Maki Asakawa stood out as a mysterious jazz and blues singer, composer, and actress whose voice carried a dark, smoky, throaty contralto. Her appearance proved equally distinctive, defined by perpetual black clothing, sunglasses, and cigarettes. Between 1970 and the early 2000s she issued more than 30 albums.
She entered the world in Ishikawa Prefecture amid the Second World War. After training on piano and guitar she developed a deep admiration for American vocalists such as Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, Bessie Smith, and Victoria Spivey, with Holiday’s economical phrasing and narrow range leaving the strongest mark on her own approach.
Upon finishing high school she held a brief civil-service post, then moved to Tokyo. There she entered the underground arts scene of the 1960s and supported herself by singing in bars, cabarets, and military officers’ clubs. Her first single, “Tokyo Banka/Amen Jiro,” appeared on Victor in 1967. In 1968 she met poet, playwright, director, and enfant terrible Shûji Terayama, began a close working friendship, and performed three consecutive nights at his Sasoriza venue. The resulting attention led Toshiba to offer her a contract that same year. Singles followed in 1969 and 1970. Her debut album, Asakawa Maki no Sekai, came out in 1970 and drew immediate notice for the grainy, mysterious black-and-white cover photograph of the artist that would become her trademark. Radio DJs responded to her spare yet expressive phrasing. The record included one traditional piece, the American folk standard “(Sometimes) I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” alongside original songs written with Terayama.
She appeared in several of Terayama’s stage works and in his 1971 film Sho o suteyo machi e deyou (Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets).
Perhaps her most striking release was the 1972 album Blue Spirit Blues, which mixed original material with classic blues and jazz interpretations. A live album issued the same year also met with strong approval. Rising popularity brought an invitation to play herself in the Japanese horror series Kyôfu gekijô umbalance in 1973.
That appearance marked her final acting credit. From 1973 onward she concentrated exclusively on recording, writing songs, and performing. She continued releasing albums through the 1990s and remained active onstage until her death. Among her best-known works are Maki II (1971), Flow Pass (1977), Lonely Day-to-Day (1978), My Man and Cat Nap (1982), Day for Night (1986), Night of Carnival and Stranger’s Touch (1989), and Black Space (1994).
Asakawa also worked with a range of composers and musicians including Toshiyuki Honda, Ryuichi Sakamoto, George Harrison, Akira Sakata, and Bobby Watson.
In 2010, while taking part in a documentary about her life, she collapsed after a concert and died of heart failure.
Following her death, her recordings have appeared in numerous compilations, a box set, and the 2015 self-titled English-language collection issued by Honest Jon’s.
