Mayu Saeki = a Japan-born flutist, composer, bandleader, educator, M.M., Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records artist, Trevor James Flute artist, and global citizen.
With nearly a decade of her musical career in New York City, Mayu Saeki, Elizabeth University of Music alumni, still keeps transforming herself with no limit. Her versatile and yet passionate playstyle is deeply rooted in her early childhood classical training and mentorship with Sanae Nakayama, Keiji Oshiro, Kazukiyo Inoue, Pierre Yves Artaud, Alain Marion, and the NEA jazz master, Chico Hamilton. She isn't a stranger to jazz clubs like Jazz At the Kitano and Jazz Gallery to name a few, but also is welcomed in hardcore rock venues like Brooklyn Bowl and Rockwood Music Hall to captivate wide range of audiences.
As she has relocated to New York from Tokyo, the opportunity has knocked her door to be a part of Chico Hamilton’s group. She has recorded several albums including “Revelation” and “Euphoric” (both were released in 2011 from Joyous Shout! records) under the credit of the band, Chico Hamilton's Euphoria. She has continued to work with Hamilton until his passing in 2013. His last recording, “The Inquiring Mind” (released in 2014 from Joyous Shout! records) features her composition “Hope.” Aside from being a regular member of the band, Euphoria, she has began actively performing with her own trio from 2011, and has made the debut at Jazz at the Kitano with Aaron Goldberg on piano and Joe Sanders on bass. After a couple of Atlantic coastal tours, she has returned to the Kitano in 2013 with Goldberg joined by Matt Penman on bass.
Post-Euphoria era, her “sideman” career continues to grow with an all-female Irish music group, Four Celtic Voices toured from 2015 to 2017, a contemporary jazz group, Arthur Shadowsky & The Troubadours in 2015 to 2016, a New York based rock band, Cosmos Sunshine’s Butterfly Effect as a recording member of the album, “Butterfly Fight Effect” (released in 2016 from Cosmos Sunshine label) and their new album, “Comes With The Fall” (being released on March 9, 2018 from Cosmos Sunshine label). In addition, She has recently joined in a recording project called “Mark Gross with Strings” by Grammy award-winning jazz alto saxophonist, Mark Gross. The album is expected to be out by Spring 2018, and she is featured on flute and piccolo parts respectively.
Her anticipated debut album "HOPE" will be released from Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records (BJUR) on February 23, 2018. The album includes original compositions previously recorded with Chico Hamilton’s Euphoria, “Dilemma,” “Do You Know…?,” and “Hope” joined by Aaron Goldberg and Nori Ochiai on piano, Joe Saunders on bass, and John Davis on drums recorded in Brooklyn, NY.
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