Taeko Kunishima is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer who starts playing piano at seven. She studies classical piano performance at university, with early interests in Mozart and Beethoven, before hearing Miles Davis and turning towards jazz. She develops her own improvisatory technique through the study of jazz harmony, and her style is described as contemporary jazz with angular features, influenced by Thelonious Monk and by elements of her native Japan.

Career

After moving to England, Kunishima continues to develop her approach and works with a wide range of musicians. Her collaborations span UK jazz players as well as artists from different cultures and countries, including projects that reach into Latin pop, electronic music and contemporary classical music. She also performs live sessions on Resonance FM.

Her debut album as bandleader is Space To Be, released on 33Jazz. Tracks from Space To Be and Red Dragonfly are played on Resonance FM and Jazz FM. Red Dragonfly is also released on 33Jazz, and she receives favourable reviews for it, with live performances at the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival and Vortex Jazz Club.

Collaborations and performances

Kunishima completes a UK tour in autumn 2006 with support from Jazz Services. She works with shakuhachi player Clive Bell from 2006 onwards; their collaborations include appearances at the London Jazz Festival, a UK tour and the National Theatre. Bell also appears on Red Dragonfly.

She performs in Germany with American drummer David Bowler in January, June and July 2008. Bowler has previously been a member of the Ahmad Jamal Trio and is based in Hamburg.

Later recordings

During 2009 and 2010, Kunishima performs live in Germany and Japan while continuing to compose. In May 2011, she records her third album, Late Autumn, on 33Jazz. The album is composed by Kunishima and produced by Clive Bell. The musicians are Kunishima on piano, Bell on shakuhachi and flute, Sean Corby on trumpet, Paul Moylan on double bass, Maxwell Hallett on drums, and David Ross on cajon and percussion. Rio Roberts sings the title track, “Late Autumn”. The album draws inspiration from Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu and from the brief life of Kunishima’s father, and it mixes lyricism with Japanese surrealism and fast swing American jazz.