Takanaka Takes Chicago

Masayoshi Takanaka, a virtuosic guitar player from Japan, has had a meteoric rise in popularity among Gen Z thanks to social media algorithms introducing his music to a whole new audience.

His active career as a solo musician involved more than 20 albums released in the 1970s and 80s full of mostly instrumental guitar music, exploring genres such as city pop, jazz, funk, samba, and disco. While he was a very well-known and respected musician in Japan, he did not find similar success internationally until roughly the past 10 years, thanks to a massive city pop resurgence in Western social media communities. This is how I came to know the smooth sound of Masayoshi Takanaka.

Due to this sudden surge in popularity, in 2026, Takanaka announced his first ever tour outside of Japan, called Super Takanaka World. To his massive shock, every show sold out almost instantaneously. Luckily, I'm a true Takanaka freak and have notifications on for his Instagram, and I snagged my ticket to his first ever show in the city of Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom on the evening of April 7th.

When I arrived at Aragon two hours before the doors opened, I was shocked to see the long line already wrapping around the venue. By the time I got to the end, I was half a mile away from the venue. This highly anticipated show was sold out, and apparently all 5,000 of us were trying to get a good spot on the floor. When I finally got to my balcony seat, I immediately got a Shirley Temple from the bar and listened to the pre-show music with the forming crowd on the floor. As it got closer to showtime, it became clearer and clearer that it was indeed sold out.

The crowd was electric throughout the entire experience, even before the show started. We were enthusiastically listening to the pre-show music playlist, featuring classics in samba, bossa nova, and Latin jazz. Many crowd cheers were coordinated, and it really struck me how much this man's music and style is beloved.

When he finally came out, the crowd was absolutely electric. While playing the opener, Blue Lagoon, an energetic funk tune with lots of slap bass, him and his band had a choreography of pumping their fist up in the air during big drum hits. This would continue throughout the show, and I thought it was such a charming cute little detail they added in. My favorite member of the band, other than Takanaka of course, had to be Nobu Saito, a legendary percussionist from Japan (not pictured above) who was energetically playing along and pumping his fist the whole night.

Within the first half of the concert, he played my favorite song of his, "OH! TENGO SUERTE", which means "I'm lucky" in Spanish. To my surprise, it wasn't just me, since the crowd reaction to the intro was very loud. This song has so much personal meaning to me, the instrumental is absolutely gorgeous and evokes a feeling of inner peace. It's featured on his debut (and my favorite) album, Seychelles, which is a tropical island off East Africa. This album is meant to evoke the feeling of a beautiful island vacation, and Tengo Suerte is no different. While it's mostly instrumental, it has brief smooth falsetto female vocals in Spanish, where it gets its name from:

"Oh, tengo suerte / Yo compré un billete de ida para Seychelles."

"Oh, I'm lucky / I bought a one-way ticket to Seychelles."

The crowd reaction to this song made the experience that much better. Even before the vocals came in, the audience sang the guitar melodies in unison and swayed together. It was such a beautiful moment and definitely the highlight of the concert for me.

The rest of the concert passed by kind of like an ocean wave, it was just pure fun and relaxation and enjoyment. I noticed there weren't as many people filming as I normally see at concerts, which I thought was sweet and an indicator of the calming and present feeling created by the music.

Before he left the stage, Takanaka took to the mic to say in broken English "I love you all, I love Chicago", and the crowd chanted back "Chicago loves you!". There were obviously cries for an encore, which were answered by him and his band, with an electric finale featuring his famous surfboard guitar.

Throughout his career, Takanaka's been known for his wacky guitars, including one with a functioning model train set and a golden Fender. However, the biggest icon associated with him has got to be the iconic red surfboard custom made for him in 2004. It matches his iconic bright red suit, first featured on the cover of his second album, TAKANAKA, released in '77. I saw at least eight people wearing the suit and shades.

The final song, Rainbow, is a five-minute-long instrumental rock song that's also a fan favorite. The lighting was absolutely gorgeous and made it an awesome finale to the experience.

This concert was an incredible night and one that I'll remember as one of my favorite concert experiences. The people and energy were lovely, the venue is gorgeous, and the music was great. It was truly worth taking the Red Line for.