Rema Hasumi

Rema Hasumi (born in Fukuoka, Japan) is a pianist/vocalist who is based out of Brooklyn, NY. Rema has performed at venues across NY, the United States and Asia. In 2009 she performed at the Kennedy Center as one of the four finalists of Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Pianist Competition. More recently, upon invitation by acclaimed vocalist Jen Shyu, Rema presented her solo work “The Patterns of Duplicity” at a series of “Solo Rites” concerts by Ms. Shyu. The piece featured the poetry “Spring and Asura”(1925) by Kenji Miyazawa interpreted in multiple languages, exploring the possibilities of musical ideas unique and inherent to each language. Rema has also worked extensively as both pianist and vocalist in many other projects, including a series of collaborations with the saxophonist Darius Jones in which they performed the music of Alice Coltrane. She has also worked as the vocalist in the guitarist Todd Neufeld's new two-drummer group. Rema's new trio will be premiered in June 2015 in two nights of concerts in NYC. It features compositions she is writing for piano/voice, performed alongside the great Randy Peterson and Masa Kamaguchi. Her first record "UTAZATA" will be released on May 3, 2015, from Ruweh Records. It features the highly sympathetic cast of Todd Neufeld (guitar), Thomas Morgan (bass), Billy Mintz(drums), and fiery guest musicians Ben Gerstein (trombone) and Sergio Krakowski(pandeiro). The group interprets the themes of Japanese Gagaku and ritual music. This record was made as a result of days of mindful searching on femininity, mythology and rituals in Japanese performing arts.

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