Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band is a Japanese jazz big band formed in 1990 by trombonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader Kenichi Tsunoda. Kenichi Tsunoda was born in 1951 in Tokyo. The group’s music is mainly big band jazz, with repertoire ranging from swing and Latin jazz to arrangements connected with Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu.
Important albums include BIG BAND STAGE – yomigaeru BIG BAND SOUND, BIG BAND SOUND: Yomigaeru Big Band Stage, BIG BAND SCALE – REVIVED BIG BAND SOUND, BIG BAND SPECIAL, “Lacquer Master Sound” Meets the BIG BAND, Vol. 1, and BIG BAND SUPREME. Well-known tracks on streaming platforms include “Take Five,” “Satin Doll,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “All of Me,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Caravan,” and “Sing, Sing, Sing.”
The band is known for its powerful, polished Japanese big-band sound and for Tsunoda’s own arrangements. Their official site states that the band has released 15 CD albums, with three released in the United States by Sea Breeze Records, and that their 2007 concert “Mou Hitotsu no Takemitsu” won an Excellence Award at the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival.