Glenn Horiuchi

Glenn Horiuchi (February 27, 1955 – June 3, 2000) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and shamisen player. He was a central figure in the development of the Asian American jazz movement.

Glenn Horiuchi

He gave performances all around the world for example at the Berlin Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Mexico's Japan Fest, Seattle's Earshot Festival, Asian American Jazz Festival in San Francisco and Chicago, New York's Japan and Asia Societies, Los Angeles Festival, at Yale University, and Brown University.[1]

Horiuchi performed with Joseph Jarman, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis, John Tchicai, Art Davis, Francis Wong, Miya Masaoka, Tatsu Aoki, William Roper, Mark Izu, and San Jose Taiko. He recorded for the Asian Improv and Soul Note labels.

He also lectured and gave workshops at universities around the U.S. such as U.C. Berkeley, Wesleyan University, Northeastern University, and Stanford University. Horiuchi had many diverse talents and interests: besides attending graduate school in mathematics he had work experience as an auto mechanic, construction worker, and music teacher. He also had a long history of student and community activism including the campaign for Japanese Americans to win Redress/Reparations for the World War II incarceration in American concentration camps.[2]

He served as an Artist in Residence teaching at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California. He was also a Zen practitioner of the Kwan Um School.

Horiuchi was diagnosed with colon cancer in August 1999, and died on June 3, 2000. His final concert was held at the Japan America Theater a few months before his death.