Saiichi Sugiyama (musician)

Saiichi Sugiyama (born 1960 in Tokyo, Japan) is a British-based guitarist, singer and composer, best known for his collaborations with Pete Brown, the lyricist for Cream. [ [http://www.stratcollector.com/newsdesk/archives/000274.html] ] [ [http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/some_xmas_reviews.htm] ] [ [http://www.petebrown.co.uk/] ] His band featured Mike Casswell and Phil Williams of Walk on Fire, Andy Smith of Hot Chocolate, Zoot Money, Boz Burrell of Bad Company, John Cook of Rory Gallagher band and Pete Brown.

Sugiyama was the lead guitarist in the band of Shana Morrison, the daughter of Van Morrison in her UK tour of 2006. [ [http://www.themodestmusicgroup.com/pages/artists/shana_morrison.php] ] ] Sugiyama's studio albums featured Clem Clempson of Colosseum and Ben Matthews of Thunder. [ [http://www.thunderonline.com/rjt/links/] ] His blues-based lead guitar style as well as his association with Crossroads Centre guitar auctions at Christie's (as a guitar consultant) resulted in Sugiyama being labelled as a "Japanese Clapton" in the London blues clubs despite his remonstrations. [ [http://www.stratcollector.com/newsdesk/archives/000274.html] ] Sugiyama plays a Gibson Les Paul guitar and Marshall amplifiers. His fluid and conversational guitar style does have a resmblance to early Eric Clapton, Peter Green and has a vibrato technique similar that of Paul Kossoff whereas his singing style is of his own. [ [http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/some_xmas_reviews.htm] ]

Sugiyama collaborates with Mark Horiuchi, the former lead singer of the Japanese rock band Garo (Japanese rock group) who had a number of chart hits in the Japanese chart in the early 1970s and the duo recorded several tracks which were included in the album "So Am I" released in Japan in 2004 [ [http://www.realmusiclive.co.uk/playlists/pl2004-10.htm] ] [ [http://www.rikohdai.com/garo/news/vanda.html] ] [ [http://www.modernguitars.com/sugiyama/] ]

Discography

*"Saiichi Sugiyama" (November 1994)
*"So Am I" (July 2004) [ [http://cdbaby.com/cd/saiichi2] ]
*"SAIICHI" (May 2005) [ [http://cdbaby.com/cd/saiichi] ]

Trivia

* Clodagh Rodgers sang a duet with Sugiyama in the session for his 1994 album, but the track was never released.

References