Shoko Nagai (piano, auto harp, moog), Satoshi Takeishi (Percs, electronics)
Experimental Piano/Percs duo has been incorporating free improvisation, composition, electronics, found objects and visual elements into performances to create a unique path into the world of contemporary music. Their performances are based on stories and they create sound textures almost visible to the listener.
In this performance, they will perform new compositions based on a tale of “floating world,” a world where illusion is sustained by multiple shifting elements.
Satoshi Takeishi, drummer, percussionist and arranger is a native of Mito, Japan. He developed an interest in the music of South America and went to live in Colombia following the invitation of a friend. He spent four years there and forged many musical and personal relationships. One of the projects he worked on while in Colombia was ‘Macumbia’ with composer/arranger Francisco Zumaque in which traditional, jazz and classical music were combined. With this group he performed with the Bogota symphony orchestra to do a series of concerts honoring the music of the most popular composer in Colombia, Lucho Bermudes. In 1986 he returned to Miami, U.S. where he began working as an arranger/producer as well as a performer. In 1987 he produced ‘Morning Ride’ for jazz flutist Nestor Torres on Polygram Records. His interest expanded to the rhythms and melodies of the middle east where he studied and performed with Armenian-American oud master Joe Zeytoonian. Since moving to New York in 1991 he has performed and recorded with many musicians such as Ray Barretto, Carlos ‘Patato’ Valdes, Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson, Eddie Gomez, Randy Brecker, Dave Liebman, Anthony Braxton, Mark Murphy, Herbie Mann, Paul Winter Consort, Rabih Abu Khalil, Erik Friedlander, Ned Rothenberg, Shoko Nagai, Paul Giger, Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band, Ying String Quartet, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, Dhafer Youssef, Lalo Schifrin and Pablo Ziegler to name a few. He continues to explore multi-cultural, electronics and improvisational music with local musicians and composers in New York.
Born in Nagoya, Japan, composer, accordionist and pianist Shoko Nagai has been evolving as a professional musician for fifteen years. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1999 she moved to New York City and quickly established herself in the downtown jazz scene performing with such renowned artists as John Zorn, Rasheid Ali, Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Cuong Vu, Tom Rainy, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Matana Roberts, Guillermo E. Brown to name a few. The Shoko Nagai Quintet which features some of New York’s best musicians has performed extensively at the BlueNote, Knitting factory, The Stone, Vision Festival, and The Kitchen as well as at other top New York clubs. Nagai has performed in Norway (Natt jazz festival) in Finland (Tampere jazz festival) in Germany (Moers jazz festival), Japan, Switzerland, Brasil (resfest), Israel, Canada ( Suoni Popolo festival) and United States( Freihofer’s Jazz festival). Her most recent project is “Vortex” which is a free improvisation duet with electronics. In 2006, she received a grant from Philadelphia Music Project 2006 Grant for JazzJaunts, a project in which seven jazz artists will compose and premiere compositions that incorporate musical traditions from their cultural roots, spanning South Africa, Cuba, Brazil, South India, Iraq, Japan, and the Jewish Diaspora. Recently, she has composed music for the Japanese film ” Starfish Hotel ” (2006) (directed by John Williams) with Satoshi Takeishi which had been shown world wide, also she worked for French film music ” L’AMOUR CACH( 2007 ) ” ( Directed by Alessandro Capone) conducted by Butch Morris.
