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Riyoko Takagi (高木 里代子, Takagi Riyoko) is a Japanese Jazz pianist and composer who isn't bound by a single genre or style and has crossed classical, pop, house, and anime genre boundaries and styles in her compositions, arrangements, and performances. She's renowned for her musicality, deep harmonic understanding, live performances full of energy with fluent improvisations that often involve audience, and delicate touch on the keys. Together with her talent and charming character she continues to proliferate Jazz and attract many fans from all over the world.
Biography
Riyoko Takagi was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her mother was an aspiring classical pianist. She started taking piano lessons in her neighborhood at the age of 4. Shortly after she acclimated to piano, her piano teacher advised that she should learn composing music rather than just continuing to play according to the score.
She enrolled into a specialized children's program at Yamaha Music School, where she studied classical piano and composition. At Yamaha she had her first piano recital at age 7 and her first televised piano performance of original composition at age 12 as part of annual Yamaha Original Junior Concert. She continued her studies at Yamaha until third year of junior high school.
At the age of 17 she started seriously focusing on jazz music for the first time. Instead of focusing on jazz music theory she started focusing on practical aspects of improvisation, studying from live albums of artists like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Over decades that followed, she developed a very strong foundation in the art of improvisation, which to this day remains a very unique and appealing centerpiece of her live performance style, including impromptu improvisations based on random sound input from the audience or surroundings (i.e. a siren of an ambulance that happened to pass by).
All her family graduated from Keio University, so she enrolled to Keio University SFC to study creative use of computers wanting to focus on music but the program turned out not what she expected. She did not study music in college and graduated in 2007 as Keio University alumni of Environment and Information Studies. While attending Keio University, she started playing jazz in local piano lounges and bars, which remained her main activity that she continued throughout her career, even while doing other stints outside of authentic jazz music.
Career
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Riyoko Takagi's music career with discographic output started in 2008 after she graduated college and emersed deeper into Tokyo music and jazz scene.
In 2008, she started working as a keyboardist for the club-based house unit Inner City Jam Orchestra. She continued this club-music activity in parallel with her authentic jazz music activities until late 2010s.
In 2009, her first jazz piano trio album "After Tears" was released by HARU Records. Also the first album "Ryudo" featuring her original compositions on keyboards as part of Inner City Jazz Orchestra was released by Daiki Sound.
In 2014, she appeared in Blue Note Tokyo, where she performed with Lee Ritenour and others. In June 2014, she won 4th place in the world in piano category in Lee Ritenour's sponsored competition, Six String Theory.
In 2015, her first solo jazz piano album "Salone" was released by HD Impression. It was very well received album showcasing her authentic solo jazz piano performances. In September 2015, she performed two days on stages of the 14th "Tokyo Jazz". In November 2015, Avex Trax released two of her mini-albums "The Intro!" and "In Winter!" (digital distribution only).
In 2016, Avex Trax released Takagi's first major label debut music album "The Debut!" incorporating jazz into Pop/House music genre. Under Avex Trax she was marketed as a sexy J-Pop idol. She would often perform at music festivals wearing a bikini or other sensational outfits and would perform various anime cosplays on her YouTube channel. This change of direction resulted in some confusion among fans as can be seen on Amazon reviews of her albums around this time period. Despite a new musical direction in album releases and new persona image, she still continued her authentic live jazz piano activities in parallel. For example, she performed her original authentic jazz compositions in a jazz piano trio featuring jazz-fusion female drummer Senri Kawaguchi and jazz bassist Nori Shiota. In February 2016, she won Jazz Japan magazine's - New Star award and appeared on their cover for the first time in her career.
In April 2017, her second solo jazz piano album "Dream of You ~ Salone II" was released by HD Impression. This album was very well received and marked return back to authentic solo Jazz piano as far as album releases are concerned.
In January 2018, she performed at Yamaha's event commemorating 100th anniversary of Japan Jazz "Golden Age of Jazz [100]" resulting in release of her DVD "Live Lab" by Atos International, containing solo piano live performances from the event.
In September 2019, her third solo jazz piano album "Resonance" was released by HD Impression. It became a highly acclaimed work that showcased new musicality that spun a straight-ahead jazz piano.
In 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was active in various production activities and her YouTube channel. Some videos she performed in during this time have garnered millions of views, such as those from a series of "disguised professional plays street piano".
In 2021, she began regular FM radio performances every 3rd Monday on Shibuya Cross FM radio on her program Sound Nova. In September 2021, she represented Japan in an annual televised Japan-Korea Exchange Festival and performed her Jazz piano trio arrangements of K-Pop (BTS, Blackpink, BigBang, Yoon Mi-Rae) in two sessions.
In November 2021, her second jazz piano trio album "Celebrity Standards" was released by her bassist friend's Nori Shiota's independent music label Steelpan Records. In January 2022, her third jazz piano trio album "Jewelry Box" was released by Steelpan Records. Both albums were recorded during the same session with the same supporting cast and released a few months apart, each featuring 60-40 split of her original compositions and her interpretations of popular jazz standard pieces. "Jewelry Box" album also features her Jazz arrangement of Ballade No. 1 In G minor, Op. 23 by Frédéric Chopin. These two albums represent the first time in her career where she had the freedom to do what she wanted. Both albums debuted at the top of jazz music category on Amazon Japan.
In January 2022, she appeared in TV show "From That Girl, Me" starring as Yuka Kurotani, a composer and piano performer. She appeared on the cover of Jazz Japan magazine for the second time in her career. She also began regular appearances as a pianist on Mondays and Thursdays on TBS's "THE TIME" TV show.
2023 was a very busy year for Takagi. In April, her fourth Jazz piano trio album "The Piano Story" featuring two respected Japanese rhythm section players Hiroyuki Noritake (T-Square) and Yosuke Inoue (played with Steve Gadd, Junko Onishi) was released by Steelpan Records, featuring 60-40 split of her original compositions and her interpretations of popular jazz standard pieces and her Jazz arrangement of Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20 by Frédéric Chopin. Country-wide tour to support the first album release of the year was held during May–August, including her first double-header performance at prestigious Billboard Live. In May, she appeared on the cover of Jazz Japan magazine for the third time in her career. In September, around her birthday and during the downtime between two 2023 albums tours, Takagi composed her next (2024) album and as a challenge performed it on her birthday live celebration show held on September 29. The next album will feature several new challenging original jazz compositions in styles she hasn't done before, as well as jazzified arrangements of challenging pieces by Franz Liszt and Nikolai Kapustin. In October, her fifth Jazz piano trio album "Midnight in Blue" was released and was recorded during the same recording session and with the same supporting members as "The Piano Story" album, featuring 30-70 split of her original compositions and her interpretations of popular jazz standard pieces and geared for pleasant listening experience. Country-wide tour to support the second album release of the year was held during October–December, including second performance at prestigious Billboard Live.
Awards
In February 2016, Riyoko Takagi won Jazz Japan - New Star award.
Gear
Piano (prefers Yamaha but played many different makes and models of grand pianos including Kawai, Bösendorfer, Bechstein, Steinway, Fazioli, and others), Keyboards, Keytar
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