Chihiro Yamanaka

Chihiro Yamanaka stands out as a globally celebrated jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader whose powerful swing and agile, athletic keyboard command have earned widespread critical praise along with direct comparisons to such masters as Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. She makes her home in New York.

Born in 1976 in Kiryū within Japan’s Gunma Prefecture, Yamanaka started structured piano lessons at the age of four. Although she began in the classical realm and continues to maintain that foundation, her attention turned toward jazz during high school. Following graduation she enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music through the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency program. While based there she performed alongside numerous musicians in both Boston and New York, then returned to Japan upon receiving her Berklee degree with honors in 2000, the same year she captured first place in Down Beat’s Outstanding Performance Award competition.

After settling back in Japan temporarily, she launched her recording career in 2001 with Living Without Friday, the initial release on the Japanese label Atelier Sawano; three more albums followed on an annual schedule. Her work drew immediate attention from reviewers and broadcasters. The 2002 successor When October Goes climbed to the upper reaches of the Japanese jazz charts, generating interest among listeners and critics on both sides of the Pacific. At that point Yamanaka could tour throughout her native country as well as Europe and selected American venues. She also joined DIVA, the all-female big band directed by drummer Sherrie Maricle, and performed with the related quintet Five Play, which accompanied Marlene VerPlanck on the 2003 album It’s How You Play the Game while Yamanaka maintained her own recording and touring schedule.

In 2005 she secured a worldwide contract with Universal’s Classics and Jazz division and delivered her North American debut, the trio album Outside by the Swing, cut in New York City with drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts and bassist Robert Hurst. After relocating to the United States she issued the audiovisual set Lach Doch Mal in 2006 featuring Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard. Although neither title appeared on American jazz charts, both reached the Top Five in Japan and elevated her profile enough to establish her as an international traveler performing across the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Released in 2007, Abyss marked the first recording with drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist Vicente Archer, who formed her regular trio. She expanded beyond the trio format on 2009’s Runnin’ Wild, fronting a sextet. Bassist Ben Williams took Archer’s place for the 2010 trio album Forever Begins. In 2011 Reminiscence combined a live Iridium performance in New York with studio tracks presenting Yamanaka in three distinct trio configurations. The 2012 release Because became the first of two tribute projects, offering a Beatles homage on which she played piano plus synthesizer, organ, guitar, ukulele, and harmonica within a quartet setting. After Hours and After Hours 2 followed as standards collections, and in 2013 she paid tribute to classical repertoire with Molto Cantabile.

Yamanaka transferred from Verve to the Universal-owned Blue Note label in 2014 in time for its seventy-fifth anniversary. Her Blue Note debut Somethin’ Blue, a sextet date, presented originals alongside notable interpretations of Bud Powell’s “Un Poco Loco” and Herbie Hancock’s “I Have a Dream,” reaching the Top Five on the jazz charts. Later that year she issued Syncopation Hazard, her homage to Scott Joplin. Returning to trio format, she released the 2016 Blue Note album Guilty, pairing original compositions with selected works by Hoagy Carmichael. Near the close of 2017 she produced and arranged Monk Studies, performing on acoustic and electric piano, synthesizer, and Hammond B-3 organ in a program devoted almost entirely to Thelonious Monk, supported by drummer Deantoni Parks and bassist Mark Kelly.