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Noriko Ueda

Noriko Ueda is originally from Hyogo, Japan. Her musical background consists of studying classical piano since the age of 4, playing electric bass since the age of 16, studying classical voice at the Osaka College of Music where she received a diploma, and at age 19, learning the double bass, which is currently her main instrument.

Noriko was a B.E.S.T. scholarship recipient and majored in Jazz Composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where she graduated in 1997, relocated to Brooklyn, New York in 1998.

Noriko Currently performs and tours with various groups including the legendary singer Grady Tate Quintet, Ted Rosenthal Trio, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, DIVA Jazz Trio, Five Play and she also leads her own big band “ Noriko Ueda Jazz Orchestra”. Some of the venues that she has appeared include Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Apollo Theatre, Blue Note, Dizzy's Coca Cola and Birdland. She has also performed with Frank Wess, Kenny Barron, Victor Lewis, Gary Bartz, Nancy Wilson, Roy Haynes, Joe Chambers, Steve Nelson, Junior Mance, Larry Willis, Lew Tabackin, Gregory Hutchinson and many others.

Noriko is the winner of the third annual BMI Foundation/Charlie Parker Jazz composition Prize for her original big band piece "Castle in the North" (2002).

Awards

BMI Foundation/Charlie Parker Jazz composition Prize (2002)


Tags

35
Album Review

Diva Jazz Orchestra: "30": Live at Dizzy's Club

Read ""30": Live at Dizzy's Club" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The “30" in the title of the superlative all-woman Diva Jazz Orchestra's latest album stands for 30 years, which, believe it or not, is how long the orchestra and its remarkable drummer and leader, Sherrie Maricle, have been up and running and making beautiful music at home and abroad. Among U.S.-based big bands, it would seem that only Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman have had longer runs than that. Fast company indeed. So is Diva ready for comparisons? ...

34
Album Review

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: Swings Broadway

Read "Swings Broadway" reviewed by Jack Bowers


At the ripe old age of thirty (closer to a hundred in big-band years), the superlative New York-based, all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra remains as frisky as a newborn colt, swinging up, down and around Broadway with abandon on its thirteenth album, a brisk and colorful tribute to the Great White Way that shines brightly from start to finish. The album opens and closes in a mid-1950s vein, raising the curtain with Steven Feifke's breezy, well-grooved arrangement of ...

13
Album Review

Artemis: Artemis

Read "Artemis" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It's truly exhilarating yet sadly mundane and reductive that a recording as vital and victorious as Artemis will be universally hailed as a first from an all-female supergroup. That it cuts across all generational, cultural, international, and ethnic planes. That Blue Note Records has expanded its ever legendary ranks to include, well, you know, a female group. It's like the more we think we've gotten past these worn, tired types of qualifiers we realize all the more we really haven't. ...

3
Album Review

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: DIVA + The Boys

Read "DIVA + The Boys" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The all-female DIVA Jazz Orchesta has a boy-meets-girls story threaded into its origin, as drummer Stanley Kay served as the impetus behind the group's formation. Therefore, it's only fitting that the ladies have a few gentleman over to join them for some high times in the music every now and then. This eight-song set, recorded live at Pittsburgh's Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in March of 2017, finds clarinetist Ken Peplowski, dearly departed trumpeter Claudio Roditi, trombonist Jay Ashby, and ...

6
Album Review

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: DIVA + the Boys

Read "DIVA + the Boys" reviewed by Jack Bowers


After more than twenty-five years as one of the world's most renowned big bands, drummer Sherrie Maricle's superlative all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra invited a quartet of “the boys" onboard to help ensure the ensemble's twelfth album's success. Even though DIVA needs no consorts to affirm its unremitting mastery, it is nonetheless pleasurable to witness these talented women sharing the stage and blowing up a storm with such esteemed guest artists as clarinetist Ken Peplowski, trombonist Jay Ashby and (it hurts ...

234
Album Review

Bartosz Hadala Group: The Runner Up

Read "The Runner Up" reviewed by Paul J. Youngman


Bartosz Hadala is a name of which more people should be made aware. Based in Poland, he is a world-class pianist and a contemporary composer with serious jazz chops. His debut, The Runner Up--a winner in every way--finds him in superb company, with some top names in jazz. Ten solid, fresh compositions--all original tunes, with the exception of Dizzy Gillespie's “A Night In Tunisia"--feature excellent performances by all parties, most of the songs performed by a septet. Up front, the ...

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Swings Broadway

Diva Records
2022

buy

DIVA + the Boys

MCG Jazz
2020

buy

Artemis

Blue Note
2020

buy

The Runner Up

Piloo Records and Productions LLC
2010

buy

Any Way

From: The Runner Up
By Noriko Ueda

Salt Water

From: The Runner Up
By Noriko Ueda

Videos

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