Kei Kobayashi

Kei Kobayashi born May 9 1979 is a Japanese male jazz vocalist He is from Tokyo Born as the second son of a family whose grandfather is Kazunori Murakami jazz steel guitar player father Hiroshi Kobayashi jazz pianist and arranger and mother Kyoko Murakami jazz vocalist he grew up in an environment where he was familiar with jazz from an early age He was inspired by a musical he saw at an amusement park when he was three years old and then became obsessed with a stage play based on Duke Ellingtons music and at the age of five he declared that he would one day be on the musical stage It is said that After gaining numerous stage experiences in classical ballet from the age of 5 he became a hot topic in the dance world other than jazz starring in a musical at the age of 12 By the time he was 15 years old he was active as a jazz vocalist and jazz drummer at live houses in Tokyo and was attracting attention among jazz players At the age of 16 he performed at a charity concert for the Great HanshinAwaji Earthquake with Herbie Hancock and other top artists from around the world At the age of 17 his first minialbum Lets Take the K Train 17YearOld Jazz Unicom was released After that at the age of 18 she released her full album 18PS I LOVE YOU Next Records He recorded a fulllength album My Romance at the age of 19 later released by EMI Music Japan in 2004 Released his major debut album So Nice Toshiba EMI at the age of 20 After the release of this album he became known nationwide as Genius Jazz Vocalist Katsura Kobayashi and sparked a jazz vocal boom among the media Since then by the age of 25 he has released 11 full albums 1 maxi single and a live DVD at Blue Note in New York and Orchard Hall in Tokyo In 2010 he transferred to Pony Canyon He started his own label twinKle note at Pony Canyon and released many more In 2016 they released the album The Standard which is a collection of frequently requested masterpieces and in 2017 they released The Standard II making this their 20th album in total In 2018 she held the 25th Anniversary Tour of Her Musical Life with the Katsura Kobayashi Quintet Currently he is performing nationwide mainly as a unit consisting of band members of the same generation as himself As an evangelist of jazz standards he continues to be supported by a wide range of listeners and musicians for his interpretations of songs that take advantage of the beauty of the original songs and for his vocal style of improvising on an equal footing with musicians through scatting