Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Shinobu Ito was born in Oiso, Kanagawa, Japan on January 28, 1951. While a young boy, his interest was in American pop songs, so his father bought him a guitar and gave him lessons. Devoting great efforts to his study of the guitar, in junior high school he organized his own pop music group and performed at various musical events. He became interested in jazz guitar during his high school days when he listened to Wes Montgomery. While attending Tokai University, he studied guitar with Ikuo Shiosaki, and became a member of the university’s Jazz Workshop.

He began his professional career at this time, performing at clubs and on recordings. In 1975, during a 6-month stay in Los Angeles, California he met Toshiko Akiyoshi, who introduced him to many musicians and strongly suggested to him that he go to New York to learn and play jazz on his next visit to the States.

When he returned to Japan in 1975, Shinobu joined vocalist Yoshiko Kimura’s group, and also resumed activities with top Japanese musicians such as Kohsuke Mine, Seiichi Nakamura, Shigeharu Mukai, Hidefumi Toki and Takao Uematsu. He also performed with Tete Montliu, Bill Reichenbach, Ronnie Foster, Stanley Banks in this era.

Back in New York City again in 1977 he became a member of a 10-piece band directed by Reggie Workman, joined Teruo Nakamura & his Rising Sun Band and Shinobu appeared on pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto’s album in 1981. Once settled he performed and recorded with Joe Jones Jr., Sadik Hakim, John Orr, Tommy Turrentine, Bob Mintzer, Rickey Ford and Kenny Kirkland, Valery Ponomarev, Lonnie Plaxico, Eddie Henderson, Lonnie Smith, Jesse Davis, Kenny Davis and Jeff Williams, Mike Formanek, Vincent Herring and Judy Niemack among others.

Shinobu released his first CD in 1991 with Tom Harrell, Danny Gottlieb, Gary King, Mark Soskin and Dick Oates. While Shinobu is known as a jazz guitarist who plays with a pick, he also plays only with his fingers, and his improvisations effectively fuse classical guitar and jazz.

As an educator he has worked as an instructor in the Jazz Division of the Senzoku College of Music in Tokyo, Japan. Returning to New York City in 2009 guitarist Shinobu Ito resumed performing and recording and continues to explore new directions.

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