Japanese pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi (1929) came to prominence with the soulful bop melodies of The Toshiko Trio (1955), but, having relocated to New York, her talent as an arranger soon led her to form an orchestra, that debuted on Toshiko Mariano & Her Big Band (april 1965). That idea was perfected on the albums recorded by the orchestra she formed in Los Angeles with her husband, classically trained tenor saxophonist and flutist Lew Tabackin, and that mainly relied on her compositions, for example Kogun (april 1974) and Long Yellow Road (march 1975). Her artistic zenith was represented by the 23-minute Henpecked Old Man on Road Time (february 1976) and the 21-minute Minamata on Insights (june 1976). The band continued to record alluring post-bop albums such as March of the Tadpoles (january 1977), Salted Ginko Nuts (november 1978), Sumi-E (february 1979). A new orchestra formed in New York premiered other ambitious Akiyoshi compositions such as: Blues Break on Ten Gallon Shuffle (may 1984), Liberty Suite on Wishing Peace (july 1986), Desert Lady on Desert Lady Fantasy (december 1993).

Monopoly Game (june 1998) was a collaboration of his orchestra with reed player Lew Tabackin.