Meet Alto Saxophonist Erena Terakubo

This article first appeared in Jersey Jazz Magazine.

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 program. Terakubo remembers it well. "I couldn't speak English at all," she said. "But I was communicating and making friends through music. It was a new experience for me. There were so many people from all over the world—Israel, Europe, everywhere in the States. They were way better musicians than I was. I was shocked by the high level the musicians in the States were. Shocked and inspired."

Terakubo also received a full scholarship to attend Berklee as an undergrad. She received an Artist Diploma in 2014 and returned to earn her Bachelor's Degree in 2018.

After graduating from Berklee, Terakubo moved to New York, and her career has continued to soar. In November 2023, she was a special guest with the Chad LB Quartet at the South Jersey Jazz Society's three-day Jazz@thePoint Fall Festival in Somers Point. Later that month, she led a quartet at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Live Arts. (Her fall 2025 schedule includes three nights with the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at New York's Blue Note).

Before moving to New York, Terakubo had an opportunity to record three albums with some of her jazz heroes: North Bird (King Records: 2010) with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Lee Pearson, and guitarist Peter Bernstein; New York Attitude (King Records: 2011) with Barron, bassist Ron Carter, Pearson, and trumpeter Dominick Farinacci; and Burkina (Eighty-Eight's: 2013) with Barron, Carter, and drummers Jimmy Cobb and Lenny White.

The recordings were arranged by jazz producer Yasohachi Itoh, aka "Mr. 88." "This producer used to work for Sony Records in Japan," she said. "Everyone knew this guy. He came to one of my concerts in Japan and asked me, 'What's your dream band?' I jokingly said those names, and he said, 'ok, let's make it happen.'"

New York Attitude was noticed by AllAboutJazz's Edward Blanco, who was impressed by Terakubo's playing. "Teaming up with a group of accomplished players for a performance will most probably make an average player sound good," he wrote. "Here, though, a talented player is made to sound extraordinary. Japanese-born Erena Terakubo is a gifted musician with burnished skills on the saxophone who—surrounded by this group of jazz masters—presents a sharp and vibrant musical experience that is a pleasure to hear . . . New York Attitude captures an exciting new artist delivering the best of straight—ahead jazz like a seasoned veteran."

"After Berklee," Terakubo said, "most of my friends from college moved to New York." (She lives in Riverdale). Shortly after arriving in the city, Terakubo met veteran alto saxophonist Vincent Herring. "My friend, bassist Yasushi Nakamura," she recalled, "was playing with Vincent and (drummer) Louis Hayes at a place in Riverdale called Linda's Jazz Cafe. He introduced me to them." Terakubo later studied with Herring while pursuing her Master's Degree at the Manhattan School of Music.

Said Herring: "I watched her blossom from a special talent into what must be the world's best female alto saxophonist. She is amazing." In 2017, pianist/composer/arranger John Beasley asked Herring to play at New York's Jazz Standard for the East Coast performance of Beasley's MONK'estra big band, celebrating the music of Thelonious Monk in the year of his centennial birthday. Herring couldn't make the gig, but he recommended Terakubo. After that, Terakubo played in subsequent MONK'estra East Coast concerts. She and Herring had a European tour, "Two Altos," in March 2024.

When UNESCO declared April 30 as International Jazz Day in 2011, Beasley was appointed Music Director of its annual global Gala Concerts. For the 2022 Jazz Day Gala Concert, he recommended Terakubo to join the all-star cast of global jazz stars, representing Japan. "Erena," said Beasley, "has a unique and beautiful voice on the saxophone with one foot in tradition, and the other with a vision for the future."

On May 14, 2024, alto saxophonist Charles McPherson curated two concerts called "John Beasley and the Next Generation" for the LaJolla (CA) Music Society. The concerts celebrated jazz's past, present, and future, and Terakubo was invited to be part of Beasley's quintet, which also included trumpeter Giveton Gelin, bassist Russell Hall, and drummer Anthony Fung. "Erena," said McPherson, "has a good knowledge of the history of jazz and plays extremely well. LJMS wanted a few young players and some seasoned veterans to take their audience through jazz history. Erena was able to do that because she's learned the history!"

Terakubo's major influences, in addition to Herring and McPherson are Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Parker, Phil Woods, and Sonny Stitt. (It is said that Woods, after hearing Terakubo play for the first time, exclaimed: "Who the hell is that?").

Tenor saxophonist Chad LB and Terakubo had never met or played together, so her invitation from him to perform at at Jazz@thePoint was unexpected. "I was surprised that he called me," she said. "I knew him on YouTube and Instagram. I see him all the time, but I had no idea he knew about me. He Instagram-messaged me and said, 'I'm fond of you, and do you want to do this gig with me?'" Chad LB was a member of the multi Grammy-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) and toured with Taylor Swift. He studied at the Brubeck Institute and, while there, was selected as a member of the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet.

Terakubo's latest album, Absolutely Live!, was recorded in 2019 at Tokyo's Shinjuku Pit Inn jazz club with Mayuko Katakura on keyboards, Motoi Kanamori on bass, and Shinnosuke Takahashi on drums and percussion. It demonstrated her versatility, containing three Terakubo originals, bebop classics such as Jackie McLean's "Bird Lives" and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's "Shaw Nuff," Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark," and Edgar Sampson's "Stompin' at the Savoy."

Terakubo began playing the saxophone at age 9 in Sapporo, becoming part of the Sapporo Junior Jazz Band when she was 10. "One of the main staff there who organized the concerts," she recalled, "really liked my playing, and he put me on everything. I'd be the featured kid in trhe band, taking solos. The audiences went crazy back then; they were screaming. I had a great time playing for people. And then I met Tiger Okoshi." And now she plays for audiences all over the world.

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