Toshinori Kondo
15 December 194817 October 2020 was a Japanese trumpeter known for working avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion.
Also recorded as Toshinori Kondō
Toshinori Kondo

Schorle · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Toshinori Kondo
- Born
- 15 December 1948
- Died
- 17 October 2020
- Birthplace
- Ehime Prefecture, Japan
- Occupation
- Trumpeter, composer
- Place of death
- Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
- Full name
- 近藤俊則.
- Nationality
- Japan.
- Fields
- jazz and dub music.
- Education
- Kyoto University and Ehime Prefectural Imabari Nishi High School.
- Languages
- Japanese.
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Documentary summary
15 December 194817 October 2020 was a Japanese trumpeter known for working avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion.
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Note VALÉORINE
Toshinori Kondo (1948–2020) was a Japanese composer, musician and record producer, among other activities. The composer was born 近藤俊則 in Imabari.
Toshinori Kondo studied at Ehime Prefectural Imabari Nishi High School and Kyoto University. The composer was a member of Die Like a Dog Quartet.
Genres include dub music and jazz. Languages used include Japanese.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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gnd · 10293348-0 · wikidata · Q1375562 · wikipedia · Toshinori Kondo
In this article
Biography
Biography
Kondo worked between 1948 and 2020 across trumpeter, composer, jazz musician, record producer and film score composer and 2 further recorded occupations. The registers place that work in jazz and dub music. This article rests on 47 catalogued compositions, 49 issued recordings and 1 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Toshinori Kondo • Born — 15 December 1948 • Died — 17 October 2020 • Instrument — Trumpet • Birthplace — Ehime Prefecture, Japan • Occupation — Trumpeter, composer • Place of death — Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan • Genre — Jazz, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz
Career
Career
Kondo was born in Ehime Prefecture. He attended Kyoto university in 1967, and became close friends with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki. In 1972 the pair left university, and Toshiyuki went on to work with Peter Brook, while Kondo joined Yosuke Yamashita. In 1978 he moved to New York, and began performing with Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Fred Frith, and Eraldo Bernocchi. A year later he released his first recording, toured Europe with Eugene Chadbourne, and collaborated with European musicians such as Peter Brötzmann. Returning to Japan, he worked with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kazumi Watanabe, and Herbie Hancock. In the mid-1980s he began focusing on his own career, blending his avant-garde origins with electronic music. In the 1990s he was part of the collective called Die Like a Dog whose first album Fragments Of Music, Life And Death of Albert Ayler was released in 1994. In 2002, he worked on an international peace festival in Hiroshima after being approached by the Dalai Lama about organizing one. He was a former member of Praxis. Kondo cooperated with Bill Laswell to make the album Inamorata in 2007. He founded the band Kondo IMA in 1984. Kondo IMA achieved commercial success but moved to Amsterdam to be alone and to start "Blow the Earth" in 1993. They started "Blow the Earth in Japan" in the summer of 2007 and ended in the autumn of 2011. The film Blow the Earth in Japan is his first experience as a film director.
Personal life
Personal life
On October 17, 2020, he died in Kawasaki City, aged 71.
As leader or co-leader
As leader or co-leader
• Environment for Sextet (Ictus, 1979) with John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, and Polly Bradfield • Fuigo From a Different Dimension (Bellows, 1979) • Moose and Salmon (Music Gallery, 1979) with Henry Kaiser and John Oswald • Possibilities of the Color Plastic (Bellows, 1979) with Eugene Chadbourne • Protocol (Metalanguage, 1979) with Henry Kaiser and Andrea Centazzo • Artless Sky (Caw, 1980) with John Russell and Roger Turner • The Last Supper (Po Torch, 1981) with Paul Lovens • Imitation of Life (Y, 1981) with Tristan Honsinger, Steve Beresford, and David Toop • Death is Our Eternal Friend (DIW, 1983) with Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton • What Are You Talking About? (DIW, 1983) with Tristan Honsinger, Peter Kowald, and Sabu Toyozumi • China Boogie (Polydor, 1985) • Kamikaze Blow (Alfa, 1989) with IMA • Ki-Oku (Sony, 1996) with DJ Krush • Fear No Fall (Lowlands, 1998) with Jim O'Rourke, Zeena Parkins, David Shea, DJ Low, and Dirk Wachtelaer • Aida's Call (Starlight, 1999) with Kaoru Abe, Motoharu Yoshizawa, and Derek Bailey • Charged (Apollo, 1999) with Eraldo Bernocchi and Bill Laswell • Jazz Bunker (Golden Years, 2000) with Han Bennink and Eugene Chadbourne • Life Space Death (Meta, 2001) with Bill Laswell • The Warriors (Ictus, 2007) with Eugene Chadbourne and Andrea Centazzo • The War Fairy Tales (self-released, 2014) • Interstellar (Chant Records, 2020) with Jason Wayne Sneed • Typhoon 19 (TK, 2020) with IMA21 • The Sea is Rough (Bocian, 2020) with Brom • Renzoku Jump (Metalanguage, 2022) with Henry Kaiser, Greg Goodman and John Oswald • Eternal Triangle (I Dischi Di Angelica, 2022) with Massimo Pupillo and Tony Buck With the Die Like a Dog Quartet (Kondo, Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, and Hamid Drake) • Die Like a Dog: Fragments of Music, Life and Death of Albert Ayler (FMP, 1994) • Little Birds Have Fast Hearts Nos. 1 and 2 (FMP, 1998/1999) • Aoyama Crows (FMP, 2002) • The Complete FMP Recordings (Jazzwerkstatt, 2007) compilation • Close Up (FMP, 2011) With Hairy Bones (Kondo, Peter Brötzmann, Massimo Pupillo, and Paal Nilssen-Love) • Hairy Bones (Okka, 2009) • At Fresnes (self-released, 2010) • Snakelust (To Kenji Nakagami) (Clean Feed, 2012)
As sideman
As sideman
With Maki Asakawa • Hi Tomoshi Goro (Express, 1976) • Cat Nap (Express, 1982) • Scandal 1982 (Pignose, 2011) With Borbetomagus • Industrial Strength (Leo, 1983) • Borbeto Jam, (Cadence, 1985) With Peter Brötzmann • Alarm (FMP, 1983) • Berlin Djungle (FMP, 1987) • The März Combo Live in Wuppertal (FMP, 1993) • Stone/Water (Okka, 2000) • Long Story Short (Trost, 2013) • Concert for Fukushima, Wels 2011 (Trost, 2013) • Tonic 2000 Vol. 1 (OMX, 2020) • Tonic 2000 Vol. 2 (OMX, 2020) • Berlin 1999 (OMX, 2020) With DJ Krush • Holonic-The Self Megamix (Sony, 1997) • Cosmic Yard (Es.U.Es, 2018) With Globe Unity Orchestra • Intergalactic Blow (Japo, 1983) • 20th Anniversary (FMP, 1993) With Tristan Honsinger • Picnic (Data, 1985) • From the Broken World (Eastworld, 1992) With Bill Laswell • Points of Order (Innerhythmic, 2001) • The Only Way to Go Is Down (Sublight, 2006) with Method of Defiance • Inamorata (Ohm, 2007) with Method of Defiance • Tokyo Rotation K2: Japan Rise (self-released, 2020) • Tokyo Rotation 4 - Day 3 (self-released, 2021) • Tokyo Rotation 1 - Day 2 Set 1 (self-released, 2021) • Tokyo Rotation 1 - Day 2 Set 2 (self-released, 2021) • Tokyo Rotation 3 - Day 3 Set 1 (self-released, 2021) • Tokyo Rotation 3 - Day 3 Set 2 (self-released, 2021) • Montreux Jazz Festival (self-released, 2022) • Sapporo (self-released, 2022) With others • Evolution Ensemble Unity, Concrete Voices (EEU, 1976) • Jam Rice Sextet, Jam Rice Relaxin (Frasco, 1976) • Yosuke Yamashita and Yasutaka Tsutsui, Ie (Frasco, 1976) • Milford Graves, Meditation Among Us (Kitty, 1977) • King Kong Paradise, Talking About Fussa (Tam, 1977) • Derek Bailey, Duo & Trio Improvisation (Kitty, 1978) • Peter Kuhn, Livin' Right (Big City, 1979) • Eugene Chadbourne, 2000 Statues and the English Channel (Parachute, 1979) • William Parker, Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace (Centering, 1980) • Misha Mengelberg and the ICP Orchestra, Japan Japon (ICP, 1982) • Herbie Hancock, Sound-System (Columbia, 1984) • Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ongaku Zukan (Midi, 1984) • Autonomous Zone, The Map is Not the Territory (Meldac, 1991) • David Toop, Spirit World (Virgin, 1997) • Ferretti Lindo Giovanni, CO.DEX (Mercury, 2000) • Anarchy, Freaksnegoti (Gold Diggers, 2000) • Peter Kowald, Duos²: Europa America Japan (FMP, 1991) • Robert Miles, Miles_Gurtu (Salt, 2004) • Dirk Wachtelaer, Reconstruction (FMR, 2005) • Somma, Somma (Verba Corrige, 2007) • Sigillum S, 23/20 (Verba Corrige, 2007) • Levity, Chopin Shuffle (Universal, 2010) • Sugizo, Tree of Life (Avex Trax, 2011) • Jon Batiste, Chad Smith, and Bill Laswell, The Process (MOD, 2014) • Rone, Creatures (Infiné, 2014) • Dashmesh, The Peacock's Tale (Invincible, 2016) • Arthur Williams, Forgiveness Suite (NoBusiness, 2016) • Company, 1981 (Honest Jon's, 2019) • Fred Anderson, Live Volume V (FPE, 2019)
Life and work
Life and work
Toshinori Kondo was born on 15 December 1948 in Imabari. Kondo held the nationality of Japan. Kondo was educated at Kyoto University and Ehime Prefectural Imabari Nishi High School. Kondo worked as trumpeter, composer, jazz musician and record producer, and the authority record catalogues a further 3 occupations under the same name, among them film score composer, recording artist and musician. The fields Kondo worked in include jazz and dub music. Kondo played the trumpet. Kondo worked in Japanese.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2020
Toshinori Kondo died.
Catalogued output
Compositions
The entries below are works composed by the subject, as the institutional registers catalogue them; later performances and commercial recordings of the same music are listed separately. 47 further compositions are catalogued under Kondo's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it. A selection is set out below and the complete run may be opened beneath it. Eternal Triangle - I. Eternal Triangle - III. Sun Is Shining.
The entries follow MusicBrainz
Method Plan One
Eternal Triangle - VII. Memories of WUPPERTAL. Era of Rocks
To the Nature From the Heat
Method Exit Dub
Eternal Triangle - II. Japanese Landscapes 1
Eternal Triangle - V. Eternal Triangle - IV. Eternal Triangle - VI
Issued recordings
Primary material
Issued recordings
These are published sound issues catalogued under the name. Most postdate the works they carry, and an issue is never counted here as a work of composition. 5 issues carry dates between 1979 and 2024. The run opens with Environment for Sextet and closes with Complete Link. The 1990s are the densest part of the run, with 2 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself.
Recordings and discography
Primary material
Recordings and discography
The discography assembled here shows how Kondo's work has been published in sound, not what Kondo made. 44 sound issues are catalogued, carrying dates from 1979 to 2024. An issue is a published recording, distinct from the composition it carries, from a printed score of that composition and from any single performance of it; none of the entries below is counted in the catalogue of compositions above, and several of them carry the same work in different readings. 32 issues were published within the subject's lifetime and 12 after 2020, so the greater part of this record is the work of later performers, editors and labels. The 2020s are the densest decade of publication, with 12 issues. The performers and issuing labels are as the discographic register states them; where it names no performer the article names none.
Metal Position
1985
Touchstone
1993
Tokyo Rotation 1 - Day 5 Set 2
2024
Fukyo
2005
Eternal Triangle
2022
Fragments of Music, Life and Death of Albert Ayler
1994
Nerve Tripper
2001
In The '90s - The Bill Laswell Remix
2021
The NY Tapes
2006
What Are You Talking About?
1983
Live Concert Tokyo 1974
2022
Tokyo Rotation 4 - Day 3
2021
Blow The Earth (India)
2019
Death Is Our Eternal Friend
1983
Fear No Fall
1998
Hairy Bones, dated 2009. 記憶 Ki-Oku
1996
Silent Melodies
2007
The Warriors
2007
Red City Smoke
1993
Tokyo Rotation 1 - Day 2 Set 2
2021
Tokyo Rotation 3 - Day 3 Set 2
2021
Re‐charged #1
2000
Metalanguage Festival of Improvised Music 1980, Volume 2: The Science Set
1981
Human Market
1988
Complete Link, dated 2024. 大変 Taihen
1984
Metalanguage Festival of Improvised Music 1980, Volume 1: The Social Set
1981
Breath versus Beats
2023
PRAY FOR MOTHER EARTH
2011
Tokyo Rotation 1 - Day 2 set 1
2021
Environment for Sextet
1979
Brain War
1992
Inkstick Session
2021
Aida’s Call
1999
Hardcore Jazz
2003
The Last Supper
1981
Life Space Death
2002
Charged
1999
Concert for Fukushima Wels 2011
2013
Tokyo Rotation 3 - Day 3 Set 1
2021
Jazz Bunker
2000
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 10293348-0, Toshinori Kondo and IMA.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
reference work
- “Toshinori Kondo”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1375562: Toshinori Kondo
General reference · Wikimedia Foundation
Authority records
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 10293348-0, Toshinori Kondo and IMA.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1375562: Toshinori KondoWikimedia Foundation
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,307 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Toshihiko SahashiPerson
- Toshiko AkiyoshiPerson
- Toshiko EzakiPerson
- Toshimichi TakatsukasaPerson
- Toshio HosokawaPerson
- Toshio MashimaPerson
- Toshio MasudaPerson
- Toshiro MayuzumiPerson
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