Part music history, part cultural meditation, part travel narrative, Jazz Journeys to Japan is the first book to address the experiences of individual Japanese jazz musicians - greats such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Masahiki Satoh, Makoto Ozone, and Yosuke Yamashita.

Author William Minor navigates the converging streams of Western music and Eastern tradition, revealing through interviews with musicians, critics, and producers the unique synthesis that results from this union. And, turning conventional wisdom on its ear, he disproves the widely held notion that Japanese jazz artists don't "swing." Along the way, we experience Minor's growing appreciation of Japanese culture, which mirrors his subject's discovery of American jazz.

WILLIAM MINOR's previous books include Unzipped Souls: A Jazz Journey Through The Soviet Union and Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years. He has written for DownBeat, Jazz Times, Jazz Notes, Coda, and Swing Journal.

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