5X lead guitarist George Azuma was
born in 1951 in Ichigaya-ward of Tokyo.
At the age of 12, George picked up the guitar and by 16 was gigging with friends
from the American School in Tokyo.
Songs covered in those formative years included classic tunes from Velvet
Underground,
Paul Revere and the Raiders, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Michael Bloomfield
and others.
Following this, a 19-year-old George Azuma would move to San Francisco, staying
there until 1976.His first
professional recording experience was with Keiko Kobayashi for King Records in
the summer of 1972,
with Yukihiro Takahashi on drums and bassist Ray Ohara. George also backed up
Yumi Arai (AKA Yumin) as a sideman,
after which he returned to the United States.
Immigrating back
to Japan, George promptly formed a rock band, Midnight Cruiser,
With ex-pat
Americans in Japan.
Two years later, he’d come to the attention of prominent Japanese rock/blues
singer Carmen Maki,
with whom he formed LAFF and 5X.
If that didn’t
keep him busy enough,
George came to worldwide prominence not only as a writer for Burrn! and
Player magazines, but beginning in 1984,
as a producer for Japanese heavy metal bands such as Loudness and Anthem.
His production, supervision and management duties for these and other bands have
continued uninterrupted to the present day.
In
addition to the reformed 5X,
George performs with legendary Loudness guitarist Akira Takasaki in a side
project, Jasmine Sky. George,
himself a highly renowned guitarist and very distinguished figure in the
Japanese music scene,
is also president of Killer Guitars Co., Ltd., having founded the guitar company
in 1986.
|
