Kyoko Kitamura is a vocal improviser and composer residing in New York City.
Kyoko Kitamura is a vocal improviser and composer residing in New York City.
Kitamura is a Japanese-American musician born in New York City and raised partially in Tokyo. She studied piano at the Juilliard School of Music pre-college division but later chose to become a TV reporter with Fuji Television, a national network in Japan and was based in Paris for many years as their French news correspondent.
After quitting her job, she moved back to NYC in 1997, worked as a freelance magazine writer for a few years before getting back into music after a hiatus of close to 15 years. Unusual for a vocalist, she honed craft as a sideperson-vocalist with NYC musicians such as bassists Reggie Workman and William Parker, saxophonist Steve Coleman, cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum, among others.
Since 2010, she has been working with saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton as one of his vocalists and as the director of communication for his organization, the Tri-Centric Foundation. Mostly recently, she appears on these Anthony Braxton albums: Trillium J, 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012, Trillium E, and his Syntactical Ghost Trance Choir live performance release (all from New Braxton House Records). In 2023, she created the mini-documentary Introduction to Syntactical Ghost Trance Music, which DownBeat Magazine calls “an invaluable resource for Braxton-philes.”
In 2018, she released her second leader album Protean Labyrinth (self-release on Bandcamp, 2018) featuring Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Filiano and Dayeon Seok. She is also the co-leader of a series of albums, released by Relative Pitch Records, on which she collaborated with cellist Tomeka Reid, trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum, and guitarist Joe Morris: Geometry of Caves (2016 [2018]), Geometry of Distance (2018 [2019]) and Geometry of Trees (2021 [2022]). [1] [2] [3] Her discography as a sideperson includes Anthony Braxton's Trillium J (New Braxton House 2016),Trillium E (New Braxton House 2011) and 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 (New Braxton House 2014), William Parker's Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World, Cory Smythe's Accelerate Every Voice and Taylor Ho Bynum's Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records 2009) among others.
Laura Andel Orchestra, Matthew Barney, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Coleman, Yayoi Ikawa, Mark Lamb, Art Lande, Russ Lossing, William Parker, Jim Staley, Reggie Workman, and others.
Anthony Braxton is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was a key early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He received great acclaim for his 1969 double-LP record For Alto, the first full-length album of solo saxophone music.
Andrew Charles Cyrille is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer Chris Kelsey wrote: "Few free-jazz drummers play with a tenth of Cyrille's grace and authority. His energy is unflagging, his power absolute, tempered only by an ever-present sense of propriety."
Marilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote: "Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano... She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz." In addition to her own extensive work as a soloist or bandleader, Crispell is also known as a longtime member of saxophonist Anthony Braxton's quartet in the 1980s and '90s.
For Alto is a jazz double-LP by composer/multi-reedist Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1969 and released on Delmark Records in 1971. Braxton performs the pieces on this album entirely on alto saxophone, with no additional musicians, instrumentation or overdubbing. Although other jazz musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, and Eric Dolphy, had recorded unaccompanied saxophone solos, For Alto was the first jazz album composed solely of solo saxophone music.
Discography for jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton.
Kevin Norton is an American percussionist and composer active in the New York City jazz and contemporary music scenes. He has performed and recorded with a diverse group of musicians, including Anthony Braxton, Paul Dunmall, Milt Hinton, Fred Frith, David Krakauer, Joëlle Léandre, Frode Gjerstad, Wilber Morris, James Emery, Bern Nix, and many others. In 1999, he founded Barking Hoop Recordings, a record label dedicated to releasing new and original music. Kevin Norton has also spent summers at camp Encore/Coda in Maine teaching music theory classes and private percussion classes. The label has released 11 CDs to date, which feature Norton's own groups as well as artists such as Anthony Braxton, Kevin O'Neil, Billy Stein, and the String Trio of New York.
Pheeroan akLaff is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He began playing in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan and Ann Arbor, with R & B keyboardist Travis Biggs, funk keyboardist Nimrod “The Grinder” Lumpkin, The Ebony Set and The Last Days. He moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and formed a group with saxophonist/flautist/percussionist Dwight Andrews. He debuted with saxophonist Bill Barron in 1975, followed by a tenure in Leo Smith's ‘New Dalta Ahkri’ (1977-1979).
Trio (Victoriaville) 2007 is a live album by American composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton recorded in 2007 and released on the Victo label.
Amy Crawford is a songwriter, vocalist, keyboardist and producer originally from Northern California, and now living in Brooklyn, New York.
Tomeka Reid is an American composer, improviser, cellist, curator, and teacher.
All the Things We Are is a jazz album by Dave Brubeck released by Atlantic Records on May 25, 1976, featuring two alto saxophonists, Lee Konitz and Anthony Braxton, and two drummers, Alan Dawson and Roy Haynes. This album was completed through two recording sessions at the CI Recording Studios in New York City on different dates.
Duets Vancouver 1989 is a live album by American saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton with pianist Marilyn Crispell recorded at the Vancouver Jazz Festival in 1989 and released on the Music & Arts label.
Taylor Ho Bynum is a musician, composer, educator and writer. His main instrument is the cornet, but he also plays numerous similar instruments, including flugelhorn and trumpet.
Fay Victor is an American musician, composer, lyricist and educator. Originally a singer in the traditional jazz field, she has been working in jazz, blues, opera, free improvising, avant-garde, modern classical music, and occasional acting since re-settling in New York in 2003.
Joseph Peter Daley is an American educator, jazz musician, composer and arranger known for his work with the tuba, trombone and euphonium.
Relative Pitch Records is an American independent record label specializing in free jazz and avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, and experimental music. Run by Kevin Reilly, Relative Pitch has been ranked among the top jazz record labels in The New York City Jazz Record and DownBeat year-end lists, and praised by publications and organizations including The Guardian, NPR Music, The Brooklyn Rail, and in Bandcamp Daily's label profile, "Relative Pitch is Built on Enthusiasm for Experimental Music".
Live in San Francisco is a live solo piano album by Marilyn Crispell. It was recorded at New Langton Arts in San Francisco, California in October 1989, and was released in 1990 by Music & Arts.
Chris Jonas is a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based composer, conductor, soprano and tenor saxophone player, filmmaker, and video artist.
Geometry of Caves is an album by cellist Tomeka Reid, vocalist Kyoko Kitamura, cornetist and trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum, and guitarist Joe Morris. It was recorded on December 22, 2016, at Firehouse 12 Studios in New Haven, Connecticut, and was released in 2018 by Relative Pitch Records.
Geometry of Distance is an album by cellist Tomeka Reid, vocalist Kyoko Kitamura, cornetist and trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum, and guitarist Joe Morris. It was recorded on December 19, 2018, at Firehouse 12 Studios in New Haven, Connecticut, and was released in 2019 by Relative Pitch Records.
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