A melancholy note is coming from the legendary Jack London Square jazz club Yoshi’s, as the club’s founder Kazuo ‘Kaz’ Kajimura passed away Sunday after a bout with Alzheimer’s disease.
If your only impression of the live jazz club Yoshi’s is the ill-fated San Francisco Fillmore Street location that had the bad fortune of opening during the Great Recession, that is not a complete impression. Yoshi’s in Oakland is one of the more prominent jazz venues on the West Coast, albeit one that has moved a few times. One constant throughout Yoshi’s prolific 53-year run has been co-founder Kaz Kajimura, who helped start the place from humble beginnings in Berkeley.
But Kajimura is no longer a constant at Yoshi’s, as the Chronicle reports that Yoshi's co-founder Kaz Kajimura died Sunday after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 81.
“With heavy hearts, we are sharing that the great San Francisco Bay Area has lost one of its legends. On June 15, Kazuo ‘Kaz’ Kajimura joined his mother Yoshi Kajimura & father Noriyuki Kajimura in heaven,” the nightclub Yoshi’s said in an announcement. “Kaz was a local icon, and founder of Yoshi’s Claremont, Yoshi’s San Francisco and Yoshi’s Oakland. Since 1972, Yoshi’s became Kaz’s passion, and his life’s dedication. Those that had the privilege to work with Kaz, knew he was no stranger to working 10 to 16 hours days, 6 days a week…for over 50 years! Kaz invested his whole life and his whole family inheritance to navigate Yoshi’s through both different locations, and really tough times. Yoshi’s Oakland wouldn’t exist without him.”
Kajimura was born in Japan and attended grad school in China before moving to Berkeley in the early 1970s and co-founding the original Yoshi’s there in 1972. It was just a sushi and Japanese cuisine restaurant.
But its popularity grew, and the venue moved to a much larger space on Claremont Avenue in 1979, adding live music and dancing to the mix. It gained great prestige as a jazz nightclub, and moved yet again in 1997 to its current Jack London Square location. As KTVU notes, Yoshi's was one of the first live music venues to reopen after the pandemic in 2021, with a show featuring Sheila E’s father, percussionist Pete Escovedo.
Yoshi’s says they will be throwing a free live concert in Kajimura’s honor on Monday, July 14 at the venue. And in something of a nice coincidence, there will be a series of concerts for Pete Escovedo’s 90th birthday at Yoshi’s on July 25-27.
Related: Sheila E. and Father Pete Escovedo Get Street Named After Them In Oakland [SFist]
Image courtesy Yoshi’s
