[Title] Grupo Esperança Live in Manhattan, NYC [05/17]
[Artist] Grupo Esperança
[Members]
– Chie Honda (vo)
– Mika (piano)
– Tom Armstrong (pandeiro)
[Date] Thursday, May 17, 2018
[Show] 6:00pm
[Venue] Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1
[Address] 196 Allen St, New York NY 10002
[Phone] 212-477-4155
[Admission] Free
[Age] 21+ Photo ID required
[Bio: Chieko Honda]
Chieko Honda, born in Osaka,Japan, studyied classical piano music and trained in opera singing at a young age. She was exposed to different genre of music while she worked at the acclaimed Osaka Blue Note.
In 2003, Chieko moved to New York City, and under the direction of Bettina Sheppard, studied voice technique and diction. Whilst she attended Barry Harris’ workshops, Chieko learned new techniques and expanded her jazz repertoire which led her to sing at various open mic nights.
During 2007, Chieko recorded her first demo and started performing Samba/Bassa Nova music in venues throughout NYC with various jazz ensembles.
Additionally to her own performances, Chieko made her acting debut in the off-off Broadway show “Crooner”(’07) and was chorus member in “Traumnovela”(’07), she recorded as a featured vocalist for The Bill Jacobs Ensemble’s “WE”(’08), She returned to her classical roots as a member of the Chromatic Voice Exchange (’10).
Her first full recording album “Aquarelle” launched in November 2015 and in the process of being promoted to the public soon.
As lead vocalist and songwriter of “Os Clavelitos” (a 6-piece American Samba Band, formed by two Americans, two Brazilians, and two Japanese musicians), Chieko composed her music influenced by Brazilian rhythms, harmonies, melodies, and lyrics in both English and Portuguese. Which led to the contribution of three songs towards their debut album, “Arriving”, (peaked at #1 on the Roots Music Report Top 50 World Chart) which can be purchased online in iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby.
Chieko has had the pleasure of performing at acclaimed venues such as, The Bitter End, The Slipper Room, Rockwood Music Hall, Cutting Room, St. Albans Jazz Festival, Stereo Terra Music Festival to name a few.
[Bio: Mika]
The coolest of cool and the smoothest of smooth, pianist, vocalist, composer, and arranger MIKA combines her love of the sounds of Jazz, Samba, and Bossa Nova learned and shared over the years in Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Paris, India and New York, with the support of her MIKA Samba Jazz Trio and MIKA Group and has been continuing to go global.
Her lineage comes through the likes of genre greats such as Fernando Motta and Amilton Godoy. MIKA’s successful collaborations with artists such as Armando Marcal (Pat Metheny Group), Ricardo Silveira (Herbie Mann), Sergio Barrozo (Elis Regina), Jesse Sadoc (Marcos Valle), Andrei Vasconcellos (Djavan), Jorge Helder (Caetano Veloso) and Rafael Barata (Eliane Elias) have brought audiences new musical palettes to marvel at, from Sao Paulo’s and Rio’s clubs, and all over Japan.
She performed in Japan to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Japan-Brazil immigration.She was also invited as instructer for the international music camp at Brasilia(one of the hight level music camp in brazil) in 2008.
She has been based in NY since 2008 and been performing at local venues such as S.O.B’s ,Kitano, Zinc bar, just to name a few, as well as at some venues in Washington.
Recently she has been performing not only Samba jazz trio, but also Swing Jazz Piano trio.
Her highly acclaimed work includes six albums and her new album “Mika Samba Jazz Trio Vol.1” was released on May 29th 2013 throughout the world.
In 2014,she released an album in USA for the first time, titled “Samba for Johnny”
In January 2015, She released her 8th album “Balanco zone sul” the famous Marcos Valle on guitar and voice,and he praised Mika.
She also toured Japan with Rafael Barata(drums) and Sergio Barrozo(bass) from Rio de Janeiro.
All their concerts were sold out. It was highly unusual, as this music genre is not popular in Japan.
She composed,arranged and recorded 8 of the tracks on the CD album “Kotori Cafe” which was select by JAL for its flight entertainment program.
It will be available from November 2015 – February 2016.
“Balanco zona sul ” has been selected ” Critics choice 2015″ by Mark Holston on JAZZIZ (Winter 2016 issue)
[Websites]
– Chie Honda: http://www.chiekohonda.com/
– Mika: http://www.mikasambajazz.com/
– Rockwood Music Hall: http://www.rockwoodmusichall.com/
– Mar Creation: http://www.marcreation.com/
