Makoto Ozone jumped into America’s musical consciousness in 1985 with the release of his first LP. It’s very unusual for anyone to go from virtually unknown to a contract with a major label, in this case Columbia, and rarer still if you are not American-born. It is less that way in 2010, but a quarter of a century ago it was unusual. It didn’t hurt that Makoto had Gary Burton as a sponsor and was soon to be a member of Gary’s quartet, but he had to have the talent to pull it off. It’s now many years later and his talent is still astounding.

I first ran into Makoto in 1986, the first year Gary’s regular group appeared at the Floating Jazz Festival. I said this about him in the festival program: This young Japanese-born pianist has been amazing critics and public alike since he first appeared at the Berklee School of Music in the early 1980s. His phenomenal technique seems to be a fusion of almost every major jazz virtuoso of the last fifty years. To add to the wonder, his compositional abilities match his keyboard facility. He is a member of the Gary Burton Quartet; his first album was released by CBS in 1985 and another is due this year. It is a joy to witness a mature talent at such a young age.

I’d like to say that I was able to watch Makoto grow over the years, but I’m not a good enough musician to notice subtle changes. To me, he seemed fully formed when I first heard him and in each of the following years, through 2001, the last time he appeared at a Floating Jazz Festival, he seemed equally phenomenal. In the early years, he was usually the youngest pianist on board, up against the likes of Mel Powell, Dorothy Donegan, Billy Taylor or Tommy Flanagan. It was never a problem. He always played at the highest level with the best of them. I don’t think he ever thought of himself as the new kid on the block and if he did, it never affected his performance.

Makoto disappeared for a few years in the late 1980s, returning to Japan where, I’m told, he had his own television show, but by 1992, he was back on the S/S Norway and in 1996 came aboard with a new trio, one that was organized by him in an unusual way, but seemed perfectly natural to me. In the notes to a 1997 CD he recounted: Have you ever met someone for the very first time and felt like you’ve known that person all your life? Well, I met two such people very recently and they just happened to be musicians. I met these two great musicians on a Caribbean cruise of all places and they are not only extremely gifted and talented, but they turned out to be charming guys. We immediately started to groove – literally from the first note we played together.

Things like this happened with regularity at the festival and the following year when he brought the trio together, Makoto, Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass) and Clarence Penn (drums) worked together for a week on the S/S Norway, probably worked some more when they hit dry land and then recorded a fine CD two months after they docked in Miami. This recording, The Trio, won various awards in Japan, as did the follow up, Dear Oscar, with the same group.

Fifteen years after his first appearance at one of our festivals, Makoto was back, this time on the Queen Elizabeth 2, once more with Gary Burton. It was a reunion of sorts; all five members of the quintet had been with Gary’s group in 1986. One of the highlights, as it had been in past years, was when Gary and Makoto did Kato’s Revenge, a blistering duet they’d first recorded on Makoto’s debut release. It sounded just as fresh as ever and I’m sure it would be the same if that played it tomorrow.