#Toshinori Kondo, Electronic Trumpet Artist, Dead at 71

Toshinori Kondo, the Japanese free jazz trumpeter known for his improvisations and electronic experimentation, has died, NPR reports. His family confirmed the news. He was 71. 

Kondo moved to New York City from Japan in the late 1970s, where he fell in with iconic experimental musicians from the Downtown Scene including Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Henry Kaiser, Fred Frith, and Eugene Chadbourne. He appeared on multiple albums in the late ’70s with those artists. In 1983, he contributed vocals to the classic Herbie Hancock album Future Shock. He also collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto and was a member of Praxis.

In recent years, he’s run his own prolific label called TKRECORDINGS, and this year, he released a five-volume pandemic response recofrd series called Beyond Corona.