T-Square (band)


T-Square is a Japanese jazz fusion band formed in 1978. They became famous in the late '70s and early '80s along with other Japanese bands in the genre.
Its most famous lineup included its members from late 1986 to 1990: guitarist Masahiro Andoh, saxophonist/flutist/EWI player Takeshi Itoh, bassist Mitsuru Sutoh, keyboardist Hirotaka Izumi and drummer Hiroyuki Noritake. They are known for songs such as "Truth", "Japanese Soul Brothers", "Takarajima", "Omens of Love", among others. "Truth" has been used as the theme for Fuji Television's Formula One coverage from 1989 to 2000 and since 2012. A special arrangement, "Truth 21c", was used as the theme for Japan's F1 2001 and 2002, respectively, and other remixes of were used from 2003 to 2006.

History

College Beginnings (1976–1978)

In 1976, the band started as a small jazz fusion group in Meiji University with a very basic line-up, made of bassist Yuhji Nakamura, guitarist Masahiro Andoh, pianist Jun Hakama and drummer Shunichi Harada. According to Masahiro Andoh, the band's name was based on Madison Square Garden. Hakama and Harada were replaced by Junko Miyagi on keyboards and Michael S. Kawai on drums, and a young, debuting Takeshi Itoh joining in on saxophone and flutes, in 1977.

The Square (1978–1988)

With backing guitarist Yuhji Mikuriya, keyboardist Shiro Sagisu and percussionist Kiyohiko Senba joining in 1978, the band was then named "The Square". It had a semi-generic, disco-type sound. Lead saxophonist Takeshi Itoh adopted the Lyricon as a side instrument. The Square would then begin a tradition of writing one to three songs with the Lyricon in every new album thereafter. As the years progressed, the number of members had dwindled from eight members to five. The group's sound had also evolved to a more rock-oriented music when Junko Miyagi and Michael S. Kawai were replaced by drummer Jun Aoyama and Prism keyboardist Daisaku Kume. Kume only joined the band as a Support Member and left a year thereafter. Percussionist Kiyohiko Senba left the group altogether. Jun Aoyama was later replaced by Eiji Shimizu on drums and Yuhji Nakamura was replaced by bassist Toyoyuki Tanaka in 1981. In 1982, Tohru Hasebe replaced Shimizu and Hirotaka Izumi joined the band as their first long-term keyboardist/pianist, replacing Kume. This would be the band's first consistent line-up, lasting until late 1985. Hiroyuki Noritake would then replace Hasebe on drums in 1986 as their first long-term drummer. In 1987, Mitsuru Sutoh replaced Toyoyuki Tanaka on bass, being the first long-term bassist in the group. Takeshi Itoh would go on to swap his Lyricon for an AKAI EWI before the band made their first release in the United States. It is believed that their first performance in the US. was at the Cat Club in N.Y. Before they made their way to the Roxy in Los Angeles, they realized there was already a group from the UK called "The Squares". Thus, the band changed their name to "T-Square".

T-Square (1988–2000)

The band's performance at the Roxy marked their first live album as T-Square. Two years later, Masato Honda debuted with them as a backing saxophonist on the album T-Square Live . In 1991, Takeshi Itoh pursued a solo career, and Honda replaced him. Honda also composed the opening track from T-Square's "New-S" Album, "Megalith". After the release of the "Blue in Red" album in 1997, Honda left the group to pursue his solo career. Takahiro Miyazaki would replace him. At the same time, Hirotaka Izumi left T-Square and was replaced by Tadashi Namba. Namba played keyboards on the theme song from Gran Turismo, "Moon Over The Castle" as well as the T-Square arrangement of the song, called "Knight's Song", from "Blue in Red". The group and all former and current members played at Yaon de Asobu for their 20th Anniversary that same year. This is one of the last T-Square performances in which Masato Honda was involved. In 1999, Tadashi Namba was replaced by Keiji Matsumoto. The new line-up of Miyazaki, Noritake, Sutoh, Matsumoto and Andoh was kept until mid-2000.

T-Square Plus and Session Members (2000–2002)

In mid 2000, the band was divided into T-Square and Trio The Square. This trio was the main reason for why T-Square had to employ session musicians to record with the exception of the "Friendship Live" performance. The performance had ex-long term drummer, Hiroyuki Noritake, along with then-Support/Guest-keyboardist, Keizoh Kawano, and support bassist Kiyoshi Murakami. T-Square changed its name again to T-Square Plus. Former guitarist Yuhji Mikuriya as well as former Seikima-II bassist Shunsuke "Xenon" Ishikawa and session keyboardist Takehiro Kawabe joined them briefly in 2002. After that, the band dropped the "Plus" from their name, but kept using session musicians until 2003.

25th Anniversary, The Square/T Comes Back (2003)

In 2003, they released an album called "Spirits" under their original name, "The Square", and retained some of their original members and kept their newcomer, Keizoh Kawano. The line-up was Itoh, Noritake, Sutoh, Kawano, Izumi and Andoh. They released another album, that featured new arrangements of some of their best known songs, called "T Comes Back".

New Band Members (2004–2008)

Since then, the group changed their name again to T-Square. In 2004, Katsuji Morioka joined and replaced Mitsuru Sutoh on bass. A year later, Morioka was replaced by Shingo Tanaka as support bassist. In 2005, Keizoh Kawano became an official keyboardist. Drummer Satoshi Bandoh replaced Hiroyuki Noritake in the same year. T-Square's original drummer, Michael S. Kawai, returned as a behind-the-scenes percussionist and producer from 2004 to 2008.

30th Anniversary and T-Square Super Band/Super Special Band, First Lineup (2008–2009)

The band briefly changed their name to T-Square Super Band, to promote their 30th Anniversary Tour. Most former T-Square members were involved in recording their new album, "Wonderful Days", adding even more former members. This began in Mid-to-Late-2008 after the end of their "Wonderful Days" Tour. After, the group changed its name to T-Square Super Special Band and played on Yaon de Asobu for their 30th Anniversary Show. This show was released on February 2009 as "The Square~T-Square since 1978: 30th Anniversary Festival".

Self-Cover Era (2009–2012)

With the release of their 2009 Album, Discoveries, only 3 months after the release of the aforementioned DVD, the group dropped "Super Special Band" from their name and cut the members down to keyboardist Keizoh Kawano, drummer Satoshi Bandoh, returning support bassist Shingo Tanaka and the two original T-Square members, Masahiro Andoh and Takeshi Itoh. Discoveries was sold with a DVD which chronicled T-Square performing and rehearsing in 2008. In 2010, they released a brand new album, "Jikan Ryoko"—which is the Japanese phrase for "Time Travel". This album was meant to showcase more of the songwriting abilities of the younger members of the group. In the Summer of that same year, they re-recorded some of their older songs and release them in October as an album called "Takara no Uta: T-Square plays The Square". They would go on to release another original album, "Nine Stories", on April 2011. Some current and former T-Square members would tour with Satoshi Bandoh to promote his solo album, "Happy Life!", in late 2011. T-Square recorded another T-Square plays The Square album, released late in October, much like last year. Keizoh Kawano recorded and released his own solo album, Dreams, the month thereafter. At the end of 2011, they performed a new song, 'Bird of Wonder', which was released with their 2012 album, "Wings". The group later released another cover album, this time employing the help of special guest musicians.

35th Anniversary and Rumors of Takeshi Itoh's Second Departure (2013)

This marks the second time that T-Square has branded themselves "T-Square Super Band", now in promotion of their 35th Anniversary, "T-Square's 35th Anniversary Festival". They retained all members of the Super Band from 2008, except for pianist Hirotaka Izumi, and including percussionist Kiyohiko Senba. Shingo Tanaka was also promoted from a support member to an official member of the band. Upon the Release of "Smile", the new T-Square Super Band Album, a picture was included in the release, with Japanese Text/Kanji clearly reading something to the effect of "Itoh's Resignation", making fans believe that Takeshi Itoh would once again leave. In their last album of 2013, T-Square Plus – "History", Itoh only performed on 2 tracks of the album, but haven't left the band after all.

T-Square Begins Streaming Music Overseas (2014 – 2017)

"T-Square's 35th Anniversary Festival" show was released as a Blu-ray in May 2014. Nearly a month later, their album was released, "NEXT".
The 40th T-Square album, "Paradise", was released in July 2015, being one of ten T-Square Albums, Make Me a Star, Magic, Kyakusenbi no Yuuwaku, Stars and the Moon, SPORTS, Yes, No, and Friendship not to be released in Spring.
"Paradise" was the first T-Square album to be released on iTunes and Spotify in the United States, along with their and their following studio album from 2016, "Treasure Hunter". While these are all released in the American iTunes, they are the only 3 albums available there, while the Japanese iTunes has a more extense discography.
T-Square released their album, "REBIRTH", in April 2017.

40th Anniversary and Changing Keyboardists (Late 2017 – Present)

In 2017, T-Square performed two separate concerts at the Blue Note in Tokyo.
The first one with their 1982-1985 Lineup of Masahiro Andoh, Takeshi Itoh, Tohru Hasebe, Toyoyouki Tanaka, and Hirotaka Izumi with Keizoh Kawano playing backing synth.
The second one included their 1987-1990 Lineup of Masahiro Andoh, Takeshi Itoh, Hiroyuki Noritake, Mitsuru Sutoh, and Hirotaka Izumi with Keizoh Kawano playing backing synth.
In 2018, T-Square released two albums, "City Coaster" in April was their studio album.
To Celebrate their 40th Anniversary, the group released another studio album, "It's a Wonderful Life!" in November. "It's a Wonderful Life!" was also the name of their 40th Anniversary Concert. This particular concert included most of the usual members of a "T-Square Super Band", also they performed "Takarajima" with the Nishiarai Junior High School Brass Band Club. This Concert also included Daisaku Kume, who hadn't played with T-Square since their 20th Anniversary in 1998.
T-Square already had planned to record the next album "Horizon" in Los Angeles, but on February 6, 2019, their keyboardist Keizoh Kawano was hospitalized due to an intracerebral hemorrhage and due to the abrupt changes, the T-Square members were not free to travel to the U.S. to stay and record the album, so Philippe Saisse, who hadn't played with T-Square since 1995's "T-Square and Friends", but played on Satoshi Bandoh's "Step By Step" album from 2016, offered to finish the keyboard parts. They managed to release "Horizon" in April 2019. Akito Shirai joined the band as their Keyboardist in December 2019 for their Year-End Concert and recorded on their 2020 album, "AI Factory".

Members

Timeline

Offshoot bands

The following list includes bands that include multiple members of T-Square.

AnMi2

AnMi2 are a guitar duo comprising the first two guitarists of T-Square, Masahiro Andoh and Yuhji Mikuriya.

Trio The Square/The Masato Honda Band/Voice of Elements

This group began as a result of creative differences between the members of the T-Square Line-up of 1999-Early 2000, but the trio began in mid-1999, with keyboardist Keiji Matsumoto, drummer Hiroyuki Noritake and bassist Mitsuru Sutoh as Trio The Square. Trio The Square disbanded in later 2000.
Later on that year, Hiroyuki Noritake and Keiji Matsumoto, along with Bassist Tomohito Aoki, Guitarist Jun Kajiwara, would become the backing band of former T-Square saxophonist, Masato Honda. The group didn't have an official name, but, was collectively dubbed by fans as "The Masato Honda Band".
The Masato Honda Band was put on hold in 2005, then fully deactivated in Early Mid-2006, to make way for Voice of Elements, which featured, again, Hiroyuki Noritake and Keiji Matsumoto. Tomohito Aoki, the original bassist of the Masato Honda Band, died of acute heart failure on June that year, therefore, he was replaced by Mitsuru Sutoh. As of Sutoh joining the group, Everyone who ever joined it was also a previous member of T-Square. Voice of Elements, as the band was called when they returned in 2006, continued performing and recording through 2007.

Ottottrio

This group was a Fusion Supergroup, led by 3 guitarists, T-Square's Masahiro Andoh, Casiopea's Issei Noro and KORENOS' Hirokuni Korekata. Along with Masahiro Andoh, Drummer Hiroyuki Noritake was another T-Square musician who was part of this group since 1988. Also, T-Square Bassist, Mitsuru Sutoh and Future T-Square keyboardist, Keiji Matsumoto recorded with them at the end of 1998.

KoreNoS

This band was formed in 2004 by Hirokuni Korekata, Hiroyuki Noritake and Mitsuru Sutoh. They released 2 studio albums, "Asian Street Style" and "Abracadabra". They also released a live album in 2007.

Casiopea vs. The Square

Although "Casiopea vs. The Square" was performed as a one-off event in 2003, this extension of 2 different Jazz-Fusion bands goes back to 1993. Former Percussionist of The Square, Kiyohiko Senba, played on one of the songs from Casiopea's 1993 album, "Dramatic". A year later, Both Groups played an arrangement of The Beatles' "Get Back" on a Japanese Broadcast. 3 years after that, Casiopea, T-Square and Jimsaku played at Tokyo Jam 1997, with the same song. In 2003, Both Groups played, at the event called Casiopea vs. The Square. Both Groups still have somewhat of an alliance, seeing as Casiopea's 1993 – 1997 drummer, Noriaki Kumagai and Former T-Square Bassist, Mitsuru Sutoh are both in TRIX. And Sax player Takeshi Itoh performed with Casiopea's Keyboardist, Minoru Mukaiya in 2006.

Synchronized DNA

Drummers Hiroyuki Noritake of T-Square and Akira Jimbo of Casiopea made a Drum Duo in 2003, after the "Casiopea vs. The Square" concert.

Pyramid

Pianist Hirotaka Izumi, ex-Casiopea drummer Akira Jimbo and guitarist Yuji Toriyama along with other studio musicians, form the band "Pyramid". They have released four studio albums.

As Support Members for Other Artists

After the dissolution of Trio the Square, Mitsuru Sutoh and Keiji Matsumoto would later become backing musicians for Japanese Acapella Pop group, 'The Gospellers'. Sutoh also plays for TRIX. Other recognized musicians in that group are Noriaki Kumagai.
Drummer Hiroyuki Noritake and Keyboardist Keizoh Kawano, along with Bassist Ko Shimizu would record as Support Members for J-Fusion/Rock guitarist Kumi Adachi in 2007–2008.
T-Square's current Bassist Shingo Tanaka is a former part of The 39's/The Thank You's. The 39's were a band that accompanied Concerts performed by Vocaloids, specifically the "39's Giving Day" concert series, although the concerts themselves wouldn't necessarily be held on said day. During the final 39's Giving Day Concert in March, 2012, the band were also accompanied by Takahiro Miyazaki.

Discography