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Joe Hisaishi was born on December 6th, 1950, in Nagano, Japan as Mamoru Fujisawa. When he started to take violin lessons at age four, Hisaishi discovered his passion for music. Realizing his love, he attended the Kunitachi College of Music to major in music composition in 1969. Hisaishi collaborated with music minimalists as a typesetter, furthering his experience in the musical world.
He enjoyed his first success of the business in 1974, when he composed music for a small animation called Gyatoruzu. This and other early works were created under his real name. During this period, he composed for Sasuga No Sarutobi (Academy of Ninja) and Futari Taka (A Full Throttle).
In the 1970's, Japanese popular music, electronic music, and new-age music flourished - those genres, as well as the Yellow Magic Orchestra (Japanese electronic band in 1978-1988), influenced Hisaishi's compositions. He developed his music from the ideals of minimalism and expanded toward orchestral work. Around 1975, Hisaishi presented his first public performance, spreading his name around his community. His first album, Mkuwaji, was released in 1981, with its first work, Information, being released a year later.
As his works were becoming well-known, Hisaishi formulated an alias inspired by Quincy Jones, an African-American musician and producer. The name, "Quincy Jones," was retranscribed in Japanese as "Joe Hisaishi." ("Quincy," pronounced "Kuishi" in Japanese, is close to the Japanese pronunciation of the kanji for "Hisaishi"; "Joe" came from "Jones.") This pseudonym became part of Mamoru Fujisawa and remains with him.
In 1983, with his new name, Hisaishi was recommended by a record company to create an album for Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. Hisaishi and the director of the animated movie, Hayao Miyazaki, became great friends and worked together on many projects. This big break led to Hisaishi fervently composing more Japanese movie soundtracks; in 1986, Castle in the Sky was released; later, in the 1990's, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were revealed to the public. As more exposure was given to Hisaishi and the animeGhost in the Shell (1995) This article is about Japanese animation. For the oleo-resin, see Anime. Anime is Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storyline industry, Joe Hisaishi's career grew. He not only started a solo career as a musician, but he also started to produce music and create his own label (Wonder Land Inc.). A year later, the label produced its first album, Pretender, in New York.
Because of his hard work throughout the years, Hisaishi has won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music five times - in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1999, and 2000. He also received the 48th Newcomer Award in 1997 from the Ministry of Education (Public Entertainment Section) and many other music awards as a revered figure in the Japanese movie industry.
In 1998, he provided the soundtrackGenerally speaking, the term soundtrack refers to the recorded sound in a motion picture. In terms of film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound. The term soundtrack is also commonly used to refer to to the Nagano Winter Olympics. In 1999, Hisaishi composed the music for the third installment in a series of popular computer-animated educational films about the human body.
The year of 2001 was the busiest; Hisaishi produced music for Takeshi Kitano’s Brother and Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and served as executive producer of the Night Fantasia 4 Movement at the Japan Expo in Fukushima 2001. Quartet, the film directed by Hisaishi, received excellent reviews at the Montreal Film Festival. On October 6, Hisaishi made his debut as the film director for Quartet, in addition to writing both the music and script for the movie. His first soundtrack for a foreign film, Le Petit Poucet, was released in the same year.
Right now, Hayao Miyazaki's next film, Howl's Moving Castle, is finished and will be scheduled for release on November 20, 2004 in Japan; Hisaishi composed the score for that movie. From November 3 to November 29, 2004, Hisaishi is on his "Joe Hisaishi Freedom - Piano Stories 2004 Tour" with Canadian musicians.