BIRTH OF THE GROUP
Makoto Kojima at his age of fifty was deeply moved by a chorus sound at a concert. Three Graces, this female vocal trio, actually born and raised up by his farther, the late Masao Kojima, were away from their music activity long since for their own family life but they had got back in live scene and concert at which he was inspired by the trio's retrieval and their sound which was nothing different from what he had been listening almost everyday with his farther.
He at instance became tempted to get his own voice blended with others and decided to start singing in chorus. He took it bit too easy to do that, if it is for a song or two though he had never sung any song in public. Soon after the concert ended he took his friend Mr. Kasai who was with him at the evening to "Paper Moon", a small piano bar in Roppongi. Even before his order for first drink taken he asked what should be done to form up a male quartette to Izumi Takeda a Pianist/Owner of the bar whose nickname is Beethoven born in Shizuoka.
The Beethoven's reaction was "Why don't you take me as third member, first arranger and piano man of the group, founder?"
In 1996 after Beethoven's retirement from the quartette Makoto Kojima invited three new guys to form "proto-type THE OZ SONS" among regular customers of Little Manuela - piano bar in Akasaka - where Jazz freaks are getting together almost every night. Takashi Kamiyama, Shigeru Kiyota and Shiro Nishio are the guys invited. Takashi Kamiyama is actually professional singer since he was very young and later he left the group to resume his professional activity for his own. Makoto Kojima needed not much time or efforts to locate suitable tunes as he inherited all necessary intelligence of Jazz Tunes, Chorus from his farther.
Surprising co-incidence was in Paper Moon. Kunihiro Wakayama who is present member of the group happened to visit Paper Moon with his friends to come across the Trio - Kojima, Kasai and Beethoven - and was invited to undertake top tenor on the spot for improvised quartette of completely stranger each other once for all. At the time none of them thought a male quartette including Kunihiro Wakayama might be formed a few years later. This story of encounter was completely forgotten and might have never retrieved unless this website have come up.

Beethoven closed his Paper Moon in Spring 2001 to return to his place of origin Shizuoka to take care his old parents.