Image by Listen Missy! via Creative Commons

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to the United States. Boston is receiving a gift of cherry trees from Japan this spring to celebrate this 100th anniversary of the friendship between Japan and the United States.

Berklee College of Music, where Yoko Miwa is an assistant professor and also her alma mater, is participating in this celebration. Yoko’s music evokes the symbolism of the cherry blossoms, or sakura, themselves. Take The Day We Said Goodbye for example. Cherry blossoms represent the ephemeral nature of life in Japanese culture. Here, Yoko expresses this concept through the poetry of instrumental jazz.

You can see the Yoko Miwa Trio play on March 27th at the Regattabar. The Yoko Miwa Trip plans on playing a traditional Japanese song about sakura in honor of this important occasion. Click here for more information.

Photo by Listen Missy!.

“One of Boston’s finest jazz trios.” — Kevin Lowenthal, Boston Globe

The Yoko Miwa Trio is set to perform on Tuesday, March 27th, at Regattabar (1 Bennett St., Cambridge, MA, located inside the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square).  The performance will feature Yoko Miwa on piano, Greg Loughman on bass, and Scott Goulding on drums.  Tickets are $20, and it is an all ages show.  We’re excited to be back at the Regattabar, one of the top jazz venues in the Boston area.  This is a show you won’t want to miss!

Tickets can be purchased here.

Photo by Kirsten Alana.

This bonsai tree was 800 years old when it died. Yet, even through death and the many years since, it still shares its beauty with the world. It has changed from a vibrant green to a stark, abstract shell. But it is still a bonsai tree; a tree that in both life and death brings a unique exquisiteness to the world. Despite the changes it has gone through, it is now a piece in a museum as a new incarnation of its former self.

With the first anniversary of the tsunami in Japan approaching, this photograph and Wheel of Life both capture the feelings about such a gigantic emotional episode in Japan’s history. Wheel of Life charts the ups and downs of existence with a deceptively simple circular form. “It’s about the life process,” Miwa explains, “from birth, struggle and the beautiful moments, then the bad and ultimately back to the beginning.” We all go through the ups and downs of the wheel of life, and Japan is experiencing it on a larger stage over the past year.

Through the epic changes wrought by the waters, Japan has come out a still beautiful nation. It has changed, but it will continue to persevere. The Japanese people are in our thoughts as they continue to rebuild their lives into new ones with new dreams.

Photo by Kirsten Alana.

OCTOBER 17 RELEASE DATE

I found out that I’m the second Japanese female in the history of Berklee to teach on the piano faculty, the first was Toshiko Akiyoshi – I was surprised to find out many did not know her! Here she is in 1958, wow! If you didn’t know…she was a big fan of Bud Powell.

We’re very excited! Yoko is set to release her fifth CD, Live at Scullers Jazz Club on October 17. The eight songs were recorded at last year’s sold-out Scullers show. It includes three originals, including the popular “Mr. B.G.,” Yoko’s tribute to piano great Benny Green. She first made just 100 copies of the show’s recording, mostly as a memento for audience members, but got such a positive response (including regular play on WGBH–thanks Eric!) that the recording was re-mixed and mastered for a full release.

Scott Albin’s review of the Live CD on the JazzTimes Community site says, “She has the enviable ability to play in any context with authenticity, clarity, and spontaneity…” See more coverage here.

Yoko’s trio will return to Scullers in Boston on Thursday, November 17, for a CD release party. “Of course we want to go back there to celebrate,” she says. “You should be there too!”

If you’re in New York, come out to the CD release party on Friday, October 21 at Somethin’ Jazz Club (formerly Miles’ Jazz Cafe).

Stay tuned for more developments. . .

Check out this wonderful post by one of our favorite authors, Anne Briting Oleson:

Thanks to the Regattabar and to everyone who came out to the last week. What a great audience! Here’s a few seconds of the song we dedicated to Eric Jackson. So good to hear him back on the air.

Yoko Miwa is returning to the Regattabar after her nearly sold-out debut show in March. Come on out–it’s an early show. You’ll be tucked into bed before you know it. Buy your tickets NOW.

Thanks to the Regattabar, the spirit of Sheila Jordan, and everyone who came out to Yoko’s debut there. And to Jessica Clements of JClements Photography for literally working every angle to get the shot.

All About Jazz writer Gordon Marshall said of the performance: “Yoko Miwa is a graceful and soulful pianist, with a Zen-like weightless precision she can just as soon turn to down-home, swinging blues. Disciplined and deep-feeling, she incorporates an intimate knowledge of the American jazz idiom into the confines of a studied approach which, for all that, is a sincerely artistic one.”

The show opened with brief video greetings from Ms. Jordan. Her recorded acapella chant then led into the trio’s first song. Janet of the Mass. Beat blog reported:

“The first song opened up with a hauntingly beautiful voice piped in through the speakers, soon joined by Miwa on the piano in perfect harmony. Soon, the band is in full swing right out of the gate, on the first song. Pretty impressive.

This petite, pretty Japanese woman looked so delicate as she entered the room and speaks so softly when she shares her stories, smiling demurely. But when she sits down at the piano, you realize she is no pushover. Her strength and agility pour through every song. She has full command of the instrument and her passion for playing is not hidden.”