Ikutaro Kakehashi
Music pioneer BORN FEBRUARY 7, 1930 - DIED APRIL 1, 2017, AGED 87
THANKS to his invention of electronic synthesizers and drum machines, Roland Corporation founder Ikutaro Kakehashi transformed the landscape of modern music for ever.
The Japanese engineer’s musical legacy includes the TR-808 drum machine and several iconic synths which have defined the sound of much of the electronic music of the past 40 years and been used by everyone from Prince to Kanye West and Madonna.
Born in Osaka, Japan, Kakehashi’s parents died during his early childhood, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents.
Following the Second World War he attended university and in the 1950s opened his own electrical appliance shop.
Before starting Roland in April 1972, Kakehashi founded Ace Tone in the 1960s, a firm that made amplifiers, electronic organs and drum machines. He was also one of the original architects of MIDI, a method introduced in 1983 of getting different musical machines to “talk” to each other.
But it was Roland’s inventions – the TB-303 “bass synthesizer”, used to create the rubbery, spacey timbres that defined acid house, and the TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines – that were the real game changers.
Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing was the first hit to use the TR-808 while Kanye West’s 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak showcases the machine. Other hits include Vogue by Madonna. In 2013, the year that Kakehashi retired from Roland, he won the Technical Grammy with Dave Smith for developing MIDI, or musical instrument digital interface.
Two years later the TR-808 was the subject of a documentary featuring Pharrell Williams, Fatboy Slim and Phil Collins – among many others.
Leading the tributes this week Marc Almond of synthpop duo Soft Cell called him “a man who changed music”.