Kyoko Kitamura is a vocal improviser and composer residing in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

Background

Kitamura is a Japanese-American musician born in

and raised partially in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. She studied piano at the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most e ...

pre-college division but later chose to become a TV reporter with

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network ...

, a national network in Japan and was based in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

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 Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey. Career Early in his career, Workman work ...

and William Parker, saxophonist Steve Coleman, cornet player

Taylor Ho Bynum Taylor Ho Bynum (born 1975) is a musician, composer, educator and writer. His main instrument is the cornet, but he also plays numerous similar instruments, including flugelhorn and trumpet. Early life Bynum was born in BaltimoreWilmoth, Charli" ...

, among others. Since 2010, she has been working with saxophonist and composer

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) 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 ...

as one of his vocalists and as the director of communication for his organization, th
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 fro
New Braxton House Records
.

Discography

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 another 2018 release ''Geometry of Caves'' ( Relative Pitch Records 2018) featuring Kitamura, Joe Morris, Tomeka Reid and Taylor Ho Bynum. Discography as a sideperson includes

's ''Trillium J'' (New Braxton House 2016),''Trillium E'' (New Braxton House 2011) and ''12 Duets (DCWM) 2012'' (New Braxton House 2014), and Taylor Ho Bynum's ''Madeleine Dreams'' (Firehouse 12 Records 2009) among others.

Have performed and/or recorded with

Laura Andel Orchestra,

, Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Coleman,

Yayoi Ikawa The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

, Mark Lamb,

Art Lande Art Lande is an American musician who was born in New York City, United States, on 5 February 1947. Born in New York, Lande began piano at age 4. He attended Williams College and moved to San Francisco in 1969. In 1973 he recorded '' Red Lanta,' ...

Russ Lossing Russ Lossing (born 1960) is an American jazz pianist, composer, improviser, arranger, educator, scholar. Early life Lossing was born in Ohio in 1960,Pietaro, John (February 2015) "Russ Lossing". ''The New York City Jazz Record''. p. 7. and is fr ...

, William Parker, Jim Staley, Reggie Workman, and others.

References

Kyoko Kitamura
at

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitamura, Kyoko American musicians of Japanese descent American women musicians of Japanese descent Living people Musicians from Tokyo Musicians from New York City Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women