Biography
An American jazz guitarist, composer, and educator residing in New York City, Miles Okazaki has built a reputation for a versatile, rhythmic style of improvisation and composition that makes him a frequent first-call collaborator and sideman. His 2009 leader date Generations drew praise from both critics and fellow musicians for its distinctive phrasing and unconventional compositional voice. Following the 2013 live recording Figurations, he became a member of Jonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense and Steve Coleman’s Five Elements. His 2017 Pi Recordings debut Trickster earned widespread international acclaim, and he followed it in 2019 with The Sky Below, introducing a new quartet featuring drummer Sean Rickman, keyboardist Matt Mitchell, and bassist Anthony Tidd. The 2021 Tzadik release Hive Mind presented a collective improvisational trio alongside bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Dan Weiss, while 2022 saw Okazaki return to Pi with the same quartet for Thisness. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, the Banff Institute, the New School, Queens College, and The Juilliard School.
Okazaki spent his early years in Port Townsend, Washington, beginning classical guitar studies at age six. He later attended the Centrum Jazz Workshop and was already performing regular electric guitar gigs by age fourteen. Recognition came steadily during this period, culminating in a second-place finish in the Thelonious Monk International Guitar Competition.
In 1997 he relocated to New York City to advance his career. Studies with Rodney Jones led to a recommendation for Okazaki’s first professional engagement with Stanley Turrentine. He spent four years touring with vocalist Jane Monheit and appeared on three of her albums between 2004 and 2007, while also contributing to Jesse Malin’s 2004 release The Heat. During the same span he composed and rehearsed material for his independently issued debut Mirror, which appeared in 2005 to critical notice. That year he also performed on Dan Weiss’s otherwise unaccompanied Tintal Drumset Solo, initiating a long-term recording and performance association with the drummer.
As a sideman Okazaki moves fluidly between standard repertoire and experimental contexts. Since 2008 he has held the guitar chair in Steve Coleman & the Five Elements. Generations, released in 2009 on Sunnyside, featured a septet whose core—drummer Weiss, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, and bassist Jon Flaugher—was augmented by tenor saxophonists David Binney and Christof Knoche plus vocalist Jen Shyu. He followed it with the 2012 quartet session Figurations, again with Weiss, Zenón, and bassist Thomas Morgan.
In subsequent years Okazaki contributed to numerous recordings by Finlayson, Coleman, Weiss, and others. During 2016 he appeared on five separate albums while simultaneously writing, recording, and producing Trickster. Issued by Pi in spring 2017, the album reunited him with Five Elements colleagues bassist Anthony Tidd and drummer Sean Rickman, along with pianist Craig Taborn. Its nine original compositions drew inspiration from Lewis Hyde’s Trickster Makes This World, particularly the chapters devoted to Eshu, Raven, Krishna, Heyoka, Thoth, and Hermes, whose themes of mischief, disguise, paradox, chaos, illusion, and balance supplied structural and improvisational foundations. The following year he self-released the six-volume Work (The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk) and participated in Coleman’s Five Elements live recording at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1: The Embedded Sets, which featured his own rhythm section and Finlayson on trumpet.
Okazaki returned to Pi in late summer 2019 with The Sky Below, a direct sequel to Trickster that retained Tidd, Rickman, and added Mitchell on pianos and synths. In 2021 he appeared on Tzadik with Weiss and Dunn in the cooperative improvising group Hive Mind; label founder John Zorn guested on two tracks. The quartet from The Sky Below reconvened for 2022’s Thisness on Pi Recordings. Its music was shaped by a range of influences: a watercolor by Linda Okazaki depicting the imagined locale Salt Creek, Robin D.G. Kelley’s writings on Surrealism, architectural ideas from producer David Breskin, and the poetry of Sun Ra. The resulting sound sought to abandon conventional notions of logic and control in pursuit of something resembling collective dreaming.
Okazaki spent his early years in Port Townsend, Washington, beginning classical guitar studies at age six. He later attended the Centrum Jazz Workshop and was already performing regular electric guitar gigs by age fourteen. Recognition came steadily during this period, culminating in a second-place finish in the Thelonious Monk International Guitar Competition.
In 1997 he relocated to New York City to advance his career. Studies with Rodney Jones led to a recommendation for Okazaki’s first professional engagement with Stanley Turrentine. He spent four years touring with vocalist Jane Monheit and appeared on three of her albums between 2004 and 2007, while also contributing to Jesse Malin’s 2004 release The Heat. During the same span he composed and rehearsed material for his independently issued debut Mirror, which appeared in 2005 to critical notice. That year he also performed on Dan Weiss’s otherwise unaccompanied Tintal Drumset Solo, initiating a long-term recording and performance association with the drummer.
As a sideman Okazaki moves fluidly between standard repertoire and experimental contexts. Since 2008 he has held the guitar chair in Steve Coleman & the Five Elements. Generations, released in 2009 on Sunnyside, featured a septet whose core—drummer Weiss, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, and bassist Jon Flaugher—was augmented by tenor saxophonists David Binney and Christof Knoche plus vocalist Jen Shyu. He followed it with the 2012 quartet session Figurations, again with Weiss, Zenón, and bassist Thomas Morgan.
In subsequent years Okazaki contributed to numerous recordings by Finlayson, Coleman, Weiss, and others. During 2016 he appeared on five separate albums while simultaneously writing, recording, and producing Trickster. Issued by Pi in spring 2017, the album reunited him with Five Elements colleagues bassist Anthony Tidd and drummer Sean Rickman, along with pianist Craig Taborn. Its nine original compositions drew inspiration from Lewis Hyde’s Trickster Makes This World, particularly the chapters devoted to Eshu, Raven, Krishna, Heyoka, Thoth, and Hermes, whose themes of mischief, disguise, paradox, chaos, illusion, and balance supplied structural and improvisational foundations. The following year he self-released the six-volume Work (The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk) and participated in Coleman’s Five Elements live recording at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1: The Embedded Sets, which featured his own rhythm section and Finlayson on trumpet.
Okazaki returned to Pi in late summer 2019 with The Sky Below, a direct sequel to Trickster that retained Tidd, Rickman, and added Mitchell on pianos and synths. In 2021 he appeared on Tzadik with Weiss and Dunn in the cooperative improvising group Hive Mind; label founder John Zorn guested on two tracks. The quartet from The Sky Below reconvened for 2022’s Thisness on Pi Recordings. Its music was shaped by a range of influences: a watercolor by Linda Okazaki depicting the imagined locale Salt Creek, Robin D.G. Kelley’s writings on Surrealism, architectural ideas from producer David Breskin, and the poetry of Sun Ra. The resulting sound sought to abandon conventional notions of logic and control in pursuit of something resembling collective dreaming.
Albums
Hive Mind
2021
The Sky Below
2019
Moment and the Message
2017
Trickster
2017
While We're Still Young
2016
I Like Too Much
2008
Mirror
2007
Live
