MAMIKO WATANABE

Mamiko Watanabe was born in Fukuoka, Japan. She started with the piano at the age of four under instruction at the Yamaha School of Music. By the time she was seven, her instructor asked her to compose a ‘motif,’ eight bars of a composition. Later, she wrote entire compositions. Her inspiration was Tashiko Akiyoshi, the Japanese American pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader who wrote powerful, complex compositions that ran the gamut from the mainstream to the avant-garde. 

In 1999, she received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music where she received several awards for Jazz composition and piano. She was also a semi-finalist at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition in 2002 and 2003. In 2003 she received the DownBeat Student Award in the Jazz Soloist Category before she made the decision to move to New York and expand her musical horizons.

After moving to New York, she performed at notable venues including Blue Note, Dizzy's Club at the Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Jazz at the Kitano and more. Mamiko has toured Europe and Japan and has performed with jazz greats such as Joe Lovano, Kevin Mahogany, and Bobby McFerrin. She has also appeared and featured at numerous prestigious Festivals worldwide.

Mamiko released her debut album in 2005, followed by three other equally critically acclaimed releases up until 2017. Being Guided by the Light is Mamiko’s anticipated fifth album and her first for Jojo Records. It is the representation of a musician in full flower, an artist reveling in her endless state of exploration.

Mamiko Watanabe plays the piano with the grace of a master but also the feral intensity of a jungle cat. This has led esteemed bassist Santi Debriano, one of her long-time collaborators and in the trio on this album, to compare her to the legendary McCoy Tyner. This is an unspeakably formidable compliment.