Toshiko Akiyoshi grew up loving and learning classical music — that is, until age 16 when her parents returned to their native Japan at the end of World War II. Unbeknownst to the young musician at the time, this move would alter a career path that, more than 60 years later, brings her trio to Blues Alley this week. “I didn’t start playing jazz until World War II,” said the soft-spoken Akiyoshi. “I played at a jazz hall in Japan when I was 16 and that’s when I discovered it.”

And she never looked back.