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Hiroko Kanna

Hiroko has a warm sensual voice. Her phrasing is sophisticated and impeccable. Jazz audiences enjoy the traditional jazz vocal sound of this Japanese born singer. She was influenced by Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. She currently performs at 105 Harbor, The Jazz Spot and Shutters Café in New York.

Hiroko was born into a musical family. Her father played the violin and the harmonica, and her mother and two sisters played the shamisen which is a Japanese three string instrument. Her brother plays the guitar and sings. She started to play the piano and the organ at the age of 5. With her elder sister’s influence, she started to listen to western music when she was in elementary school. She recalls around that time she first heard the jazz tune, “Harlem Nocturne”. It sounded so mysterious and forbidden to her, and she loved it. She enjoyed listening to American and French pop music which were played at her parent’s shoe store in Hiroshima. Her favorites were the Mamas and Papas, Dionne Warwick and Silvie Valtin.

Music was always an important part of her life. She encountered Brazilian music when she was 15. She loved the records of Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz, and Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66. Soon after that, she was introduced to Jazz.

After relocating to New York, she started to study jazz vocals at “Sounds Of Joy”, “Jazzmobile” and “The Barry Harris Workshop”. She studied jazz theory, improvisation, vocal technique, performance technique, scat singing and piano. She also privately studied voice and coaching with Norman Simmons, Inez Jackson, Tom Whitney, Grace Testani, Norma Garbo, Elina Vasiltchikova, Andrea Green, and Selena Miyazaki. She studied jazz piano with Ken-ichi Shimazu, Jim Blanchard, Larry Porter, and Jim Jimielita. She started to perform as a professional jazz vocalist in 1984.

She has performed extensively in Japan and in many restaurants and clubs in New York such as JRG Fashion Café, Cucina Stagionale, Mannahatta, Kavehaz, Carpo’s Café, La Cave, Tomi Jazz, Spo-Dee-O-Dees, etc. She also performed in the “Discoveries Concert” and the “Hiroko Kanna Aquarius Concert” at the Jazz Center of N.Y., “International Night “at the International Center and a solo concert at Sweetwaters. She has been accompanied by jazz giants such as Houston Person, Rufus Reid, Akira Tana, Harold Mabern, Norman Simmons, Frank Owens, Richard Wyands, Earl May and Lyle Atkinson.

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