Deems Tsutakawa »
The Breakfast Set
By Deems Tsutakawa For The North American Post The summer of 1974 was a beautiful one, weather wise and gig wise. For a four month period from June through September, I played keyboards at
Read More »Tough Tofu With Deems Low Note
By Deems Tsutakawa For The North American Post A few years back I was hired to play piano for a 50th wedding anniversary by an old Sansei classmate from my high school days. She
Read More »Tough Tofu With Deems The Groove Within Us
By Deems Tsutakawa For The North American Post There is a saying that goes “ you can get anything you want in life -as long as you help enough other people get what they
Read More »Tough Tofu With Deems: L.A. Live
By Deems Tsutakawa For The North American Post Los Angeles California has a great downtown area called Little Tokyo. If you love Japanese food you’ll love hanging out and eating at the many excellent
Read More »Tough Tofu with Deems: Late Night Light
By Deems Tsutakawa For The North American Post For a few years in the glorious 70′s, I played keyboards in a local band named Northwest Sound. We did all the hit dance tunes
Read More »Kanzaki Lounge Lizards
Japantown in San Francisco is a thriving and viable community with restaurants, hotels and a manju shop that all have a distinct Japanese American flavor. The Denny’s Restaurant in J-Town even had saimin noodles
Read More »That Ain’t Nothin’
One of the finest saxophone players to ever come out of the Pacific Northwest is Dean Mochizuki. He went to my high school, Franklin High School, in South Central Seattle in the early 70s
Read More »Venues
By Deems Tsutakawa For The North American Post The restaurant/nightclub business is a difficult and treacherous endeavor even with the best financing, menus, personnel and intentions that one could hope for. Over the years,
Read More »
Tough Tofu With Deems: The Fake Pie
For my junior year at Franklin High School, located in South Seattle, I was voted into office as class president. I ran against Brian Gorelick, Kenny G’s older brother and won by a landslide
Read More »Tough Tofu with Deems
Unbeknownst to many people outside the Japanese American Community and even within the JA community for that matter, there are and have been a plethora of excellent jazz, soul, blues and rock musicians for
Read More »
