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TI: So it's interesting, so in your family, when you look at your parents and your father's brothers and that whole family, there was a lot of art and music.

ET: Yeah. In fact... yeah. In fact, we were so, well, believed in Mother's taste in a lot of things. I think I'm the only one in our family that really went to jazz music because I got to know people like Louis Armstrong just by... I saw him in Chicago, and we always recognized each other. Then I saw him in Tokyo, and I couldn't believe it. I was passing by this hotel, and I said, "Satchmo," you know, used to call him, his nickname. And he just looked at me, he said, he couldn't believe it. He said, "Oh, anybody calling me Satchmo has got to be my friend." [Laughs]

TI: That's a good story.

ET: It's nice, yeah. So my mother just didn't accept any jazz music in any shape or form. So I brought back Duke Ellington's album, I think he announced his famous "Sophisticated Lady" at the University of Washington bookstore, you know, bookstore. He had a, kind of a platform built right on top of showcases, and put the grand piano on it and just played and played over there.

TI: And so you were there when he played that?

ET: Uh-huh, yeah, 1940. Yeah, I was there. Yeah, that was a great time. So immediately, of course, I became a fan of good jazz musicians. I used to know personally, like Arthur... guy used to be called the Pariachi of the piano, Arthur somebody. Then Louis Prima, Jack Teagarden.

TI: Well, I'm jumping around a little bit, but did you play?

ET: No, I don't play anything.

TI: But you just...

ET: I just liked those things, and of course, I liked symphonies, too, so I served in symphony board here.

TI: Now, how about the art connection? Did your father, mother or uncles, I mean, what did you see in terms of art?

ET: Okay, now, Tsutakawa family, there were many, many artists, and so's Oka family, too. Okas, my mother's older brother was an art teacher, he was a Japanese, they're called Nihonga, and he was very, very good. He'd just take the piece of paper and just draw, draw anything on that. And so we had a number of people on both sides in art. Tsutakawa side, of course, George was a, was a kind of a natural. George knew Keith fairly well, and Keith always admired George. So we had that connection, so...

TI: But was art encouraged by your parents? So when...

ET: Uh-huh, yeah.

TI: ...when you picked up a brush...

ET: In fact, I actually started as a pre-med student at University of Washington, and dropped that and became a artist. That was kind of a disappointment in my dad, but I was not made as a doctor. [Laughs]

TI: So they, so they, even though they encouraged or liked art, they still wanted you to become a doctor rather than an artist. [Laughs]

ET: Well, I think that was my dad's... but then my mother was very happy that I...

TI: Well, that's good.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.