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Kyoko Kitamura

A former journalist with childhood piano training at Juilliard Pre-College and a stint as a Gulf War reporter on her resumé, Kyoko Kitamura is an oddball vocal improviser and composer who has performed and/or recorded with many distinguished musicians including Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Jay Clayton, Steve Coleman, Jim Staley, and Taylor Ho Bynum.

Mostly recently, she appears on Trillium E (New Braxton House 2011), the first ever studio-recording of an Anthony Braxton opera, and can also be heard on the critically acclaimed Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings release Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records 2009), Jamie Baum’s Solace (Sunnyside Records 2008), and Steve Coleman’s Lucidarium (Label Bleu 2004), among others.

She currently works with Anthony Braxton as a vocalist in his Tri-Centric Orchestra and as a board member of his Tri- Centric Foundation.

As for her own projects, she co-leads “Go-Zee-Lah” (duo project with pianist Yayoi Ikawa), “Armadillo In Sunset Park” (collaborative project with dancers of Mark Lamb Dance), and a duo with pianist Russ Lossing. Her own songs are often based on real life experiences. A mini-album “Armadillo In Sunset Park” was released on March 20th, 2012. She also recently became the vocalist and pianist of drummer William Hooker‘s new group, “The Gift.”

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Album Review

Cory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice

Read "Accelerate Every Voice" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Un vivace, originale intreccio di voci, diremmo più di matrice contemporanea che strettamente jazzistica (questa costola respira semmai soprattutto nel pianismo del leader Cory Smythe), anima questo stimolante lavoro, in cui anche l'elettronica gioca un suo ruolo, per quanto discreto. Lo compongono otto apprezzabilissimi brani brevi (il più lungo supera di poco i cinque minuti) e uno, invece, molto ampio (diciannove), logorroico e dispersivo, che purtroppo deturpa e disperde in buona parte quanto di buono, spesso di ottimo, lo precede, ...

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Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projects—one dating back ten years—with some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to “all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...

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Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


L'attività musicale di William Parker è stata copiosamente documentata da circa centocinquanta dischi, che spaziano in un caleidocopio di gruppi fondati dallo stesso contrabbassista, formazioni cooperative, omaggi, collaborazioni. Ma nessun singolo lavoro, fino a questo momento, aveva focalizzato l'attenzione su un ventaglio di ispirazioni così ampio e completo come si fa ora nei dieci CD del cofanetto The Music of William Parker—Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World. In questo lavoro monumentale, che viene ...

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Album Review

Russ Lossing: Traces: Two Song Cycles

Read "Traces: Two Song Cycles" reviewed by Mark Corroto


There is an HBO television series, A World of Calm, which delivers thirty-minute vignettes on subjects from trees to snowfall to the vastness of the universe. The unhurried series is designed to elicit restfulness while at the same time provoking deep concentration. The same can be said of Traces, a quartet project by pianist Russ Lossing. Lossing is probably best known as a former sideman to the late drummer Paul Motian, plus he has series of recordings on ...

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Album Review

Cory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice

Read "Accelerate Every Voice" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Pianist/electronics artist/composer Cory Smythe's Pyroclastic Records debut Circulate Susanna (2018) was a tongue-in-cheek attribution to the inspiration of a fictional event. He returns to the Kris Davis run label with the intriguing, socially-conscious and genre-less Accelerate Every Voice. Inspired by an assortment of sources: Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice (Blue Note, 1970), the work of Harlem Renaissance poet and early NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, and the a cappella art form and its sociological duality. Smythe is an ...

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Album Review

Kyoko Kitamura's Tidepool Fauna: Protean Labyrinth

Read "Protean Labyrinth" reviewed by John Sharpe


For her second leadership outing following Armadillo In Sunset Park (self produced, 2012), vocalist Kyoko Kitamura assembles a group which she calls Tidepool Fauna. And giving the group an identity seems entirely appropriate as what they create is very much an ensemble music. That's made all the easier by having such accomplished talents as saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and bassist Ken Filiano on board, and drummer Dayeon Seok confirms that she is at home in such company too. Kitamura herself might ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Kyoko Kitamura

Read "Take Five With Kyoko Kitamura" reviewed by Kyoko Kitamura


Meet Kyoko Kitamura: A former journalist with childhood piano training at Juilliard Pre-College and a stint as a one-time war reporter on her résumé, Kyoko Kitamura is an oddball vocal improviser and composer who has performed and/or recorded with many distinguished musicians including Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Steve Coleman, Jim Staley and Taylor Ho Bynum. Recently, she appears on Trillium E (New Braxton House 2011), the first ever studio-recording of an Anthony Braxton opera, and released her first ...

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Performance / Tour

CD Release of “Armadillo In Sunset Park” at Mark Lamb Dance’s Second Saturday Sanctuary Salon

CD Release of “Armadillo In Sunset Park” at Mark Lamb Dance’s Second Saturday Sanctuary Salon

Source: Chris Rich

A New York City CD release celebration for a mini album of songs from Kyoko Kitamura will be found on Sat, April 7, 2012 at Metro Baptist Church , 410 W. 40th St. starting at 7:30pm This Mark Lamb Dance Salon will double as a release performance for “Armadillo In Sunset Park,” a set of songs written for Mark Lamb Dance released on March 20th 2012. “The mock serious chorus “always use rubber gloves when handling raw armadillo," never ceases ...

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Performance / Tour

OK|OK CD Release Concert (Free Event) @ Roulette (NYC)

OK|OK CD Release Concert (Free Event) @ Roulette (NYC)

Source: All About Jazz

Reflecting the current economic climate, but determined to have some fun, ok|ok is doing a FREE show assisted by none other than Benton-C on live visual performance, to celebrate ok|ok's first ever CD “EATING MANTIS" from RKM Music. This coming Thursday, September 18th, 2008 @ 8pm (1 set only) No Cover, No Minimum, FREE Roulette @ 20 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand Streets) 212.219.8242 RKM Music presents a FREE multi-media event by the avant-jazz/avant-rock group ok|ok who will be ...

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Recording

OK|OK's "Eating Mantis" Released Today

OK|OK's "Eating Mantis" Released Today

Source: All About Jazz

ok|ok's first CD Eating Mantis was released today from Ravi Coltrane's label RKM Music. ok|ok is Kyoko Kitamura (voice, laptop), Mike McGinnis (reeds), Khabu Doug Young (guitar), Tony Moreno (drums). Their animated music video “Hunt" was recently broadcast on THIRTEEN/WNET after winning the Reel 13 short film competition. ok|ok - Eating Mantis by Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

Although vocalists ranging from Betty Carter to Ann Dyer to Kitty Brazelton have made exciting contributions to avant-garde jazz, the vast majority ...

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Award / Grant

OK|OK Wins Reel 13 Short Film Competition on Thirteen/WNET

OK|OK Wins Reel 13 Short Film Competition on Thirteen/WNET

Source: All About Jazz

ok|ok, the New York-based avant/experimental/pop group consisting of Kyoko Kitamura on voice, Michael McGinnis on clarinet/bass clarinet, Khabu Doug Young on guitar, and Tony Moreno on drums, along with collaborator and the Japanese animator duo PECKS, has just won the Reel 13 Short competition for this week for their animated music video “Hunt" hosted by THIRTEEN/WNET. “Hunt" will be aired this Saturday evening on THIRTEEN/WNET during the Reel 13 slot tonight SATURDAY AUGUST 23rd 2008 at 11:11pm and then again ...

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Performance / Tour

Gnu Vox Festival: Alison Wedding/ Rebecca Shrimpton (Mon) Jen Shyu Band & Yoon Sun Choi and Kyoko Kitamura (Tue) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Gnu Vox Festival: Alison Wedding/ Rebecca Shrimpton (Mon) Jen Shyu Band & Yoon Sun Choi and Kyoko Kitamura (Tue) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Aug 13 6:00PM GNU VOX FESTIVAL: ALISON WEDDING (Alison Wedding, voice;Pete McCann, guitar) GNU VOX FESTIVAL: REBECCA SHRIMPTON (Rebecca Shrimpton, vocals;Dan Tepfer, piano;Eric Hofbauer, guitar) Tue Aug 14

"A major asset...Kitamura is an expressive vocalist who knows how to be quirky and eccentric but is also quite musical." --Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

"Kitamura's voice is an amazing instrument..." -Richard Kamins, Hartford Courant

"Kyoko Kitamura is a wonderful storyteller and has a lovely, remarkably flexible voice; she writes from the standpoint of someone who has seen a lot of the world--she is a former foreign correspondent--however, she is not "worldly." There is a sense of wonder, awe and innocence in her voice, tempered somewhat by an innate and inscrutable sense of loneliness." --Uncle Dave Lewis, musicologist

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Migration of Silence...

Centering Records / AUM Fidelity
2021

buy

Traces: Two Song...

Aqua Piazza Records
2020

buy

Traces

Aqua Piazza Records 002
2020

buy

Accelerate Every Voice

Pyroclastic Records
2020

buy

Protean Labyrinth

Self Produced
2018

buy

Armadillo In Sunset...

Self Produced
2012

buy

Northern Cities Vowel Shift

From: Accelerate Every Voice
By Kyoko Kitamura

Charlie Brown's Wandering Eye

From: Armadillo In Sunset Park
By Kyoko Kitamura

Videos

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