Naoko Sakata

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Naoko Sakata ( Japanese 坂 田 尚 子 , Sakata Naoko ; * 1983 in Nara Prefecture ) is a Japanese jazz pianist who began her career in Sweden.

Live and act

Sakata, whose mother is a piano teacher, began playing the piano at the age of three, but was more interested in improvisation and sounds than sight-reading. She discovered jazz and increasingly oriented herself to the music-making attitude of Bobo Stenson , which made it difficult for her to work in Japan. Other formative musicians were Paul Bley and Tōru Takemitsu . In 2008 she moved to Sweden to study at the Gothenburg University of Music . In 2009 she founded her own trio with two Swedish colleagues, with whom she presented her first album in 2010. She also recorded the album Circle of Legacy (2011) with the Helena Wahlström Band . In April 2013 the Naoko Sakata Trio with the bassist Alfred Lorinius and the drummer Johan Birgenius presented themselves to the audience in Germany for the first time at jazzahead ; in the same year it also toured Japan. In 2015 Sakata met Nicole Johänntgen and other musicians at the Ystad Jazz Festival to form the Sisters in Jazz .

Prizes and awards

In 2009 she won the Young Nordic Jazz Comets prize as the best participant from Sweden and was also honored as a soloist. In 2011 she received the Jazzcat award from Swedish radio. In 2013 her trio was one of the finalists of the European Jazz Competition .

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 坂 田尚子 イ ン タ ビ ュ ー (interview). (No longer available online.) In: Club Sawano. November 8, 2010, archived from the original on February 21, 2016 ; Retrieved February 21, 2016 (Japanese).
  2. ↑ Short biography ( Memento from February 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Japan's Naoko Sakata found her voice in Sweden Georgia Straight, October 1, 2014
  4. ↑ European Jazz Competition 2013
personal data
SURNAME Sakata, Naoko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 坂 田尚子 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese jazz musician (piano, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Nara prefecture