Shigeru Suzuki

is a Japanese musician, songwriter and guitarist. He first became known as a member of the influential rock band Happy End in the early 1970s, before starting a solo career and becoming a prolific session musician. As of 2006, Suzuki had contributed to 588 recordings. In 2019, Suzuki's high school band Skye reunited and released their first album.

Career Second-year junior high school student Shigeru Suzuki began playing guitar and formed a the Ventures cover band named CIA with some classmates in 1965. In 1968, while still a student at Aoyama Gakuin Senior High School, he formed the band Skye with classmates Tatsuo Hayashi and Ray Ohara (later of the Sadistic Mika Band). The quartet changed their name to Happy End and went on to be credited as the first rock act to sing in Japanese. They released three albums, Happy End (1970), Kazemachi Roman (1971) and Happy End (1973), before officially disbanding on New Year's Eve 1972. In the band, Suzuki was predominantly a guitarist, but would sing his own compositions, such as "Hana Ichi Monme".

Suzuki and Hosono then formed with Hayashi, Masataka Matsutoya and Hiroshi Sato in 1973. They changed their name to a year later and worked as session musicians, most notably for Matsutoya's future wife, Yumi Arai.

Suzuki released his first solo album Band Wagon in 1975. It was recorded in Los Angeles with musicians from notable acts such as Little Feat, Santana and Sly and the Family Stone. To tour the record, he formed the band with Sato, bassist Akihiro Tanaka and drummer Toshiaki Hayashi. The group played around 10 shows, before disbanding on November 16, 1975. The following year, tracks the band recorded for audio engineer Shinichi Tanaka to play at an audio trade fair, were released as the album Maboroshi no Huckleback. Suzuki's next solo album, 1976's Lagoon, was recorded in Hawaii and saw him venture into Hawaiian music and bossa nova.

On February 17, 2009, Suzuki was arrested by the Tokyo Wangan Police Station for violating the Cannabis Control Law. He received a six month prison sentence suspended for three years on March 17.

To celebrate his 40th anniversary as a solo artist, Suzuki teamed up with Ino Hidefumi for two concerts on April 3 and 4, 2015. They performed twice each day and were backed by Hayashi and Hama Okamoto.

Suzuki supported Yumi Matsutoya at the 69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen at the end of 2018. When Ohara invited Suzuki and Tatsuo Hayashi to record with Shiro Sano in 2019, the three decided to reunite their high school band Skye. Adding Matsutoya to the line-up, they released the album Kindan no Kajitsu with Sano on September 25, 2019. Skye's self-titled first album was released on October 27, 2021. Album, their second album with Sano, was released on July 5, 2023. Skye's second album, Collage, was released on July 24, 2024.

Musical style and songwriting Suzuki's initial interest in music came from the Ventures. He shaved the neck to make it more comfortable to grip. It meticulously reproduces his 1962 model, replicating everything from its paint, materials, electronics and shaved neck, to the wear and scratches.

Discography

Solo studio albums Band Wagon (1975)

Lagoon (1976) Caution! (1978) Telescope (1978) Cosmos '51 (1979) White Heat (1979) Sei Do Ya (1985)

With Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley 2 (1977)

Tin Pan (2000)

With Skye

Skye (2021) Album (2023, credited to "Shiro Sano meets Skye") Collage (2024)

CBS/Sony Sound Image Series Pacific (1978) with Haruomi Hosono and Tatsuro Yamashita New York (1978) with various artists Island Music (1983) with Hosono, Yamashita, Matsutoya, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Takahiko Ishikawa Off Shore (1983) with Hosono, Yamashita, Sakamoto, Matsutoya, Masaki Matsubara and Kazumasa Akiyama