Osamu Uchida, also known as Dr. Jazz or Dr. U, was born on October 5, 1929, in a maternity clinic in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture.
Shortly after the war, while studying for his high school entrance exams, he heard jazz broadcasted on the radio by the Allied Occupation, and found his body moving involuntarily, swaying in time to the 4-beat rhythm-a new and exciting feeling heﾕd never felt before.
During high school, he immersed himself in film and classical music for some time. After entering Nagoya University Medical School (in the early 1950s) he borrowed a book entitled Jazz (Robert Goffin) from the library at the American Cultural Center in Nagoya, hoping to improve his English. "Jazz is not music of the fingers, but of the heart." "The very life of jazz lies in skillful improvisation." As he read, passages like these triggered his interest in jazz, so much so that he filled several notebooks writing down the names of musicians and record titles, all new to him.

With this newly infused interest in jazz, Osamu Uchida found "The History of Jazz" (SP version, 12-record set) in an record shop called Fukaya Record here in Okazaki and begged his mother to purchase it. For a whole year he played this record-which was to become the first of the "Osamu Uchida Collection"-over and over on a portable manual player with a bamboo needle, until it was quite scratched. This particular album allotted equal importance to Dixieland, Swing, and Modern Jazz, without being partial to any particular style, thus contributing to Osamu Uchidaﾕs own liberal and unbiased views and tastes. It is said that at the time, the album was worth the amount of an entry-level office worker's first month's paycheck.

Later, at a record shop in Nagoya called "OK Store," he witnessed a few black soldiers dancing excitedly and thus was introduced to bebop. After that, he snuck into an American Army jazz club in Nagoya's Tsurumai Park and heard and saw live bebop, which he had previously only been able to hear on records. This experience was responsible for Osamu Uchida's belief that "jazz is best when heard live."