Ai Kuwabara
Ai Kuwabara (born September 21, 1991
Biography
Kuwabara was born on [3]
21 September 1991 , the youngest of three girls. Older sisters Yu and Mako are also musical, and it was Mako who introduced Ai to her current musical partner Yusuke Morita, who was her classmate at the Tokyo College of Music.Kuwabara graduated from the Music Department at Senzoku Gakuen High School as a jazz piano major in 2010 . She studied piano under Yuki Arimasa, Yoko Yamashita, and Kazune Zaima.[citation needed]
Kuwabara has won many awards, including gold medals at the All-Japan Yamaha Electone Contest, for both the lower elementary division and the upper elementary division.[4]
Kuwabara has performed at the UNICEF Charity Concert and International Junior Original Concert. She was featured in AERA magazine as a “genius Electone girl (天才エレクトーン少女, tensai erekutōn shōjo)" (i.e., a child prodigy with respect to the Yamaha Electone).[5]
In the middle[when?] of junior high school, Kuwabara switched[clarification needed] to playing the piano.[citation needed]
Kuwabara is 1.70 metres (5 ft 7 in) tall.[citation needed]
Genre
The ai kuwabara trio project's jazz genre is notably hard to pin down. Sean Smith, writer for the Japan Times and jazz blogger, writes that her second album blends "contemporary jazz with elements of rock and fusion sounds," though he later states that some tracks are clearly modern or contemporary jazz, "with some almost prog-rock like synths in place."[6] Kuwabara herself states that, "I don't feel that I'm consciously playing jazz as such. Without wanting to be disrespectful to the tradition of the genre, that's not really what I'm aiming for, but that's just how my music gets categorized."[7]
Discography
The ai kuwabara trio project's first album from here to there was initially self-produced, and only later picked up by East Works Entertainment to be re-released in November 2012.
THE SIXTH SENSE, their second album (2013), was inspired by Kuwabara's interest in and study of psychology and
References
- ^ "プロフィール|桑原あい(ジャズピアニスト)|桑原三姉妹".
- ^ "Tony Bennett, New Cool Collective, AI Kuwabara Trio Project impress crowds at Tokyo Jazz Festival". 11 September 2013.
- ^ Smith, Sean (2013-09-04). "Pianist AI Kuwabara to live out her dream on stage at Tokyo Jazz Festival".
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-28. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Ai Kuwabara Trio Project form". Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
- ^ "AI Kuwabara Trio Project - the Sixth Sense".
- ^ "Pianist AI Kuwabara to live out her dream on stage at Tokyo Jazz Festival". 4 September 2013.
- ^ "Pianist AI Kuwabara to live out her dream on stage at Tokyo Jazz Festival". 4 September 2013.
- ^ "Pianist AI Kuwabara to live out her dream on stage at Tokyo Jazz Festival". 4 September 2013.