World-class Japanese jazz pianist-composer you never heard of: Riyoko Takagi (

⚠Riyoko's channel:    / @riyopiano   web: https://riyoko.jp

0:00 Intro and MOJO Swing (pop version)
0:33 MOJO Swing (classical-jazz)
4:13 Jewel Sea: Bossa Nova!
10:21 LunaSol: start (rocks!)
15:15 LunaSol: solo (amazing)
17:37 Blowing Luv: intro improv (wow! this is Riyoko's real talent!)
20:50 Blowing Luv: start (rocks!)
25:58 Blowing Luv: Senri's drum solo
29:45 MIYABI: start (awesome!)
31:25 MIYABI: solo (tasty!)
34:20 MIYABI: finale (black key storm!)
34:55 Splasher (flows!)
40:59 Memorial Sea (soothing!)
45:51 Usseewa (fan request!)
48:00 Usseewa: fast solo
49:11 Dearest (soothing!)
51:35 Dearest: solo
52:56 Natsumatsuri (fan request!)
54:12 Natsumatsuri: fast solo
55:55 BTS - Butter: intro improv!
57:21 BTS - Butter: start (great!)
1:06:16 BlackPink - Kill This Love (nice!)
1:10:04 BlackPink - Playing With Fire (nice!)
1:12:48 BlackPink - Lovesick Girls (nice!)
1:17:19 BigBang - BANG BANG BANG (good!)
1:22:17 Yoon Mi Rae - Flower (soothing!)
1:28:10 BTS - Boy With Luv (amazing!)
1:31:05 BTS - Dynamite (awesome!)
1:40:42 BONUS: Petals of Memory: info
1:41:25 BONUS: Petals of Memory: Smooth Jazz improv!

Riyoko's bio/career/discography: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musician...
Riyoko's Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyoko_...
(sister pages I published and maintain)

⚠This video is good enough for introduction but doesn't do Riyoko justice, I now have a whole new channel dedicated to Riyoko's live performances:    / @riyo-live   which also mirrors playlists on this channel with over 300 short clip samples representing Riyoko's body of work

"My mother played the piano and wanted to become a classical pianist, but she didn't entrust her dream to her daughter and I was sent to a piano class in my neighborhood from about the age of 4. Perhaps because I grew up listening to my mother's piano all the time before I could remember, my sense of sound was naturally trained, and I was a child who could play the sound that came from my ears on the piano immediately. For example, when I listen to the Dragon Quest theme, I immediately reproduce it myself. When my piano teacher saw this, she advised my mother, "It would be better to let this child take more specialized lessons than to stay with me," so we decided to attend the junior specialized course at the Yamaha Music School.

When I entered the school, there was an audition, and I listened to the chords and melodies that were played without looking at the keys. Looking back on it now, it may have been a very difficult selection exam, but for a young child, it was fun like solving a quiz, and I was able to enter the school without being nervous. After that, there was a system called the Conservatory where you can enter if you are further selected and pass the audition, and I entered when I was in junior high school, and it was an amazing course where many people who could be called full-fledged classical pianists were attending. Among my seniors were Ayako Uehara, the first from Japan to win the Tchaikovsky Competition, and Jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara.

Especially the part related to creation. It was important for me to know not only theory but also the joy of creating something from within myself. The curriculum involves composing original songs, and at first you can only do really simple ones, but gradually you will be able to take different approaches in your own way. In addition, the Yamaha Music School has a TV program called the Junior Original Concert, which presents songs made by children under the age of 15, and if you win the selection, you can perform there. I was able to perform there when I was in sixth grade.

Around the time I went to junior high school, I started to wonder. When I think of classical musicians, I have an image of playing the score faithfully, but I started to wonder if that was right for me. At one point, I had the opportunity to be introduced to a great classical teacher, but I wondered if I would seriously pursue that path. When I was faced with the ultimate choice, I told my mother for the first time, "That's not the way to go." That was the first big decision of my life.

In addition to classical music, there were many Jazz CDs in the house and I was familiar with the music of Jazz pianists that so-called classical musicians fall in love with, such as Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Jazz improvisation is, so to speak, composing, isn't it? In the sense that you react to the sounds of other performers and create songs according to your own sensibilities. I was vaguely thinking, "This is amazing, it looks fun, and it might suit me." However, I actually started to experience Jazz myself in the fall of my second year of high school. I focused on practice rather than learning theory. I improvised and improvised. I had the groundwork for the performances and compositions that I learned at Yamaha from a young age."

高木里代子

#jazz #piano #jazzpiano #pianist #jazzmusic #riyokotakagi