, born in Tokyo as Keiko Doi
on July 26, 1961 (or 1963), is a Japanese smooth jazz/new age keyboardist and composer whose career spans three decades, during which time she has released twenty CDs (in addition to various compilations) and has received international acclaim.
Keiko and her husband Kazu Matsui (b. June 5, 1954) have two daughters, Maya (b. ca. 1988) and Mako (b. Sep 12, 1995).
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KEIKO MATSUI TICKETS
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Early years
Keiko Doi's mother Emiko brought her to her first piano lesson in the June following her fifth birthday. Japanese
tradition holds that a child who is introduced to lessons at this time will continue in those studies for a long time. The tradition held true for Doi, who studied piano throughout her school years. Though her early training focused on
classical music, in
junior high school she developed an interest in
jazz and began composing her own music. Some of her musical influences at this time included
Stevie Wonder,
Sergei Rachmaninoff,
Maurice Jarre and
Chick Corea.
Doi studied children's culture at
Japan Women's University (??????, nihon joshidaigaku
?,
), but she also continued to study music at the
Yamaha Music Foundation. Doi was a top student in the
Yamaha System and was selected at the age of seventeen to be a recording artist for them. Thus she joined the Japanese
jazz fusion group Cosmos, which recorded seven albums.
At age 19, Yamaha sent Doi to America to record an album, and there she met Kazu Matsui, who had been selected as a producer for the project. They married, and Keiko relocated from Japan to America. Kazu Matsui would produce all of his wife's future albums.
In 1987 Matsui recorded her solo debut
LP A Drop of Water
using money from her
honeymoon. The album's title, the name of a song by
Carl Anderson, was in memory of those who had died in the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster the year before. Its success led to a record deal with
MCA Records.
Recording success
Keiko Matsui released two albums under the MCA label before moving on to
White Cat,
Countdown,
Unity and currently
Narada. The 1990s saw Matsui's albums rising in the charts.
Sapphire
hit number two on
Billboard's weekly Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and
Dream Walk
reached number three. Matsui was rated Billboard's number three Top Contemporary Jazz Artist for 1997 (where she was the only female jazz artist in the top ten), and both
Dream Walk
and
Sapphire
appeared in Billboard's Top Ten Indie Contemporary Jazz Albums for the same year.
Matsui received the Oasis award for Best Female Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year in 1999 and again in 2000. In 2001, Matsui's first album with Narada,
Deep Blue
, finally took her to the number one spot on Billboard's Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and held the position for three weeks.
When United States
President George W. Bush visited Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's residence on February 18, 2002, Keiko Matsui was invited to the reception and met both men and members of their administrations.
Matsui discovered
saxophonist Paul Taylor, who appeared on
Sapphire
,
Dream Walk
, and
Full Moon and the Shrine
before going on to a successful career of his own .
Charitable causes
Matsui has taken an interest in a variety of charitable causes. Her 1997 mini-CD
A Gift of Hope
went to support the
Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, and her music appeared in a
Lifetime
channel special about breast cancer, "Say It, Fight It, Cure It." Matsui also played at a special ice skating benefit in 1997 to support the
Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Proceeds from Matsui's 2001 mini-CD
A Gift of Life
went to the
National Marrow Donor Program and the
Marrow Foundation in support of their program
Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches, which promotes the registration of people of ethnic minorities as marrow donors in hopes of improving the chance of finding matching donors for people of similar descent in need.
Royalties from the title track of Matsui's 2004 CD
Wildflower
went to support of the
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Matsui played at the
United Nations Headquarters building in New York City on December 17, 2003, to benefit the WFP and fight world hunger.
The Keiko Matsui sound
Matsui's music is powerful and introspective, blending both
Western and
Eastern musical influences. She has a very
spiritual view of composing music, feeling out each composition as though it were, in her words, "coming to me from another space, another dimension," and "catching notes from the silence and then simply placing them together" . Matsui sees music as "the great gifts from the human souls from the past, for the children of the future" . She believes that music has a power to bring people together and change their lives. "We are connected by music," Matsui wrote, "as the Ocean connects the continents" .
A lover of nature, Matsui often makes reference to plants, animals, the elements, and other natural features and
phenomena in her song titles. She shows a special fascination with the
moon as a number of her compositions refer to the moon in their titles.
Matsui's music shows signs of evolving over the years. Her American debut album
A Drop of Water
showed a promise of east meets west with a jazz fusion flavor. However, her recordings for MCA Records in the early 1990s lacked this appeal and, for many, sounded indistinguishable from the rest of what is now known as smooth jazz. Starting with
Cherry Blossom
, though, her music increased in popularity as she differentiated herself from the rest of contemporary jazz. By the time
Sapphire
was released in 1995, her music flirted with everything from
funk music to
Latin and
world music.
Whisper From the Mirror
from 2000 showed Matsui leaving the smooth jazz style and moving towards new age with a
soundscape sound. A number of her fans had a problem adapting to her new style of music (though she continued to play smooth jazz at her concerts). But many welcomed the change. Over time her post-2000 albums show a more
worldbeat flavor to them. Her 2005 release
Walls of Akendora
, however, is a return to her pre-2000, smooth jazz days.
Discography
Albums
Cosmos
- HYORYU
(Toshiba-EMI, 1980-1981, soundtrack)
: LP: ETP-90060 (side one: 7 songs, side two: 8 songs)
- Session III
(YAMAHA R&D Studio, 1981)
: LP: YDD8101 (5 songs); CD: YCD8301 (6 songs)
- CAN CAN CAN!
(Canyon Records, 1982)
: LP: C25R0092 (side one: 4 songs, side two: 4 songs); CD: D32R0015
- Bourbonsuite
(Canyon Records, 1982)
: LP: C25R0103 (side one: 5 songs, side two: 5 songs)
- MUSITOPIA
(Canyon Records, 1983)
: LP: C25R0110 (side one: 4 songs, side two: 5 songs); CD: D35R0008
- MUSOU TOSHI
(Canyon Records, 1984)
: LP: C25R0126 (side one: 4 songs, side two: 5 songs)
- Lensman TV Series soundtrack
(Canyon Records, 1984)
: LP: C28A0391 (side one: 8 songs, side two: 9 songs)
- COSMOS THE BEST
- (Canyon Records, 1985, compilation of COSMOS songs)
: CD: D32R0039 (14 songs)
- Session V
(Yamaha R&D Studios, 1985)
: CD: YCD8501 (12 songs)
- Keiko Project
(Canyon Records, 1985, compositions of Keiko Doi from earlier COSMOS albums)
: LP: C18A0434 (side one: 2 songs, side two: 2 songs) highly unusual, all songs have vocals.
Solo releases
- A Drop of Water
(Passport Jazz Records, 1987, rereleased in 1993 & 2003, with one bonus track added each time)
- Under Northern Lights
(MCA Records, 1989)
- No Borders
(MCA Records, 1990)
- Night Waltz
(Sin-Drome Records, 1991)
- Cherry Blossom
(White Cat, 1992)
- Doll
(White Cat, 1994)
- Sapphire
(White Cat, 1995)
- Dream Walk
(Countdown, 1996)
- A Gift of Hope
(Unity, 1997)
- Keiko Matsui Collection
(GRP Records, 1997)
- Full Moon and the Shrine
(Countdown, 1998)
: This CD includes one of Matsui's best-known pieces, "Forever, Forever."
- Keiko Matsui Live
(Countdown, 1999)
- Best Selection
(Pione, 1999)
- Whisper From the Mirror
(Countdown, 2000)
- Glance of the Past
(Countdown, 2001)
- The Wind and the Wolf
(Pione, 2000)
- Hidamari no Ki
(2000) anime soundtrack (Planet Joy 2002)
- Deep Blue
(Narada, 2001)
- A Gift of Life
(Narada, 2001)
- The Ring
(Narada, 2002)
- Live in Tokyo
(Sony/Columbia, 2002)
- Spring Selection
(Sony/Columbia, 2003)
- The Piano
(Narada, 2003)
- White Owl
(Narada, 2003)
- Wildflower
(Narada, 2004)
- The Very Best of Keiko Matsui
(GRP Records, 2004)
- Summer Selection
(Sony/Columbia, 2004)
- Walls of Akendora
(Narada, 2005)
- Moyo (Heart & Soul)
(Shout! Factory, 2007)
Several of these albums have been later re-released under different record labels.
Guest appearances
- Akira Asakura – "Spread Colors"
- Kazu Matsui – Tribal Mozart
(Countdown, 1997)
- Kazu Matsui – Tribal Shubert
(Countdown, 1999)
- Bob James – Dancing on the Water
(Warner Brothers/WEA, 2000)
- Jason Miles – "Miles to Miles" (Narada, 2005)
Compilation appearances
- Smooth Jazz V98.7 FM – Vol. 3
(label and release date unknown; released by radio station WVMV-FM, Detroit)
- All That Jazz III
(GRP Records, release date unknown)
- KMJZ Smooth Jazz Sampler Volume 1
(KMJZ, release date unknown)
- 20 Years of Narada Piano
- ''New Age Music & New Sounds Vol. 67 - "Liberty"
Videos
- Light Above the Trees
(Winstar, 1998)
- The Jazz Channel Presents Keiko Matsui
(Image Entertainment, 2001) DVD
- White Owl
(Narada, 2003) DVD included with the 'White Owl' CD; concert at Bunkamura Orchard Hall (Tokyo, 2002)
- Walls of Akendora
bonus DVD included with the music CD; 9 songs with track 10 a home movie of being on the road (2004).
Books
- Compositions
(2005) - Sheet music for ten of Matsui's favorite songs, plus two more bonus songs, with instructional CD. Out of stock with retailers since before 2006, but available at her music engagements and perhaps elsewhere.