Takeshi "Tak" Shindo (Japanese: 進藤 武,[1] November 11, 1922[2] – April 17, 2002) was an American musician, composer and arranger.

[5]Shindo enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944 and served as a Japanese language instructor in the Military Intelligence Service at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

In a 1947 interview, Shindo discussed the multi-ethnic composition of his band: "As long as a player can produce good music, that's all I'm interested in.

"[5] Shindo received his bachelor's degree in 1951 from Los Angeles City College and subsequently studied under film composer Miklós Rózsa at the University of Southern California.

[6] Early in his career, Shindo worked on several television series, including service as the musical director for Gunsmoke and Suspense.

[8][9][10] In the late 1950s and 1960s, Shindo was frequently called on by Hollywood film and television productions to serve as a technical consultant on projects incorporating Japanese music and themes.

"[5] Other projects in which Shindo was asked to consult (or compose) include Cinerama Seven Wonders of the World (1955), Stopover Tokyo (1957), Escapade in Japan (1957), Gunsmoke (1957), Wagon Train (1958, composer for episode titled "The Sakae Ito Story"), Studio One (1958, composer/director of "The Kurushiki Incident"), Cry for Happy (1961), and A Majority of One (1962).

"[5] His albums won favor with listeners of music in the exotica genre that also included artists Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman and Chaino.

The album featured 10 standards and two original compositions by Shindo, combining the sounds of traditional Japanese instruments, including koto, shamisen, and bamboo flutes, with Western brass with "orchestration in tempos and moods that range from ballads to swing.

"[15] One reviewer rated it as the "Album of the Month" for April 1960, calling it a "sparkling debut" with "a new, refreshing blend of music of the East and West, big band dance arrangements spiced with exotic instrumental sounds of the orient.

"[14] Esquire magazine in 1960 wrote: "Tak mixes ancient Eastern and modern Western instruments in a steamy dance sukiyaki.

"[15] Writing for allmusic.com, Richard Pierson wrote that Shindo's "skillful arrangements of big band chestnuts and Hollywood theme tunes achieved a blend that was witty, cosmopolitan, and almost immediately outmoded as the ascendancy of rock and its youth market turned American pop music into an arena of generational identity politics.

"[17] In his 1960 album, Accent on Bamboo, Shindo minimized the Japanese musical elements in favor of "largely straightforward big-band arrangements.

"[18] The album's liner notes observe that "this well-arranged meeting of East and West is a swinging thing, and Oriental too – but scrutable.

One half of the covers features a Caucasian woman "presented as sexually sophisticated and modern as she appears caressing and surrounded by phallic instruments," while the other half features a Japanese woman dressed in a kimono "demurely holding their instruments and representing an alternative form of sensuality.

Accent on Bamboo did not achieve the same level of commercial success as its predecessor, and Capitol informed Shindo in March 1961 that it would not renew his contract.

[5] The album "use[d] oriental instruments to show how universal such American songs as "Wagon Wheels" and "San Antonio Rose" can be.

He was the arranger and director for the grand opening of the Japanese Pavilion at EPCOT Disney in 1979, the same year that he retired from Cal State LA.