Satoru Shionoya Group

Develop the enthusiastic music activities not only in jazz but western classics and pops as well, Satoru Shionoya, a pianist who draws lots of expectations and attention as a musician who bears the next generation of music scene in Japan to the leader, the Satoru Shionoya Group consists od spirited musicians in a variegated music genre taking the opportunity of release an album titled “Hand of GUIDO”. Their style is based around jazz, but they have managed to boldly incorporate diverse musical elements such as rock, break beat, etc. into their music, and mainly the original tunes of Satoru Shionoya and Yoshito Tanaka, the music of the oncoming generation that overflows with an original approach that respective members’ fresh sensibility not to mention charm of both passionate and lyrical rendering of piano by Satoru Shionoya is demonstrated enough in rich energy and full of life is created.

Musicians Profile

Satoru Shionoya (Pianist, Composer, Arranger)

Born in 1966, Tokyo. Satoru Shionoya studied music composition in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

From 1986 through 1996, he performed in a world-wide Japanese salsa band named the “ORQUESTA DE LA LUZ” as pianist, they won the United Nations Peace Medal in 1993 and were nominated on the GRAMMY AWARDS in 1995, as well as obtained the opportunities to collaborate with several salsa kings such as Tito Puente (timbales), Celia Cruz (vo), Santana (gt) and the others.

He launched his solo career in 1993 and has released six(6) solo albums up to the present. From 1999 to 2001, he produced the concerts titled “COOL CLASSICS” organized by Bunkamura Orchard Hall, a most popular concert hall in Tokyo and re-constructed some masterpieces of classical music such as “Symphony No.9” by Beethoven, his original interpretations were praised highly. In 2002, he formed his own unit the “Satoru Shionoya Trio” and released their first album titled “Trio!” in 2003, they held Blue Note tour in Japan and performed in Germany (Cologne) and France (Paris) as well, had great success. The second album titled “Wheelin’ Ahead!” released in 2004.

His activity in overseas began to increase from 2003 as well, in 2004, he toured Middle and Near Eastern and Mediterranean tour (Lebenon, Greece and Jordan) by Satoru Shionoya Unit consisted of Hiroshi Yoshino (cb) and Gen Ogimi (perc). This tour concludes quite successfully by all performances in the one invited to the music festival (Byblos festival and Jeras festival) with the history of the two countries in commemoration of the 50th diplomatic relation anniversary of Japan, Lebanon, and Jordan.

In 2005, he performed in the Aichi Expo with his special big band consists of top young brass players in Japan, their performance was praised highly.

In 2006, he released his 9th original album titled “Hand of GUIDO”, co-produced with Yoshito Tanaka, a guitarist. His first CF (Renault) tie-up tune “Skiny-Dipper” was recorded in this album. He held the Blue Note tour in Japan by Satoru Shionoya Group (Yoshito Tanaka/gt, Katsumi Hiraishi/cb, Eiji Tanaka/drs and Masatoshi Kainuma/perc) formed newly mainly Yoshito Tanaka.

With his several groups such as Satoru Shionoya Acoustic Trio (Aska Kaneko/vn and Gen Ogimi/perc), FOUR of a KIND consists of four members of popular No.1 in music magazine, and solo piano performance, his performance activity has been developed extensively as well as he has worked on such diverse musicians as Paquito D’ Rivera (sax), Sadao Watanabe (sax) and Iwao Furusawa (vn), and other Japanese top pop artists such as Ken Hirai, Misia as composer and arranger.

Not to mention his outstanding skills as pianist, he also displays his ability as composer and arranger with supple sensibility and wide range of musical capacity across the genres and his enthusiastic activity extends to many fields, Satoru Shionoya is one of remarkable musician who bears the next generation.

Yoshito Tanaka (Guitarist, Composer, Arranger)

Born in 1973. At the age of 10, Yoshito Tanaka awakened to music with “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. He started out on the guitar at the age of 15. At high school days, he performed in a hard-core band going side by side with the jazz band and it comes borderless activity concurrently in those days. In 2000, he participated in “Mondo Grosso” and co-produced its outstanding album titled “MG4” with Shinichi Osawa. Tania Maria, N’Dea Davenport who was a singer of the “Brand New Heavies”, Amel Larrieux and other predominant musicians participated in this album was released in 25 countries in the world such as U.S.A. and Europe. He also formed the producing team “Sleepy Tonge” with Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso) and Ryota Nozaki (Jazztronix), they have produced Junichi Shiina, a brother of Ringo Shiina. He has been working with lots of artists such as bird, Mika Nakashima, Taro Hakase, SMAP, Ken Hirai and etc. as sound producer and player as well as has collaborated with Michael Brecker (sax) in the U.S.A. JAZZ TOUR for Ryoko Moriyama. As his own performance activity, with his band “Bossa Pianikita” consists of Pianica Maeda, Manabu Sakata (Polaris, etc.) and Makoto Miyata, and his solo project will be started shortly.

Katsumi Hiraishi (Bassist)

Born in 1968. Katsumi Hiraishi started out on the trumpet, bass and guitar at the age of 11 by self-learned. He launched his career as professional musician while in college concurrently he learned jazz theory and music composition under Koichi Osamu. Since then, alongside sound-producing for several artists and performing with his own group formed with Keiji Matsumoto and Manabu Sakata, he has performed with various artists such as Toshihiro Akamatsu, Chikuzen Sato, akiko, Hideki Togi and etc. in their recording sessions and live performances.

Eiji Tanaka (Drummer)

Born in 1973. Eiji Tanaka started out on the drums at the age of 10. He began to play in a band at the age of 14 and won the distinguished results in various contests. At the age of 18, he launched his professional career. In 1994, he formed a band “TOO-HIGH” with Yoshito Tanaka and the others, drew attention at jazz scene in Sapporo. In 1997, he moved to Tokyo. Since then, he has participated in many live performances and recording sessions of various artists such as Hideki Togi, Hiromitsu Agatsuma, akiko and etc. as well as has performed extensively in several bands of versatile genre such as rock, progressive rock and jazz. He has many performances in overseas where in Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia as well. His keen skills for uniquely expressing it from jazz to hard rock regardless of the genre are the most prominent one among the young musicians.