Album Notes

Pianist/composer Takeshi Asai toured Tokyo, Japan with his own band in 1997 and Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka and Nara with the Takumi Seino Group. While in Boston, he performed extensively with diverse bands including the Mike Hicks Trio/Quartet, the Sang Pil Yoon Quartet, the Craig Graham Band, the Jason Gilwater Quartet, the Toru Suganami Project and his new Takeshi Asai Acoustic Band. In 1995, he released the CD Kaleidoscope, Prism Productions KDPCD01695 with his contemporary jazz band KALEIDOSCOPE which toured Japan and Korea and gained great attention by the media.

Takeshi graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1997 where he studied with Laszlo Gardony, Joanne Brackeen, Ray Santisi, Yuki Arimasa, Ed Bedner, Ed Tomasi, Tony Lada, Tony Germain, Dave Horrender, Steve Richinski, Lyn Biviano, and Laura Caviani. He won the Berklee Achievement Scholarship and was bestowed the Outstanding Player Award at the 1993 Elmhurst Jazz Festival in Chicago, and the Outstanding Soloist Award at the 1993 University of Wisconsin Jazz Festival.

He currently lives in Connecticut and is performing his original compositions with his new rock influenced band in and around NYC.