Welcome to Keiko Lee.com
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　profile and debut story

Have you ever experienced Keiko Lee's music either on her albums or through her live
performances?
Once you listen to her music, you'll be so easily moved and wonder... What is this? Who's
Keiko Lee? Why does her voice touch my heart so deeply? ---Here you can find what it's
all about.

Keiko Lee is a distinguished jazz vocalist, who sings and plays so frankly even with the
greatest jazz giants. She's been a regular winner as the best female jazz singer in Japan
since 1997 through the reader's poll of Swing Journal, the most known jazz magazine in Japan.
Her 5th album "Day-dreaming" won the Gold Disk award for the magazine in 1999, and the
10th album "Sings Super Standards" won the Annual Best Album award in 2002, in addition to
the Gold Disk award.
Her voice is widely heard in Japan through TV commercials for prestigious companies such as
Nissan, Seiko, Siemens, etc. Among them, the tie-in song with the TV commercial of Nissan
Stagea, which was her cover of "We Will Rock You", -the number by the legendary band Queen-,
has become a smash hit. The 9th album "Voices", which includes this hit number sold 200
thousand copies in 2002, an outstanding result in the Japanese jazz market.

Though her attitude towards music is so rigorous and ardent, her caring and heart-warming
character grasps the hearts of many enthusiastic fans as well as staff and of musicians.
She has also been successful in the Asian and European markets as well, having concerts in
Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and other countries.

She does not categorize herself as jazz, and is very eager to dig down from Motown tunes to
rock and pop numbers, so tickets sell out fast when she appears in jazz clubs. There's just no
comparison to Keiko Lee's soulful voice and virtuosity.

Born in Handa City, she started her musical career as a jazz pianist in clubs in Nagoya, the big
city near her hometown. Though she mainly accompanied jazz and pop singers on the piano,
her musician friends soon realized her prominent talent as a jazz singer when she sang a few
tunes on special occasions. Then one day, her performance caught the heart of Dr. Osamu
Uchida, the famous jazz connoisseur in Japan, convincing him that she must be a promising jazz
vocalist.

It was when Grady Tate heard her voice for the first time when he happened to visit the club
"jazz inn Lovely" in 1994, that he appreciated her voice so much and was so deeply moved,
that after the stage was over, this first-class jazz drummer and vocalist was so excited and
offered Keiko his hand to do her first recording.

With the full support of Grady Tate and Dr. Uchida, her first recording at Sony Studio in New York
with the Kenny Barron Trio turned to be a great success.

It was lucky for Keiko that the album was picked up by Yasohachi "88" Ito from Sony Music
Entertainment where she was able to work in a decent musical environment and meet her
present producer Kozo Watanabe and many other excellent staff members from Sony Music.

Her memorable debut album "Imagine" was released from Sony Music Entertainment in 1995.
Since then, she has released 23 albums, 2 mini albums, 6 single CDs, 1 DVD, so far (refer to
discography page).

As she does in the liner notes in her debut album, closing her message with special thanks to
her friends and family, human tenderness is always the key of the music of Keiko Lee.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 April 23, 2012

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