Biography
The matter of this trombonist and composer's given name—variously rendered as Kinichi, Keiichi, or Koichi—might better be settled by tickling a child's bare feet, yet the start of a biographical sketch must serve instead. Discographers listing more than a dozen sessions under the name Koichi Kawabe from 1956 through the late 1970s are plainly describing the same musician credited elsewhere as Keiichi, Koichi, or the combined Keiichi Koichi. After completing studies at the Tokyo Academy of Music Instrumental School near the close of the Second World War, Kawabe sought a position in a symphonic brass section and moved through several pit and concert orchestras, at times leading ensembles such as the Emaniars.
Columbia Recording Orchestra engaged him in the late 1950s, launching a sustained body of work composing and arranging for radio, television, and cinema. His trombone work, frequently likened to that of Frank Rosolino, receded in prominence; documented appearances remained largely confined to Japanese issues and never achieved the wider international reach attained by Toshinori Kondo or Sadao Watanabe. From the late 1960s onward he concentrated on scores for crime and action pictures, among them Quick-Draw Okatsu, Gang vs. G-Men, Greed in Broad Daylight, High Noon for Gangsters, and Aim at the Police Van. Any disparity between these hard-edged projects and his jazz trombone output narrows when one recalls that Rosolino himself murdered his entire family.
Columbia Recording Orchestra engaged him in the late 1950s, launching a sustained body of work composing and arranging for radio, television, and cinema. His trombone work, frequently likened to that of Frank Rosolino, receded in prominence; documented appearances remained largely confined to Japanese issues and never achieved the wider international reach attained by Toshinori Kondo or Sadao Watanabe. From the late 1960s onward he concentrated on scores for crime and action pictures, among them Quick-Draw Okatsu, Gang vs. G-Men, Greed in Broad Daylight, High Noon for Gangsters, and Aim at the Police Van. Any disparity between these hard-edged projects and his jazz trombone output narrows when one recalls that Rosolino himself murdered his entire family.