Chiemi Nakai's Afro Cuban Jazz Project

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A native of Japan, CHIEMI NAKAI began studying the organ as a child at the Yamaha Music School of Japan. She composed her first shorts songs at the age of nine. Having always had a strong desire to compose music, she decided to study piano when she was in her early teens and eventually became interested in jazz. From there it was a steady progression from Bop to Brazilian music and then Salsa. After her talents were recognized by jazz hard bop drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath she was encouraged and soon invited to join Mamborama the most well known Latin jazz/ Salsa group in Osaka at the time. This led her to gigs with members of other influential Latin and jazz groups in Japan, including La Orquestra de la Luz. Wanting to take her career to the next level, she moved to New York City and was accepted to the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, where she graduated with a Masters of Art in Jazz Performance in 2002. Since then, she continues to perform, record and tour with some of Latin music’s premier artists and groups leading to the formation of The Afro-Cuban Jazz Project.
“bridges”
CHIEMI NAKAI & EMMANUEL BIZEAU AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ PROJECT
New York City based Jazz pianist/ composer Chiemi Nakai and Latin percussionist/ arranger Emmanuel “Manu” Bizeau join musical forces to form the Chiemi Nakai & Emmanuel Bizeau Afro Cuban Jazz Project. Known for her ability to move “effortlessly from classical compositions to jazz changes to marvelous montunos that would fire up any mambo band,” Tottori, Japan native Chiemi Nakai has made a name for herself playing alongside and recording with some of the most well known artists in Latin Jazz. Emmanuel Bizeau has an equally impressive career which has taken him from his homeland of France, where he was a fixture in the local Latin Jazz scene, to Cuba, where he honed his musical skills under the tutelage of acknowledged masters of Afro-Cuban music to the U.S., where he continues to expand his career. Together with bassist Jorge Bringas and drummer Ludwig Afonso these incredibly talented artists release their debut CD “bridges” a “surprisingly powerful and fresh look at Latin Jazz.”
This 9-track collection is comprised of eight original compositions by Nakai and a cover of the Latin standard Obsesión by influential Puerto Rican orchestra leader and composer Pedro Flores. With bridges Nakai and Bizeau bring freshness and excitement, combining musical virtuosity with imagination and emotion reflecting their diverse musical and cultural influences. In addition to her bebop jazz and Cuban music training, Nakai sites Japanese culture and melodies as a major influence on her work, “my friends tell me that my songs sound like Japanese melodies” says Nakai. For Bizeau it was Cuban music, which he discovered as a teenager. “I bought my first conga when I was 17 after listening to some salsa records. When I went to Cuba, it was a revolution for me.”
Many of the songs on bridges were inspired by very personal events in group leader Chiemi Nakai’s life. “With Manu and me not being Latin we find ourselves playing to a primarily Latin audience but at the same time being shut out of the Latin world. In “La Frontera” (“The Boundary”) I try to come to grips with why despite the boundaries that we face we are still so attracted Latin music and all that it represents. Naming the album “bridges” I believe is the best answer that I can come up with. It expresses the hope that our music becomes a bridge that unites us all; France, Japan, the Latin world and all humanity.”
“Azul” (“Blue”) has a special place in my heart because it has been with me the longest. It was one of the first songs that I wrote and at the time I didn’t really like the color blue. Ten years later, in 2004 I decided to rewrite the song adding different musical elements and techniques that I had learned over time. When I finished, I realized how much I had grown musically. And now, the color blue has a different meaning to me – it represents clarity, transparency, something spiritual. Now I love color blue and see my personal goals becoming clearer to me.”
In the simple yet playful “Flying Gray Cat”, Nakai tells of an adventure with her cat Pipi, who like all cats can sometimes be too curious for his own good. “Late one evening my cat Pipi was playing by the window in my second floor apartment while I was taking a shower. Suddenly a friend who was visiting at the time called out “hey Chiemi, I think Pipi just went out the window.” Frantic, I jumped out of the shower, threw on some clothes and dashed down the stairs to see if Pipi was OK. When I got downstairs it was freezing cold and I had to crawl through a tiny window that led to the outdoor garden where Pipi had landed. I eventually caught a cold from being outside in the cold all wet, but thank goodness Pipi had survived the fall with nothing more than a little red scar on his nose. I don’t know what I would have done without him.” She expands on this sentiment in “Fragments of Sadness”, a song she wrote after witnessing a neighborhood stray being run over by a speeding car. “This is my requiem to all the creatures who were taken away from us due to human recklessness.”
“Más y Más” (“More and More”) is a tune in which Nakai expresses her hunger for “more and more” recounting the time when she first moved to New York. “1999 was a very difficult year for me. I didn’t speak English well and I was trying to enter The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. After two unsuccessful attempts at trying to pass the English proficiency exam required for entrance my savings were gradually depleting and because of my status as student I didn’t have a job. At the same time I was trying to keep the momentum going in my career. I was alone, on my way to being broke and very discouraged. I wanted more… I needed more.”
“The Moon on the Water” features lyrics and vocals by Mari Koga and the soulful bass of Noriko Ueda, both fellow ex-pats. Nakai says of the song “I wrote the music to this song back in 1992 while I was still in Japan. The original title of the song was “Funa Uta” or “The boat Song” in English. At that time I had imagined boating on a small river in the springtime in Japan, but had not written any lyrics. When Manu and I decided to include the song on the album I felt that it needed lyrics to express that image and asked Mari, a close friend and aspiring jazz singer, if she wanted to write them. She came to me the following day and I was totally blown away. Instead of just a ballad for lovers, her lyrics elevated the song to a higher level, expressing universal themes to which everyone could relate; meditation, reflection, spirituality and finding one’s path in difficult times.”
Other highlights include “Nueva Visión 2” - homage to the late Cuban pianist Emiliano Salvador who Nakai sites as a major influence – and “Sedona” – in which Nakai envisions herself as an eagle soaring high over the sacred and picturesque terrain of some of American’s first inhabitants.
A collaborative effort, bridges also features guest performances by conguero Richie Flores, trombonist Jimmy Bosch, bassists Juan Carlos Formell and Carlos del Pino, Flautist Roberto Pitre and many others.
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