North Bird composed by Shota Watanabe
Shota Watanabe (Pf)
Shunya Wakai (Ba)
Shun Ishiwaka (Dr)
Shota Watanabe
Born 1988, Nagoya, Japan
Starting classical piano from age four, Watanabe grew up with the musical influence of his father, guitarist Norio Watanabe. As a teenager, Watanabe became interested in jazz and in 2003, started to study under Donny Schwekendiek.
Watanabe started performing music in public from 2004, joining the jazz funk band ‘Akamon’ in 2005. From 2009 he devoted himself to playing jazz, participating in many tours with bands such as the Wataru Hamazaki Quartet, Kaoru Tsubakida Quintet, noon and the Hideaki Kanazawa Trio.
In 2010, Watanabe took part in the recording for the album “Once upon the summer time” by Japanese singer “noon”, performing at Tokyo STB, Osaka Billboard and Blue Note Nagoya, on the recording release tour. In 2016, Shota joined Mei Inoue’s Stereo Champ and also recorded for Mononkul’s new album ‘Sekai ha koko ni shika nai tte jouzu ni itte’.
Shota Watanabe currently performs with his own band, in addition to providing musical support in a wide range of music genres to various other artists, mainly in the Tokyo and Nagoya areas of Japan, as well as nationwide.
http://shotapf.wixsite.com/music
Shunya Wakai
Born 1988 Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture
Shunya Wakai started attending Yamaha music class, from the age of three, learning classic piano, composition and so on. He started learning the contrabass upon entering Meiji University. The following year, he left university in order to start his musical career.
In 2013,Wakai became a regular member of the Kei Akagi Trio, taking part in numerous domestic and abroad tours, and two recordings in America. (Kei Akagi was the only Japanese person to be a member of the Miles Davis band.)
Shunya Wakai is currently based in Nagoya, performing sessions in the city, whilst also actively taking part in various musical projects nationwide in Japan, including the Kei Akagi Trio, Arimasa Yuki Trio, Nao Takeuchi Quartet, Dairiki Hara Quartet, May Inoue Group, and Shunya Wakai Trio.
Shun Ishiwaka
Born 1992 Kiyosatocho, Hokkaido
After attending Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Music’s Music High School (MHS), Ishiwaka proceeded on to study Classic Percussion in the instrumental department of percussion instruments, at the University. Upon his graduation he was awarded the Acanthus Music Prize and Doseikai Prize.
Shun Ishiwaka released his first full album “Cleanup” in December 2015, which received various awards, including the JAZZ JAPAN AWARD. In June 2016, Ishiwaka led a performance at Blue Note, Tokyo, with Kurt Rosenwinkel as a guest performer.
In September of the same year, Ishiwaka performed on Asahi Television’s “Daimei no nai ongaku” (Untitled Music), alongside tabla musician, U-zhaan. In December, Ishiwaka released his first EP “songbook”.
Shun Ishiwaka is the director of Jazz Summit Tokyo. He is a member of the percussion quartet Ki-Do-Ai-Raku, and is the drummer for the Terumasa Hino Quintet, CRCK/LCKS, and the Daiki Tsuneta Millennium Parade.
