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Chie Imaizumi
This CD is representative of the best of current large ensemble recordings. - Ed Trefzger - JazzWeek
After listening to one night of her vital, creative and engaging music..... Imaizumi was on my short list of new composer/arrangers to watch. - Norman Provisor - Rocky Mountain News
One of the most well-received and up-and-coming musicians of her generation, Composer/Arranger/Conductor/Pianist Chie Imaizumi's music has been received with standing ovations by audiences and accolades from the press. Her new CD "Unfailing Kindness"(Capri Records) is produced by world-renowned trumpet recording artist Greg Gisbert who is also featured on the date. The recording features a program of original compositions and arrangements by Chie and an all star line-up of musicians from New York and Colorado that include the phenomenal baritone saxophonist, Gary Smulyan.
Far from a stranger to the stage, Chie started her musical career at the early age of four, when she started playing the electric organ in her native homeland of Saitama, Japan. Continuing with the instrument all through her early years, Chie went on to win the Yamaha Electone Competition for outstanding performance on the electric organ at the regional and national levels several years in a row. At 18, Chie began her intensive study of the jazz language at Senzoku Gakuen Junior College in Kanagawa, Japan, while changing her primary musical focus to the piano, and graduated top of her class.
While at Kanagawa, Chie appeared on several CD releases. Under the direction of producer and percussionist, Youichi Hosohata, Chie performed on "Voice Vol. 3" on piano and keyboards. During this time she also recorded with Syamisen (traditional Japanese instrument) player Masahiro Nitta on King Records release entitled " SOU".
Soon after entering Berklee in the fall of 2001, while attending the institution on a Full Merit Scholarship, Chie began to shift her focus from performing to composing. Her extraordinary talents being soon recognized by the professors at Berklee, she was awarded the Herb Pomeroy award for Jazz Composition in 2003. She had the extreme honor of performing her compositions with her own band at the 2004 North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, Netherland! Her compositions have been performed with countless different bands at the IAJE Conference, the Regattabar Jazz Festival, the New Music Festival, and the Berklee Jazz Festival, to name just a few. Chie Imaizumi recorded her demo CD in July 2005 entitled ' A Change for the Better'.
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Interviews with Chie Imazumi and Tenia Nelson
by Steven Roby
One of the most well-received musicians of her generation, composer, and arranger Chie Imaizumi (pronounced Chee-ay Ee-my-zu-me) has won many awards as an ambitious and active voice in the jazz community. She received the Herb Pomeroy Award, The Rocky Mountain Jazz Artist of the Year, and was recognized by DownBeat Critics Poll as a Rising Star Composer & Arranger." Tenia Nelson performs regularly at jazz venues in the Denver metro area, including Dazzle and Nocturne. Nelson is a ...
read moreChie Imaizumi: A Time of New Beginnings
by Woodrow Wilkins
Two coasts and the Mile High City--therein lies the talent pool from which composer and arranger Chie Imaizumi selected her team. Soloists and leaders themselves, they form the orchestra for A Time of New Beginnings. Imaizumi scored DownBeat Magazine's Rising Star Composer honor for her 2007 debut, Unfailing Kindness (Capri Records). That same year, she achieved the Rocky Mountain Jazz Artist of the Year award. Her career started at age four, when she played electric organ in her ...
read moreChie Imaizumi: A Time Of New Beginnings
by Bruce Lindsay
Composer and arranger Chie Imaizumi's second album, A Time Of New Beginnings, is filled with star players from the jazz world. It's a beautifully crafted, beautifully played album, with a warm and familiar feel to its nine tunes that, at times, creates a real sense of nostalgia. Imaizumi began her musical career in her homeland of Japan, joined Berklee College of Music as a student in 2001 and released her first album, Unfailing Kindness (Capri Records), in ...
read moreChie Imaizumi: Unfailing Kindness
by Budd Kopman
To all but the most jaded of cynics, Chie Imaizumi's Unfailing Kindness is sure to provide many hours of comfort for the soul as this extremely accessible and yet deeply rewarding music washes away all that might ail it. Imaizumi is letting us see her up close and personal as each tune translates her emotional being at various times in her recent life into music. The fact that this music is for large forces (ten players most ...
read moreChie Imaizumi: Unfailing Kindness
by Michael P. Gladstone
The youthful composer/arranger Chie Imaizumi has released a debut album after befriending trumpeter Greg Gisbert along the way. After making a demo from her performance at the 2004 North Sea Festival, she sent it to the Denver-based trumpeter who picked up the musical ball and ran all the way with it per selection of the musicians, rehearsals and full production of the album with Capri Records.
Originally an organist at age four, the Japanese-born Imaizumi switched to piano ...
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by Jerry D'Souza
Chie Imaizumi became involved with music when she was four and began playing electric organ. She switched to piano at eighteen, and later in 2001 while at Berklee she moved to composing.
This recording came about after she gave Greg Gisbert a demo tape. He was taken in by her music, suggested she record it for Capri, chose the musicians, rehearsed, got the musicians into the studio and finished the recording in a day.
Imaizumi sets up A Change for ...
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by Jack Bowers
Chie Imaizumi Unfailing Kindness Capri Records 2007
Thanks, Greg. Sometimes all it takes to launch a promising career is a chance meeting, in this case between trumpeter Greg Gisbert and young composer/arranger Chie Imaizumi. The two met in March 2005 at the Jazz Standard in NYC, where Gisbert was playing with Maria Schneider's orchestra. Imaizumi asked Gisbert if she might send him a demo tape she had made at the North Sea Jazz Festival ...
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