Shizuko Kasagi

Shizuko Kasagi
笠置 シヅ子
Shizuko Kasagi in the film Ginza Kankan Musume
Background information
Birth nameShizuko Kamei (亀井 静子)
Also known asShizuko Mikasa
Born(1914-08-25)25 August 1914
Ōkawa District, Kagawa, Japan
Died30 March 1985(1985-03-30) (aged 70)
Tokyo, Japan
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Singer, actress
Years active1927–1985
LabelsNippon Columbia
Formerly ofRyoichi Hattori

Shizuko Kasagi (Japanese: 笠置 シヅ子, Hepburn: Kasagi Shizuko; August 25, 1914 – March 30, 1985) was a Japanese jazz singer and actress. At the peak of her fame in the immediate post-war era, she earned the nickname the "Queen of Boogie" (ブギの女王, Bugi no Joō). Kasagi frequently sang songs composed by Ryōichi Hattori, including 1947's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie", which remains her best-known work. Yoshinori Gyobe, a professor at Nihon University, said that with Hattori's bright boogie rhythms and Kasagi's lively singing of melodies that did not exist in Japan, the duo changed the image of Japanese music.