Japan's vanguard saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader Akira Sakata is the very definition of a polymath. Though a musician by trade, he is also an actor, a talk show host, a popular essayist, and a trained marine biologist whose work on the mijinka (water flea) has been hailed by the Japanese government. Sakata has led the bands Wha Ha Ha, Sakata Trio, Sakata Orchestra, Sakata-Sextet, Sakata Akira His Da-Da-Da Orchestra, Mitochondria, and Harpacticoida. He has worked with dozens upon dozens of musicians live and in the studio, including Chikoramachi, Jimmy Lyons, Chris Cutler, Bill Laswell, Peter Kowald, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Keiji Haino, Merzbow, Charles Hayward, Otomo Yoshihide, and Jim O'Rourke.

Sakata was born in Kure, Hiroshima, in early 1945 -- six months before the Americans dropped the first atomic bomb on the prefecture. His family remained in Hiroshima after the war and rebuilt. Sakata became interested in music in high school and studied clarinet. While attending Hiroshima University, he pursued and received a degree in marine biology and picked up the alto saxophone.

In 1969, Sakata moved to Tokyo and started his first trio, Saibo-Bunretsu (Cell Fission); he integrated himself into the burgeoning free jazz and avant music scenes. He joined the Yamashita Yosuke Trio in 1972 and remained a member until 1979. Sakata released his first two recordings as a leader for Frasco Records while still with Yosuke: 1975's Counter Clockwise Trip and 1977's Peking, with different trios on each release. After leaving Yosuke's employ, Sakata formed his first steady working trio in 1980. Its three-month tour of Japan elicited critical acclaim and audience excitement. A performance that occurred during this period was released as the live album POCHI. The following year Sakata formed Wha Ha Ha, a collective of creative musicians with strong personalities from different genres. Their debut album, Shinutokiwa Betsu, created quite a sensation in Japan. He and the trio also did a two-month European tour.

He appeared at the Berlin Jazz Festival of 1981 with the newly established Sakata Orchestra, which he formed with handpicked musicians from various nations. Others appearing at the festival that year included Lounge Lizards, James Blood Ulmer, Defunkt, and Material. In 1982 he formed Sakata-Sextet with a group structure that included two drummers and two bassists; their Trauma album was released on Better Days. In 1985 he formed Sakata Quartet and almost simultaneously re-formed his orchestra as Sakata Akira His Da-Da-Da Orchestra, issuing the wonderfully bent Da-Da-Da, which featured a host of jazz and big-band standards.

While continuing to work on his own projects and releasing the septet recording Tacology, Sakata was invited by Bill Laswell to play with Last Exit. That gig -- with Herbie Hancock as an additional guest -- was issued as Noise of Trouble/Last Exit Live in Tokyo. Two years later he would work with Laswell and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson -- the other half of Last Exit's rhythm section -- to record 1988's Mookoo for Virgin Records as part of its Ventures series. The saxophonist worked with Laswell again the following year on Silent Plankton, an album that also featured guitarist Nicky Skopelitis and percussionist Aiyb Dieng.

Sakata continued his various touring activities, playing festivals across the globe and contributing to others' recordings. In 1992 he led a 12-person group and scored the NHK television documentary Nano Space Odyssey. For one month in the summer of 1994, Sakata led his 14-member international Flying Mijinko Band -- whose musicians came from Japan, Africa, and America -- on a tour of Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and China. The performance was recorded, resulting in the album Flying Mijinko Band/Central Asian Tour, produced by the Japan Foundation. In 1997 he released the trio offering How's That for his own Daphnia label, and the following year saw the arrival of the first Harpacticoida recording, La Mer, which collected all his recordings written for the documentary The Universe of Mijinko. In 1999, he produced a new-style folk music concert, The World Music Festival: August in Hiroshima; it centered on the Flying Mijinko Band with featured guests from across the globe.

Sakata's first recorded date of the new century was Scenic Zone, billed to the trio Gazelle. It was a precursor to his best-known album, 1981's Fisherman's.com with Laswell, drummer Hamid Drake, and reclusive lead guitarist Pete Cosey, who had been a member of Miles Davis' innovative mid-'70s band. Beginning in 2003, Sakata led his Sakata Akira Mii trio on a European tour. He was also engaged in documentary filmmaking with Shirakami no Yume, both as an actor and composer. In the summer of 2004 he enjoyed acting again in the movie Umore-gi, directed by Kouhei Oguri. In September he joined DJ Krush to play New York and San Francisco, followed by dates in northern and western Japan for the remainder of the year.

In April of 2005, Sakata teamed with guitarist Jim O'Rourke for a public performance at Pit Inn in Japan. The resultant Tokyo Session appeared from Polyster. The pair also worked in a sextet setting as Tetrodotoxin for Oyoba Re, which also featured Chikamorachi members drummer Chris Corsano and bassist Darin Gray. The saxophonist followed this in October with a DVD release of Mijinko no Shizukana Uchu (Tranquil World of Mijinko), with bonus footage from his performance of the score. Before the year ended, Sakata also managed to release a double solo album entitled Hyakuhachi Bonnou (108 Desires). The collaboration with the O'Rourke sextet continued with Kanashii -- though this time the band called itself Explosion. In 2006, he formed a quartet with pianist Febian Reza Pane called Himawari (Sunflower) and issued a self-titled album as a benefit for Japan's Chernobyl Foundation. A formal Sakata and Chikoramachi album entitled Friendly Pants was issued by Columbia in Japan and Family Vineyard in the United States.

Sakata was prolific in contributing to albums by other artists and to multimedia projects and films. His own trio issued I'm Here in 2010, followed by Heike Monogatari, a quartet date with William Parker, Nate McBride, and John Herndon. The year's releases also included And That's the Story of Jazz... by Akira Sakata and Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi and Live at the Hungry Brain, the latter billed to Akira Sakata and Chikamorachi. The collaboration with Jim O'Rourke continued on 2012's Sora Wo Tobu!, which featured O'Rourke and koto player Michiyo Yagi. It was the first of five albums Sakata would play on or lead that year, including two with Hijokaidan and a reunion date with the Yosuke Yamashita Trio. The Tale of the Heike - Live Performance DVD was issued in 2013, as was the video of 2011's The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet Concert for Fukushima, in which he, Yagi, Yoshihide, and Toshinori Kondo all participated.

It was back to making records in 2014, starting with a date with Hijokaidan entitled Live! Bar the Doors as well as Arashi, the debut from his trio with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and Johan Berthling on Trost. Other titles that year included The Cliff of Time with Nilssen-Love, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Ketil Gutvik and a Live at Cafe OTO date with Giovanni Di Domenico. All told, he participated in nine recordings for as many labels. Though recorded the same year, Family Vineyard waited until September of 2015 to release Flying Basket by Sakata, Chikoramachi, and O'Rourke, with Merzbow adding his dense electronic noise to the mix. The saxophonist also released the album Live at Kargart in collaboration with the avant rock band Konstrukt. The year 2016 began with another collaboration, this time the studio date Multidirectional Radiation with noise rockers Transparentz. The Sakata, Nilssen-Love, and Berthling trio also released the live Semikujira on Trost.

In 2017, Sakata showed no signs of slowing down. He formed a new trio called Bonjintan with O'Rourke on double bass and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on drums; the trio released a self-titled offering that was striking for its meld of original compositions, folk songs, and a haunted reading of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman." Live quartet, quintet, and trio recordings were also released on various labels. In 2018, Sakata reunited with Chikamorachi for Proton Pump, with Masahiko Satoh guesting on piano. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi