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Jazz Articles about Erena Terakubo
Joe Elefante's Wheel of Dharma: Return of the Light
by Jack Bowers
The second act of Joe Elefante's laudable jazz career was born in tragedy: the loss in 2024 of his wife of sixteen years to cancer. It was then that Elefante, who once led the world-class Joe Elefante Big Band, decided to leave his long-time position as a schoolteacher and return to his first love, jazz, and devote the time he had left to writing and performing again with his talented colleagues and friends. Return of the Light ...
Continue ReadingMeet Alto Saxophonist Erena Terakubo
by Sanford Josephson
For many years, trumpeter/educator Tiger Okoshi has been directing the Hokkaido Grove Jazz Camp during summers in Sapporo, Japan. At one of his first camps, he met a 12-year-old alto saxophonist named Erena Terakubo."She was shining, and she knew it," he recalled. “She was determined, driven, and already sounded like a young Charlie Parker." When Terakubo was 15, Okoshi, a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, awarded her a full scholarship to Berklee's five-week summer ...
Continue ReadingPeter Lin AAPI Jazz Collective: Identity
by Jack Bowers
Taiwanese-American trombonist Peter Lin formed the New York-based AAPI Jazz Collective in 2018 to amplify the voice of jazz musicians of Asian American and Pacific Island lineage. Identity, the group's debut album, confirms that those voices are essentially strong, clear and eloquent. AAPI's core quintet places Lin out front with alto saxophonist Erena Terakubo, adeptly escorted by pianist Mike Bond, bassist Daseul Kim and drummer Wen-Ting Wu. Guest trumpeter Brandon Choi sits in on four numbers, vocalist ...
Continue ReadingThe Empress: Square One
by Jack Bowers
The Empress is a New York City-based co-op septet whose front line consists of four saxophonists. Based on its title, the assumption is that Square One is the group's first recording as a unit. The Empress is the idea of award-winning saxophonist Pureum Jin, who enlisted the renowned German writer and saxophonist Michael Lutzeier to arrange ten of the album's eleven durable and decisive numbers and recruited a trio of all-star saxophonists to share the stage and lend their awesome ...
Continue ReadingErena Terakubo: From Sapporo to Jazz Stardom
by Stephen Braunginn
Alto saxophonist sensation Erena Terakubo from Sapporo, Japan, began her recording career early, releasing her first album when she was only 15 years old. Discover how a sax-playing M&M doll kicked off her journey to jazz stardom. She recorded her first album with Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, and Peter Bernstein while still in the 10th grade. Today, Erena Terakubo, six recordings later, is touring with alto sax star Vincent Herring, award-winning drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. and performing at Dizzy's in ...
Continue ReadingTracy Yang: OR
by Angelo Leonardi
Il percorso biografico e artistico di Tracy Yang ha molte affinità con quello di Jihye Lee, l'ormai nota arrangiatrice e bandleader coreana che s'è imposta con i significativi album Infinite Connections e Daring Mind. Tracy Yang viene da Taiwan, dove lavorava come radiologa. Come Jihyie Lee ha appreso in un decennio le tecniche dell'orchestrazione partendo da zero, ha studiato al Berklee e in altri college statunitensi e fatto esperienza sul campo a New York. Darcy James ...
Continue ReadingTracy Yang: OR
by Jack Kenny
Darcy James Argue and Maria Schneider have produced music in recent years that is setting new parameters. They have broadened the scope of jazz by mining inspiration from unlikely sources: Argue finds inspiration in politics and conspiracy theories; Schneider looked at the data world, both artists revivifying the large jazz orchestra. A new name can be added: Tracy Yang. Yang has her own preoccupations: music, photography and ecology. Yang's story has many intriguing aspects. To abandon a career ...
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