Taking Time for
Toru "Tiger" Okoshi, born in 1950 in Ashita Japan, fell head over heels in love with jazz at the age of 13-the day he first saw Louis Armstrong play. Still an aspiring trumpeter at the age of 22, Okoshi came to the US on his honeymoon and never left. He attended Berklee College of Music, where he now teaches. Okoshi, a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician, is an accomplished and composer and trumpet player. He has played with such highly respected artists as Bob Moses, Gary Burton, and George Russell. Yamaha's Kurt Witt recently spoke with Okoshi about his life, his music, and the experiences he has drawn inspiration from.

WITT: Louis Armstrong has influenced so many jazz musicians and I know from your CDs and talking with you that he was one of your heroes. How did that develop?
OKOSHI: I was 13 years old and had just started to play the trumpet. My girlfriend at the time used to live in the US. She came back to Japan and said I should listen to some jazz and told me to go see Louis Armstrong; she said he was really popular in the US, but I had never heard of him. So I went to see him, and I think he started the whole mystery of jazz that will never be solved in my heart. I remember that the place was packed; there were almost 3000 people in the hall. I didn't really understand, but I could tell that the people were having a really nice time. His trumpet echoed through the hall.
Now when I play, I try to paint the air. I could not come up with those words then, but now I know where I learned it. When I play I try to paint the air between the audience and me.

WITT: Tell me about some of the more memorable moments over your career as a professional musician.
OKOSHI: I was outside of Paris I was with Gary Burton's band, we had about 47 concerts in two months. We had about two or three thousand people in the audience. Steve Swallow on bass, Bob Moses on drums, Gary on vibraphone, and myself. On this one tune, Gary was playing a solo, and I wanted to disappear. They didn't need me. I said, "This music doesn't need me at all. I'm an artist and I don't want to paint over someone else's perfect painting." I was scared. I remember that I didn't play for a while and Gary started to look at me and smiled.

WITT: Because he understood?
OKOSHI: He would do that and then he would say to me "Tiger that was for you." So that's one scary moment. But that's when I realized what swing means. Swing is driving, drive the invisible vehicle with eyes closed. And another scary moment was with Pat Metheny. He was using a synclavier and we were trading solos back and forth on some really up-tempo song. It was not fair because he had a trumpet sound on his guitar and I was the real thing. Real always wins! But one time these four bars he played just choked me. When I listen to somebody else's solo, I always sing through it as if I'm playing so my fingers will try to follow it ... no matter what instrument they play. But that four bars-whatever he played-I just couldn't come up with the next four bars.

WITT: Is there one recording that you could look back and say that if this is the one that I really couldn't live without?
OKOSHI: My life has a few chapters already. In each chapter, I have dealt with different people and have dealt with myself in different ways. And each chapter has a different album. It's easy to go back to where I was and pick out some Miles [Davis] stuff, definitely. I used to listen to the recording of "Sketches of Spain" right before a concert started, to get my artistic level up. I recently played with the USC big bands, "Maid of Cadiz." Beautiful charts. Playing that sort of thing has put me in 1960's again.

WITT: It's probably a good time for you.
OKOSHI: I wish I was here in 1940.

WITT: What do you think it would have been like to be a trumpet player living in NYC in 1940. First of all, being Japanese, you would have a difficult time. But forget about that for a minute and imagine what it would be.
OKOSHI: Yeah, probably I wouldn't care too much about improvisation and I would love to play the melody all night long.

WITT: Compare that to today, What's it like to be a jazz musician toady
OKOSHI: I think that we kind of have to find our roles. Some say that we created too many musicians and not a good audience. I agree with that in certain point, but the more the merrier to me. The more serious musicians, the better for me. We really have to define our roles. I am the improviser however I am still searching for the possibility of the trumpet. I have figured out for myself that improvisation should be much more linear because I teach. However, how much I can do with trumpet is my priority.

WITT: So you're still searching.
OKOSHI: Of course.

WITT: Will you ever find it, or is it the search that is the goal
OKOSHI: Well I keep learning more about the relationship between me and trumpet. You know a trumpet doesn't have a heart, I am the heart. So it's a vehicle. I drive it. I am the heart.

WITT: We've talked about Tiger the musician, so let's talk about Tiger the teacher. How long have you been at teaching at Berklee?
OKOSHI: This is my 5th year

WITT: For a musician it must be an exciting challenge to create more musicians. Tell me about you developed your teaching style and philosophy.
OKOSHI: Well the reason why I came to the U.S. was on my honeymoon in 1972. I fell in love with this country and we didn't go back. We canceled our plane tickets on the way home and paid the tuition for me to go to school at Berklee. That was not our plan at all. Our honeymoon lasted for five years. Instinct is something I really believe in-if you made up your mind to do something or cancel something. I left my country and that was my instinct, if you make your move based on your instincts, not based on someone's idea or knowledge, then you never regret it.

WITT: So you were really following you're instinct that this is where you should be.
OKOSHI: I think so. I don't know how, but I still remember that. We took a greyhound bus from the West Coast to the East Coast.

WITT: What year was that?
OKOSHI: 1972, I was 22 years old. I couldn't speak English and had no income. I started to practice at the Charles River, the big river between Cambridge and Boston hoping to be found. Find me, I'm hungry, find me. That's how I started, so it's possible. I had no money, a lot of anxiety, love, and music. Those are great things, so when I teach the students I say please give up two years of your life and dedicate on this. Staying in Boston and teaching in Berklee we have 50 different countries that kids are coming from. Some as young as 14 years old, brilliant kids. Usually they are 18, 19 years old and brilliant. And when I see these kids it's like good, pure water running through me and I have a chance to work with those talented musicians and exchange ideas.

WITT: Get out your trumpet for a second, I want to ask you a couple questions about your horn. For many musicians the instrument is the connection with the music. I know it's not quite the same because the connection with the music for you is your heart. But the instrument is a necessary part of that.
OKOSHI: It is the tool for my meditation so to speak. Somebody says only in the silence can the truth be heard and I believe in that. I think that was mother Theresa. I'll blow some air through the horn in the beginning of the day. After a few notes this guy tells me what kind of condition I'm in.

WITT: I know that you've played Yamaha trumpets for many years, what about the Yamaha instruments do you like?
OKOSHI: Of course you know that I attend all of type of music conferences and at the exhibits I'll check out all the other instruments. But I keep coming back to my Yamaha because I don't feel I'm playing the trumpet when I'm on this horn. Some other horns I feel I'm playing trumpet. I don't want to think about that when I go out there. I don't want to think about the existence of a trumpet right on my face. And somehow this one gives it to me. And when I say Shut up, it comes down. Scream and it comes up.

WITT: I know that your trumpet has been through quite a lot.
OKOSHI: This guy has been through the Kobe earthquake in Japan (note: over 5,000 people died in this earthquake on January 17, 1995). My trumpet was in the debris for the whole day. I knew where he was though, but there were so many other things that I had to find for other people. For instance, eyeglasses, People were saying "I need my eyeglasses" and I had to go look for them.

WITT: So you were there during that earthquake?
OKOSHI: That changed me a lot. Once again, there was time. I was forced to stop by the earthquake to look around. Digging the dead bodies and telling this person's wife that her husband didn't make it. That was my job. And I started to realize that since I was born I thought that there must be some other role for me to play. So since then I am associated with autistic children. This year I successfully brought 13 American autistic children to Japan to see the Jazz band that I am an official soloist in.

WITT: My favorite CD of yours is "The Color of Soil". There is such emotion on that recording. As a listener it brings you in, you feel the soul.
OKOSHI: After the earthquake I came home and I just didn't want to listen to Jazz at all. Toru is my real name, who left Japan when he was 22. Tiger was born in Boston in 1972, you know what I mean? They like each other, but there was a time when those two started to separate. Because I didn't have anyone else to talk about my pain. So I stayed there in Kobe for about ten days help find my mom and brother's family a place to live. I was digging the well water, pumping the well to the city people and after I came home I was completely alone. I didn't know what to do. So I cancelled a couple of tours. I couldn't play the trumpet. It took me about 3 months to get back to it, and the first tour I did was with George Rasso in France. We had a symphony orchestra behind us from the Paris conservatory. Usually after the concert we would go to diner with around 50 people. That day I told people that I was going to go to dinner with Tiger. And my friends kind of knew and they said "say hello to Tiger" and tell him that he will be all right. So I walked around Paris and found this Greek restaurant with live music. I was sitting there and I saw a group of about 20-30 tourists having a good time and they came to me and asked to take a picture. So I took the picture and then asked me to join them. They asked me to dance with them, and I don't dance, but they asked me "Tiger go ahead and you dance." I find out that they are all from Egypt, I'm Japanese living in US, with green card, walking in Paris, eating Greek food, dancing with Egyptians. That was so brilliant for me, brilliant. It's OK, and after the tour we recorded and came back to Boston and there was a lot of mail. I opened one thing that was from a school of autistic children asking me to come to their festival. So I went there immediately and that was the beginning of my volunteer work.

WITT: Tell me about some of the projects you are working on.
OKOSHI: I have a rehearsal with this Japanese classical composer, but yesterday we talked about it's gonna be a little tough to move around. He made it for symphony orchestra but for touring purposes maybe he could come down to a ten-piece string group or something. He's never written anything for a Jazz player, so he would write down everything, every note. So we'll see what happens with that. Soon I am going to China again, and those trips influence me not only from what I hear but what I see. As an artist you really have to see and feel as many different things as possible to give nutrition to your heart. Music cannot be the only source for your heart, and I know that so I am still moving. I just started to tour in Turkey, and a couple of other places that I want to go are Vietnam and Cuba. Those that are the two places where I've started to think about how I am going to get over there.