KYOKO KURODA : PROFILE
(Kyoko Kuroda, pianist)
She was born at November 20, 1957 in Tokyo,
Japan. Started piano when she was a child, and studied under a teacher of
classic music until 17. At the university she was fascinated by traditional Noh
play and actually learned its traditional singing and dancing. Those
experiences are still alive in her style of music activity.
She began playing jazz at 24. From 1982 to
1984 she was given lessons by Aki Takase, pianist. On 1986 she formed her own
quartet named BAHR, which was a starting point as a professional jazz player.
And 1987, she gathered many kinds of players, including jazz players, singers,
actors, actress and a turntable player Yoshihide Otomo, to have a workshop named
ORT, in which non-category music was aimed using Brecht Songs, Carla Bley's
tunes, and her own things, as materials to arrange in new style. ORT workshop
was closed in 1990.
After ORT, she began playing in solo, duo, and trio. Especially through
solo playing, she developed her own style beyond jazz, using a lot of kinds
instruments like piano, accordion, synthesizer, voice, and other many kind
of things. She had joined a lot of sessions with domestic and foreign improvisers,
including Lauren Newton(voice improviser), John Zorn(saxophonist), Kim
Dae Hwan(Korean percussionist), Yosuke Yamashita(pianist), Tetsu Saitoh(bass
player), Koichi Makigami(voice improviser) etc. She has been a member of
some groups of Akira Sakata(saxophonist), Sachi Hayasaka(saxophonist) and
Shun Sakai(singer).
Also she plays as a musical director of the
troupe named ''Trunk Theater'' and ''Reading and Music'' project about ten
years. Sometimes she is asked to compose and play for the silent movies. This year she played music for the German
silent movie “Unheimliche Geschichten”(Richard Oswald, 1919) with Masataka
Hirano (saxophonist) at Goethe-Institut in Tokyo. Also she lectured jazz for people
at the community center in her hometown from 1997 to 2001.
At present she has many concerts and plans under the name of ORTOPERA ENSEMBLE,
which keeps the spirit of early ORT workshop. In 2000 she directed and
arranged a big piece ''Musik Teatre : The Way of Kurt Weill'' as a tribute work to
his 100 years old's celebration at jazz festival in Yokohama.
Recently she has been playing with Keisuke Ohta, violinist, and Keiki Midorikawa,
cellist. This new group is named KYOKO KURODA TRIO. Three of them are equally
positioned in this trio. Now she tries to find new possibility of improvisation
with those talented strings players.
＜Festival＞
JAPAN
Yokohama Jazz Promnade, Kohoku Jazz
Festival, Chiba Jazz Festival,
Yamagata Jazz Fesival, Nan-reku Jazz
Festival, etc.
ABROAD
Nuernberg Ost - West Jazz Fest, Moers Jazz
Fest (1992 / with Sachi Hayasaka's group )
Leverkusen Jazz Fest (1994 / with Sachi
Hayasaka's group )
Leipzig Jazz Fest (1997 / Special Program “The
World of Yosuke Yamashita”)
Duesseldorf and Paris Concerts (2003 / with
Akira Sakata's group).
Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau (1995, 1998 / as
a music director of Trunk Theater) etc.
＜Discs＞
leader
Now's The Time Workshop, omnibus CD, 1990,
as ORT
Something Keeps Me Alive, solo, 1991, liner
note by Prof. Bert Noglik
as a member
Tetsu Saitoh : Stone Out, 1995, with 4
female Koto players and 2 bassplayers
Sachi Hayasaka : Milagros, 1995
Tetsu Saitoh : Ausencias, 1997, plays
A.Piazzolla
Shun Sakai : A dog at 4th street, 2000
V.A.: Improvised Music from Japan, omnibus, 10-CDs box set, 2001,
with Kazuhisa Uchihashi, guitarist, recorded in 1997
Akira Sakata : Akatombo (Dragon Fly), 2004
etc.
＜Web＞
http://www.japanimprov.com/kkuroda/index.html
(in English / note : information until the middle of 1990s)