Friday, April 7, 2017
Monday, March 25, 2013
Chihiro Yamanaka Trio At Dizzy's In San Diego, March 30
The Chihiro Yamanaka Trio will perform March 30 at Dizzy’s in San Diego, CA. The concert marks the San Diego debut by Chihiro, a Universal Music recording artist and influential jazz pianist and composer. The concert has the additional distinction of being part of Chihiro’s first multi-city west coast tour as a leader.
The tour also includes concerts at Yoshi’s San Francisco (March 27) and Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA (March 28). The Chihiro Yamanaka Trio also will perform March 23 at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC in the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
Dizzy’s is at 4275 Mission Bay Drive, at Rosewood St., in the scenic Pacific Beach section of San Diego. The concert begins at 8:00 PM and will take the form of one 90-minute extended set. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at the door, and Dizzy’s provides information at (858) 270-7467. The current Dizzy’s venue is a new showroom location made possible through a collaboration with San Diego Jet Ski Rentals.
Appearing with Chihiro will be bassist Yoshi Waki and drummer John Davis. The New York-based trio's California debut was in September, 2012 at Yoshi’s San Francisco, where the group played to a packed house and to countless more who viewed the concert via streaming video.
In the month of March alone, Chihiro has performed on three continents, including 2 separate trips to Asia, before and after a trip to Europe. Her stops have included Japan, Italy, Germany, France and the United States, including concerts at two Billboard Live clubs (Tokyo and Osaka), the Blue Note Nagoya, Memo Jazz Club in Milan, and the opening concert of Festival Confini in Paris.
Keeping pace with Chihiro’s busy touring schedule is her prolific international recording career with Universal. In the past year she has had three CD releases, one in the United States,Reminiscence (Universal/Decca/EmArcy), and two in Japan, awaiting release in the United States: her Beatles tribute, Because (Universal/Verve), and After Hours 2 (Universal/Verve). In the same period Chihiro and Universal also have released an EP, Still Working, and a DVD, Live In New York, taped at Iridium Jazz Club.
The Live In New York DVD gives Chihiro’s fans the opportunity to experience on video the spectacular visual presentation that has been seen by anyone who has witnessed the fireball of energy and virtuosity on display at a live Chihiro concert appearance.
Read more: http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=103400#.UU2Z47_hEhQ
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Chihiro Yamanaka Trio at Iridium in NYC, March 21
The Chihiro Yamanaka Trio will perform at Iridium Jazz Club in New York City on March 21, 2012. The dazzling jazz pianist is celebrating the major-label release of her DVD, “Live In New York" (Universal Music) with this return engagement at Iridium, where the DVD was taped in 2011.
Iridium Jazz Club is at 1650 Broadway at 51st St., New York, NY. Sets are at 8 PM and 10 PM. There is a $25 cover charge per set plus a $15 food/drink minimum. Tickets can be purchased in advance on Iridium's website or by calling Iridium at 212-582-2121.
Appearing with Chihiro will be bassist Yoshi Waki and drummer John Davis. The trio will perform music from her current CD, “Forever Begins" (Universal/Decca/EmArcy) and from her upcoming CD, “Reminscence" (Universal/Decca/EmArcy). “Reminiscence" has already been released in Japan on Universal/Verve, and it quickly ascended to the #1 spot on the Japanese jazz charts and won the “Nissan Presents Jazz Japan Award 2011" for “Album Of The Year."
The “Live In New York" DVD gives Chihiro's fans the opportunity to experience not only the exciting music of the trio but also the spectacular visual presentation seen by everyone who has witnessed the fireball of energy and virtuosity on display at a live Chihiro concert appearance.
The Chihiro Yamanaka Trio is also set to appear at the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on May 10. Other upcoming concerts by the trio include March 29 at An die Musik Live in Baltimore, MD and a tour of Italy in April.
In recent months the Chihiro Yamanaka Trio has appeared in a series of tremendously successful concerts at the top jazz venues in Japan, and her European concerts included opening for Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Marcus Miller's “Tribute to Miles" at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Chihiro Yamanaka
Since graduating with top honours from the Berklee College of Music, Japanese pianist Chihiro Yamanaka has been acclaimed as a most accomplished musician and composer with tremendous international potential.
While at Berklee, in 2000, she received Down Beat's Outstanding Performance Award and also won the Sisters In Jazz competition, organized by the International Association for Jazz Education.
She has since won the HMV Award for the Best Jazz Album of 2004 and, in 2005, was voted Best New Artist in the poll of the Japanese jazz publication, Swing Journal.
Chihiro Yamanaka began studying piano at the age of four and, when she was 12, won the Grand Prize at a new talent competition in Gunma, Japan.
After studying at the Royal Academy of Music in England, she moved to the United States and continued her studies at Berklee. Chihiro has performed with some highly distinguished jazzmen since graduating, including Clark Terry, Gary Burton, George Russell, Curtis Fuller, Ed Thigpen, Nancy Wilson, George Benson and Herbie Hancock.
She was resident pianist with the all-girl big band DIVA. She has performed at major venues in the United States, including the Kennedy Center in Washington and New York's Carnegie Hall and has also played in the Vienna State Opera House, in the JVC Jazz Festival in New York, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho, the Tokyo Jazz Festival and the Umbria Jazz Festival.
Her debut album, Living Without Friday, was released on the Japanese jazz piano label, Atelier Sawano, in October 2001 and achieved impressive sales. Her second Atelier Sawano CD, released in December 2002, was When October Goes, on which she was accompanied by Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums. This album made the No. 1 spot on the Japanese jazz chart. August 2003 saw the release of the DVD, Leaning Forward, recorded at a sell-out performance by Chihiro’s New York trio. The DVD made the top ten in the Japanese DVD chart. At the end of 2003, Chihiro again toured Japan with her New York Trio and drew packed houses everywhere. In February 2004 she recorded Madrigal for Atelier Sawano, with Larry Grenadier on bass and Rodney Green or Jeff Ballard on drums.
George Russell has hailed Chihiro as “a very gifted and imaginative musician” and the Japanese magazine, Jazz Life, has described her as “one of the greatest talents in jazz for decades.”
In January 2005, Chihiro signed with Universal Classics and Jazz, and has released 3 CDs, “Outside by the Swing” with Bob Hurst and Jeff “Tain” Watts in 2005 and “Lach Doch Mal” with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard again in 2006. “Lach Doch Mal” is released from EmArcy in Europe in 2007, and the 3rd album “Abyss” is released on Aug. 2007. and has got Swing Journal magazine's "Jazz Disc Award 2007" and "Album of The Year 2007" of Readers' Poll. Her newest album is "After Hours" released in 2008.
All her CDs and DVD have got No.1 in Japanese jazz chart.
Now she resides in New York, and has been playing around the world.
http://www.myspace.com/chihiroyamanaka
