Yoko Miwa

Since her arrival in the United States in 1996, Japanese improviser Yoko Miwa has earned a reputation for being one of the more lyrical, melodic, and accessible pianists in the acoustic jazz realm. An economical player, Miwa's forte is straight-ahead post-bop, and the pianists who have done the most to influence her lyrical improvisations include Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Ahmad Jamal, and Herbie Hancock. Born in Kobe, Japan, Miwa began studying classical piano at the age of four. She also studied voice when she was growing up, although she is primarily an instrumentalist. After graduating from high school, she attended the Osaka College of Music in Osaka, Japan in the late '80s. It was there that she studied with jazz organist/pianist Minoru Ozone, father of the well-known pianist Makoto Ozone. Primarily a classical pianist at that point, Miwa became more and more jazz-minded in the early '90s -- and when she entered Japan's Koyo Conservatory of Music in 1995, decided to focus full-time on jazz. The following year, a 25-year-old Miwa was awarded a scholarship to Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, where she studied jazz theory and performance. After graduating from Berklee in 1999, she joined the college's faculty. In the early 2000s, Miwa began accompanying singer Kevin Mahogany (who she met at Berklee), and it was also around that time that she became the pianist in the Ryles Jazz Orchestra (which featured her extensively on the Live at Ryles CD). Miwa's first album as a leader, In the Mist of Time, was released in Japan on the Tokuma label in 2001. It found her working with drummer Scott Goulding, bassist Massimo Biolcati, and tenor saxophonist Tim Mayer. Miwa's second album, 2003's Fadeless Flower, found her pairing down to a trio with Goulding and bassist Greg Loughman. Two years later, she returned with another trio effort, Canopy of Stars which again found her working with Goulding, as well as bassists Bronislaw Suchanek and Massimo Biolcati. The concert album Live at Scullers Jazz Club appeared in 2011, followed in 2017 by the studio effort Pathways. In 2019, she issued her fifth trio album, Keep Talkin'. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi