Born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan on March 22, 1949, Shunzo Ohno is a trumpeter, arranger, and composer. He became interested in music at the age of 13 and by the age of 18, he was a professional musician. Shunzo Ohno met jazz drummer Art Blakey in 1974, who invited the Japanese trumpeter to join him in New York. Once he arrived in New York City, he began playing and/or recording with Blakey and His Jazz Messengers, Roy Haynes, Norman Connors, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Machito and His Salsa Big Band, and others. Shunzo Ohno released Something’s Coming, his debut album as a leader, in 1974. He followed that album with Bubbles (1976), Quarter Moon (1979), Antares (1980), and Manhattan Blue (1987). His work on the Machito and His Salsa Big Band 1982 album earned Shunzo Ohno a Grammy Award in 1984. He performed with Gil Evans & the Monday Night Orchestra in the early to late 1980s and appeared on the Grammy-winning Live at Sweet Basil album. Involved in a traffic accident in 1988, Shunzo Ohno was unable to play trumpet for several years. In 1996, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and underwent 38 rounds of radiation and intensive surgery. However, he continued to perform live on occasion, even touring with Larry Coryell in 1999. As a composer, he’s had songs featured on his own albums as well as recordings by Machito and His Salsa Big Band, Gil Evans, and others. He became the first Japanese jazz musician to with the Grand Prize of the International Songwriting Competition in 2014 with his song “Musashi”.
