前田憲男

Norio Nobuhito Maeda (前田 憲男, Maeda Norio; December 6, 1934 – November 25, 2018 Osaka Prefecture) was a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. Maeda learned piano as a young child, and moved to Tokyo to play and arrange jazz professionally in 1955. There he played with Shungo Sawada's ensemble and founded a group called the Wind Breakers. He joined the West Liners, led by Konosuke Saijo, as a pianist and arranger in 1959. Known as a composer, he penned pieces for The Blue Coats, Tatsuya Takahashi, Nobuo Hara, and Toshiyuki Miyama. He also founded We 3 with Yasuo Arakawa [ja; de] and Takeshi Inomata, and later worked with Inomata again in a trio with Sadanori Nakamure [ja; de]. On 25 November 2018, Maeda died from pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo. "ジャズピアニストの前田憲男さん死去「ミュージックフェア」「題名のない音楽会」手がける" [Jazz pianist Norio Maeda, producer of "Music Fair" and "Untitled Concert", dies]. Sponichi Annex (in Japanese). 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2024-01-24. "ジャズ・ピアニスト/作・編曲家の前田憲男が死去、「レコード屋に行けばいい。ジャズの棚に並んでいればそれはジャズだ。」 | Daily News". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). 2018-11-28. Retrieved 2024-01-24. Yozo Iwanami and Kazunori Sugiyama, "Norio Maeda". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. 2nd edn, ed. Barry Kernfeld.