Mitsuhiko Sato -- Sapajou Walk

 

Mitsuhiko Sato (佐藤允彦...born in 1941) is a Tokyo jazz pianist/composer/arranger who graduated from Keio University, and according to his Wikipedia profile, he was "accompanying singers, magicians and strippers at a cabaret in the Ginza district" after beginning his professional career at the age of 17. By the end of the 1950s, he was already playing in Georgie Kawaguchi's band with musicians such as saxophonists Sadao Watanabe（渡辺貞夫）and Akira Miyazawa（宮沢昭）but then in the late 1960s, he attended the Berklee College of Music studying composing and arranging while paying his dues by working in a food shop and playing the piano in a hotel.

In 1969, he released his debut album "Palladium" as part of a trio after which followed a lot of other releases going far into the 1990s. His March 1979 album "All-In All-Out" begins with "Sapajou Walk", a mostly laidback fusion track with David Liebman on his soulful sax and Ryo Kawasaki（川崎燎）giving some rock-out guitar. Sato himself handles the Fender Rhodes with aplomb and his playing reminds me of some of the 1970s material of Vince Guaraldi. Not sure where "Sapajou Walk" was recorded but I get images of walking down a street in a major American city such as New York or Chicago.

Just one small piece of trivia, but for several years in the 1970s, Sato had been married to singer-actress Chinatsu Nakayama（中山千夏）.