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Logio Tek

Just an avid music fan.

About Me

My Jazz Story

I was introduced to Jazz by Riyoko Takagi, an extremely talented female Jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader from Japan, who is heavily based in live performance and improvisation. Before that, I didn't really give Jazz too much thought. Riyoko is a tremendous live artist and I found it really fascinating what kind of music she comes up with while improvising. I also was surprised to discover that virtually everything she plays is one-off and you'll never hear it played that way ever again (even her albums, which are geared toward comfortable listening experience as a selling point, contain unprepared improvised solos). I watched (remotely streamed) her perform two back-to-back 2-hour shows with nearly identical set-lists and out of 2 hours of music in each show, about 1 hour was completely improvised and different between the two shows. She makes everything sound new and fresh every single time she plays. At her live shows, Riyoko also closely interacts with her audience and seeks random notes and rhythm inputs (as well as from surroundings, i.e. a siren of an ambulance that happened to pass by) for her impromptu improvisations. Her shows are super fun and amazing as she would poll the audience for choice on how to proceed with the show: impromptu improvisation based on audience inputs, audience requests for medleys and mash-ups, etc. Riyoko absolutely loves the thrill and rush of spontaneity, especially with the backing of the rhythm section, she can deliver absolutely fresh and mind-blowing sonic and harmonic experience every time. At times even the audience can't hold back and start clapping while she's still playing. The fluency and harmonic richness of her improvised playing was completely alien and mind-blowing for me to witness and it sounded really amazing! She can improvise in many styles (even classical) featuring melodic, rhythmic, atonal elements. Listening to Riyoko, I've heard sounds from piano I've never heard before in my life. Improvised atonal solos are rare as is but Riyoko can deliver one that I can loop and enjoy for hours without end. Aside from Riyoko's tremendous musical talent, she's also a fighter and a warrior and never skips a beat! She plays up to a dozen live shows per month in addition to her other activities, such as being a regular pianist on early morning TV program THE TIME on TBS twice a week, where she calmly plays mellow waking music - it's hilarious on its own because most people watching TV have absolutory no idea what kind of artist she really is and when some of them look her up, you can read about their first-hand accounts of being mind-blown on her YouTube channel videos (which don't do her enough justice as live footage is scarce - in Japan venues own all the rights to recordings on their premises, so artists can't easily upload and share live recordings without special permissions). Even when she doesn't feel well physically or mentally, she never canceled a show, she goes out there and plays her heart out. Playing piano is a holy experience for Riyoko and it reflects in her live performances at all times. It's no wonder she's gaining popularity at the fastest rate in Japan and probably going to expand globally next. She even made Hiroyuki Noritake (a senior drummer/composer from legendary J-Fusion band THE-SQUARE) come out of semi-retirement and record and tour with her since 2022. In 2023 alone, Riyoko already released and toured 2 albums. In September 2023, around her birthday and downtime between 2 album tours, she also already composed and performed (as a challenge on her birthday!) her 2024 album that contains her most progressive Jazz to date, including many challenging originals as well as Jazzified Franz Liszt and Nikolai Kapustin. Here's what legendary Hiroyuki Noritake of THE-SQUARE had to say publicly to Riyoko: 則竹裕之 "Ms. Riyoko!! Once again Happy Birthday!!! Your 1000% artist soul has touched my heart.. Me too as a drummer Wanna challenge music with the same attitude... I feel it deep in my heart. Towards a future without limits !! ✨✨" So there you have it. Riyoko Takagi is an absolutely inspirational figure who inspires people of all ages, skills levels, and trades (I'm not even a musician but in 2023 alone, since I started closely following Riyoko, I learned more about music than I ever learned in the past decades of my life combined! I even bought a professional weighted and graded keyboard and learning to play and improvise, and it's all because of Riyoko). Riyoko has a polarizing past in Japanese music scene (once upon a time a major label Avex tried to make a J-Pop idol out of her), so it's easy to look her up and assume something else about her, but if you dig deeper and keep listening, you will find a tremendous artist with musical diversity that transcends genres and an infectious personality and passion for music very few radiate at that age. Riyoko has been active in in live music industry for over 15 years, yet it feels like she's just starting out. Women in Jazz (and in music in general) are a minority. If everyone discovers and adopts a talented and under-represented female artist and puts in the work to ensure that she's well-represented in relevant places, maybe we can help close the gender gap. That's exactly what I've done with Riyoko Takagi.