is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer.
Biography
Riyoko Takagi was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her mother was an aspiring classical pianist. She started taking piano lessons in her neighborhood at the age of 4. Shortly after she acclimated to piano, her piano teacher advised that she should learn composing music rather than just continuing to play according to the score.
She enrolled into a specialized children's program at Yamaha Music School, where she studied classical piano and composition. At Yamaha she had her first piano recital at age 7 and her first televised piano performance of original composition at age 12 as part of annual Yamaha Original Junior Concert. She continued her studies at Yamaha until third year of junior high school.
At the age of 17 she started seriously focusing on jazz music for the first time. Instead of focusing on jazz music theory she started focusing on practical aspects of improvisation, studying from live albums of artists like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Over decades that followed, she developed a very strong foundation in the art of improvisation, which to this day remains a very unique and appealing centerpiece of her live performance style, including impromptu improvisations based on random sound input from the audience or surroundings (i.e. a siren of an ambulance that happened to pass by).
All her family graduated from Keio University, so she enrolled to Keio University SFC to study creative use of computers wanting to focus on music but the program turned out not what she expected. She did not study music in college and graduated in 2007 as Keio University alumni of Environment and Information Studies. While attending Keio University, she started playing jazz in local piano lounges and bars, which remained her main activity that she continued throughout her career, even while doing other stints outside of authentic jazz music.
Career
Riyoko Takagi's music career with discographic output started in 2008 after she graduated college and emersed deeper into Tokyo music and jazz scene.
In 2008, she started working as a keyboardist for the club-based house unit Inner City Jam Orchestra. She continued this club-music activity in parallel with her authentic jazz music activities until late 2010s.
In 2009, her first jazz piano trio album "After Tears" was released by HARU Records. Also the first album "Ryudo" featuring her original compositions on keyboards as part of Inner City Jazz Orchestra was released by Daiki Sound.
In 2014, she appeared in Blue Note Tokyo, where she performed with Lee Ritenour and others. In June 2014, she won 4th place in the world in piano category in Lee Ritenour's sponsored competition, Six String Theory.
In 2015, her first solo jazz piano album "Salone" was released by HD Impression. It was very well received album showcasing her authentic solo jazz piano performances. In September 2015, she performed two days on stages of the 14th "Tokyo Jazz". In November 2015, Avex Trax released two of her mini-albums "The Intro!" and "In Winter!" (digital distribution only).
In 2016, Avex Trax released Takagi's first major label debut music album "The Debut!" incorporating jazz into Pop/House music genre. Under Avex Trax she was marketed as a sexy J-Pop idol. She would often perform at music festivals wearing a bikini or other sensational outfits and would perform various anime cosplays on her YouTube channel. This change of direction resulted in some confusion among fans as can be seen on Amazon reviews of her albums around this time period. Despite a new musical direction in album releases and new persona image, she still continued her authentic live jazz piano activities in parallel. For example, she performed her original authentic jazz compositions in a jazz piano trio featuring jazz-fusion female drummer Senri Kawaguchi and jazz bassist Nori Shiota. In February 2016, she won Jazz Japan magazine's - New Star award and appeared on their cover for the first time in her career.
In April 2017, her second solo jazz piano album "Dream of You ~ Salone II" was released by HD Impression. This album was very well received and marked return back to authentic solo Jazz piano as far as album releases are concerned.
In January 2018, she performed at Yamaha's event commemorating 100th anniversary of Japan Jazz "Golden Age of Jazz [100]" resulting in release of her DVD "Live Lab" by Atos International, containing solo piano live performances from the event.
In September 2019, her third solo jazz piano album "Resonance" was released by HD Impression. It became a highly acclaimed work that showcased new musicality that spun a straight-ahead jazz piano.