Shungo Sawada

Shungo Sawada (沢田駿吾) (born Tokyo, February 10, 1930 - died August 28, 2006) was a Japanese jazz guitarist.

Sawada began playing guitar at twelve years old, and played in his early twenties on US military installations. He founded his own group, Double Beats, in 1954, and led a five-piece band in the mid-1960s. His Japanese sidemen included Shotaro Moriyasu, Norio Maeda, Akitoshi Igarashi, and Motohiko Hino; he also played with visiting American musicians such as Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Thad Jones, Helen Merrill, Oscar Peterson, and Sonny Stitt. He was the founder of the label Elec in 1972, and later taught at Roots College of Music in Tokyo.

Discography

• Fool on the Hill (1969)
• Shungo Sawada vs. Sadanori Nakamure (1975)
• Shungo (1983)
• Django (1984)

References

• Kazunori Sugiyama, "Shungo Sawada". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld.