A Guide to Jazz in Japan

Pronko, Michael: - Michael Pronko has lived in Tokyo for twenty years, but was born in Kansas City, a very different world. After graduating from Brown University in philosophy, he hit the road, traveling around the world for two years working odd jobs. He went back to school for a Master's in Education, and then took a teaching position in Beijing. For two years, he taught English, traveled China and wrote. Award-winning novelist, essayist, and journalist Michael Pronko has nearly thirty years of experience writing about jazz for Tokyo Q, The Japan Times, JJazz.net, and Jazznin. He contributed the chapter on Japanese jazz to The Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies (2021) and has writing is included in The Jazz Omnibus (2024) of the Jazz Journalists Association. He now runs the Jazz in Japan website. He's also the author of the Tokyo-based Detective Hiroshi mystery series and The Tokyo Moments series about life in Japan.