Akio Sasajima

Japan's Akio Sasajima is an adept guitarist and teacher with a bent toward adventurous post-bop and straight-ahead and fusion jazz. Born in 1952 in Hakodate, Japan, Sasajima was largely self-taught, having studied the work of artists like Baden Powell and Wes Montgomery. He also found work translating Berklee School of Music textbooks, through which he imbibed music theory. Early in his career, Sasajima gigged around Sapporo, often with saxophonist Sadao Watanabe. He also spent time working in Tokyo before moving to the United States in the late '70s, eventually settling in Ch...