Toshiko Akiyoshi on Bud Powell

Now, A Jazz Moment...

MUSIC: "Parisian Thoroughfare" CD: Best of Bud Powell on Verve, Verve 314 523 3922 (cut 17)

Toshiko Akiyoshi: When I moved to Tokyo that's the first time I heard Armed Forces Radio Service. I heard Bud Powell....

2007 NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi.

So he was the one who I really felt in my heart. I think I probably heard every record he ever made until I came to this country in 1956.

Akiyoshi moved to the U.S. after receiving a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was a fortuitous arrival... one that she never forgot.

When I landed in Boston it was a Sunday morning, two o'clock in the morning. And that day was Bud Powell Trio, the last day at Storyville. And I thought, Wow that's really something! The first one I hear is the Bud Powell Trio!

MUSIC: up and fades

This Jazz Moment was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.