Miki Hayama on piano, rhodes, Miriam Sullivan on bass, Kim Thompson on drums, Sean Jones on trumpet and flugel, Tia Fuller on alto and soprano sax Biography Pianist Miki Hayama was born in Kyoto, Japan. She began to play piano and Wadaiko (Japanese drums) when she was 6 years old. During her junior high school year, she was first introduced to Jazz because of her father's Jazz collections and became interested in jazz. She studied at Osaka College of Music where majored in classic piano. While she was at the Osaka College of Music, She attended Fuji jazz School in Kyoto and studied Jazz piano with well known teaher and jazz pianist Sadayasu Fujii. She is the first prize winner at the Yokohama Jazz Competition in 1996. After graduated from College, she started to work and play at many Jazz clubs in Kansai area. Her ambition to pursue Jazz didn't stop her but made her move to New York. Since 2003, Miki Hayama has been busy making quite a respected name for herself on New York's jazz scene She has worked with Kenny Garrett (a.sax) Quartet, Ralph Peterson (drs) Sextet, Sean Jones (tp) Quintet, Roland Alexander(t.sax) Quintet, Tia Fuller (a.sax) Quartet, Valery Ponomarev (tp) and his big band, Michael Dease (tb) Big Band, Shunzo Ohno (tp), Vitaly Golovnev (tp), Vincent Herring (a.sax), Bruce Williams (a.sax), Roy Hargrove (tp), JD Allen (t.sax), Cindy Blackman-Santana (drs), Nnenna Freelon (vo) Group and even the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin to name a few. Her own 2006 sophomore release Prelude to a Kiss received a five-star rating in Swing Journal. Her newest album Wide Angle got Swing Journal's Gold Disc Award in March 2009, Best Production Award in January, 2010. Drew high praise from the New York Times, and interview and frequent airplay from WBGO, and enthusiastic support from some of jazz's master musicians. "Miki Hayama is an amazing young pianist with great chops, a great harmonic concept and a great imagination ! " piano master Kenny Barron recently observed. " This young lady, born in Kyoto, Japan, swings as if she's Harlem grown. Colorful and creative, her style is both aggressive and sensitive .." legend Victor Lewis adds. High praise, indeed, and a sign that her star is on the rise !