2020 (71 years old) in Ehime, Japan

Toshinori Kondo (近藤等則, Kondō Toshinori, 15 December 1948 – 17 October 2020) was a Japanese avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter trumpeter whose daring instinct and deep expressive resources slashed through a spectrum of experimental and ambient music.

A trailblazing figure in his native Japan, Kondo earned much of his reputation while based in Amsterdam or New York City. He was a sought-after collaborator in free jazz, locking horns with the incendiary German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and courting revelation with other avant-garde luminaries, like English guitarist Derek Bailey and Dutch drummer Han Bennink.

Kondo also thrived in electroacoustic settings where groove was paramount — whether leading his own groups, like Toshinori Kondo IMA; on a range of projects with bassist-producer Bill Laswell; or in a joint effort with DJ Krush, notably on the mid-1990s trip-hop album Ki-Oku.