Koya Hisakazu is the bassit of my band Tommy & The All Blues. Koya is the pillar of the band. I have rarely met a basis as solid as him and he is certainly the best Blues bassist I have ever had the pleasure to play with. Quite a few bassist I have met though Blues bass is simple. Yes, it may be simple but doesn’t mean it is not difficult. Koya’s bass line is equal to the man’s body weigh : heavy to the extreme. His thumping bass brings out all the rhythm of the music, his bass lines are steady as a heartbeat. He always knows what to play and his specialty is the groove he makes in the band. I am partial to his Blues playing as I am a nothing-but-the-Blues player. But Koya is equally good in Rock and in Jazz. When Kazuo Takeda played at 48th Street, Koya was the bassist behind the great man. Koya’s bass is so crucial that whenever someone else is playing bass with me, I notice immediately his absence. Recently, I have been playing as a three piece, and Koya’s role in the band becomes more important. As a member of the band, he is irreplaceable.

Koya is one of the most popular musician and character at 48th Street. Here is his story :-

I was born in Japan in 1963. I started by piano when I was 6 years old. I played piano for 6 years and in those 6 years I classical theory and sight and chart reading. When I got to junior high school, I started to play trombone instead for one year and after that I played double bass and I joined to the big band at school. This big band eventually won as first runner-up in the Tokyo Big Band competition. The band members were serious in the music and really practiced. I learnt Jazz theory playing with the big band. At the same time, I came across the music of David Bowie, Ian Dury and Faces and I began to take an interest in Rock music and started playing guitar. Having taken up the guitar, I joined another band and Emerson, Lake & Palmer as keyboard player, but I didn't find that too interesting.

When I was at high school, I came across the music of Muddy Waters and Yukadan (Japanese acoustic blues band). I really love jug bands under the influence of Ronnie Lane (bass player of Faces). I started to play Jug and Washtub Bass. But friends around me didn't have much interest in the Blues. I joined another band we used to play a lot of Queen and Toto.

After graduating from university, I worked around some Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia and others, as a backpacker, and I met came across many kinds of music. What I have learnt is that music is rhythm and groove based on emotion, and I started to play Free Style Jazz Rock (like Soft Machine) and Blues (like Roland Kirk). I was playing in this style for 10 years. Now I play in different bands, and I enjoy to play different kinds of music. But my policy is always consistent:-

Music is groove, and have to be played with Emotion

(more to come)