Rock

David Kai

David Kai grew up in Toronto as a Sansei attending the Centennial-Japanese United Church where he was highly involved in its music ministry. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto, the Humber College music program where he specialized in arranging and composing, and The Centre for Christian Studies. Commissioned as a diaconal minister […]

The Embers

The Embers were a Nisei rock ensemble that performed at many Japanese Canadian community picnics and dances. They featured musician Yo Mori (an NAJC Toronto stalwart), and were particularly well-known for their rendition of Kansas City.

The Asia Minors

The Asia Minors were an all-Asian Canadian band who played in Toronto in the 1960s. The band was formed by the Lumb family, a prominent Chinatown family: it was sponsored by restaurateur Jean Lumb and the members included three of her children. Other members at different points in the band’s lifetime included Alan Kondo, Terry […]

Garry Kawasaki

Garry Kawasaki is a musician who played bass and provided vocals for the Asia Minors, an Asian Canadian top 40s rock band that played in Toronto in the 1960s. He collaborated many times with Terry Watada, including appearing in his album Runaway Horses and several other recordings. He has also performed with the band the […]

Kaya

Kaya is a vocalist and songwriter based in Burnaby, BC with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz from Capilano University. As a queer woman of colour, she values diversity and representation, and strives to create inclusive spaces in the Vancouver music scene. Kaya draws influences from artists such as Lake Street Dive, Nina Simone, Rebecca […]

Tim Tamashiro

Tim Tamashiro is a singer and ‘jazz evangelist’, well-known as the host of Tonic on CBC Radio 2. Growing up in Blackfalds, Alberta, Tamashiro had six months of piano lessons before his mother and piano teacher decided to let him teach himself how to play by ear; he has since become a passionate believer in […]

Masaki Watanabe

Masaki Watanabe is a journalist/translator and a jazz musician with an international background. Born in Tokyo in 1945 to a Japanese Finnish father and a Japanese mother, he graduated from International Christian University in 1966 after which he joined Reuters news agency in London. He has since worked as a Reuters correspondent in North America […]

Gordon Hashimoto

Gordon Hashimoto is a Montreal-based editor, filmmaker and musician. As a student at Concordia University, he variously produced, wrote, directed, and edited a number of experimental short films; as a professional in the filmmaking industry, he works primarily as a picture editor or assistant editor, on such productions as Rene Levesque, Fries with That, and […]

Ed Koyama

Ed Koyama is a musician born and raised in Toronto. He has played guitar and saxophone professionally in local bands. Performances include a number of albums for Terry Watada with other local Sansei/Nisei musicians.