Intervew from Japanese FM radio station@ the Dragon Upstairs

Saturday June 7

I have got an interview from FM radio station and it will run in 25 FM stations network in Japan from the end of June. :)

Writing and practicing...

lots of time. I want 48 hours a day. :-(

BOP TRIBAL: musician 1: satomi

I am going to introduce my quintet band, BOP TRIBAL.

Satomi Yarimizo (piano, leader)
I started taking piano and organ lessons in Japan at age three. During my teen years, I played drums, guitar as well as saxophone. I really loved playing music. At age 13. I started playing simple jazz/fusion by ear. I already loved jazz very much and listen the same tapes ( because I did not have many) over and over. :) During middle and high schools I did a lot of ensemble and arrangement work for piano and keyboard.

My former job at a computer company fortunately brought me to Hawaii in 2000, and I worked a couple of years with the company ( and we made a computer-animated feature film!). On March, 2004 I happened to sit-in to play piano on my friend's jazz show at the Rafters and then people started supporting me and and I started to seriously teach myself jazz theory and to sit in at local jazz venues in order to become a full-time musician, which is my real passion. I really appreciate that many people and friends keep supporting and helping me since then.

In 2005, a friend of mine and one of the greatest trumpet player, Tiger Okoshi recommended me to come to his school, so I attended the intensive summer course at the Berklee College of Music in Boston to further enrich my understanding of jazz. I started gigging soon after I returned to Honolulu, and now regularly perform jazz 4 to 5 nights a week at assorted venues with my duo, trio, quartet and quintet featuring various respected local musicians.

I am so happy that I can play music everyday. Music gives me a chance to meet lots of nice people.

BOP TRIBAL

BOP TRIBAL is a Hawaii-based jazz quintet group playing bebop, hard bop, and our original tunes.

DeShannon Higa named the band and also wrote a very cool theme song, 'BOP TRIBAL'. We will start from the theme song on our next show on April 12th@the Dragon Upstairs. You do not want to miss it!

I am the leader (aka the "manager" making copies of the charts, transcribing and arranging the songs, creating and printing charts using finale and putting them into binders, booking musicians and making calls to the club owners, designing, making and distributing flyers, and etc...) and I really enjoy it :)

DeShannon Higa is writing lots of original songs for us. I am very much looking forward to playing them with BOP TRIBAL.
Reggie Padilla and I also have some original songs and we will play them in our upcoming shows.
I want to play Reggie's beautiful ballad, 'Tune 4 April', on our April show.