Okazaki Brothers
Biography Okazaki Brothers
Yoshiro Okazaki
Born April 27, 1971. From Koto Ward, Tokyo.
He began playing the trumpet at age 12, and was influenced by the movie "The Benny Goodman Story" which he saw in junior high school, leading him to start listening to jazz. He began playing jazz at age 17, studying under Issei Igarashi and Hiroshi Murata.
In the summer of 1990, he participated in the Berklee In Japan seminar, won a scholarship, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston in September 1991. He graduated from the Performance Department of the same school in 1994.
On August 21, 2003, he released his debut album, "HANK'S MOOD" (Eastworks Entertainment), with his own quintet, "OKAZAKI BROTHERS" (Masanori Okazaki: ts, Shigenori Miki: p, Shin Uemura: b, Daisuke Yoshioka: ds).
In May 2005, he moved his base of operations to New York and obtained an artist visa in December of the same year. While in the US, he performed in numerous jazz clubs and was active in groups such as the Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, Valerie Ponomarev Big Band, and Makoto Ozone's No Name Horses.
In September 2008, he returned to Tokyo from New York and is currently active in live performances, concerts, and recordings. He is a part-time lecturer at Showa University of Music and Kunitachi College of Music.
Masanori Okazaki
Born in downtown Tokyo. In high school, he was a member of the brass band and played the clarinet.
Upon entering Hosei University, he switched to tenor saxophone and encountered jazz in the Hosei University New Orange Swing Orchestra.
After graduating from the university, he received a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. While a student, he studied under George Garzone and Bill Pierce, graduating in May 1998.
After returning to Japan, he has been active in various groups, participating in everything from small combos to large ensembles such as Makoto Ozone's No Name Horses and Junko Moriya's Orchestra. He also composes and arranges music for the Minami Aoyama Rokuchome Orchestra.
Since 2016, he has expanded his activities to the Nagoya area, joining the C.U.G Jazz Orchestra and the Hirofumi Miyamoto Group. As a jazz educator, he teaches at music schools in Tokyo and Nagoya, and in January 2017, he was invited to the jazz camp at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan.
His performance activities are truly worldwide, including in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, France, the United States, Austria, Switzerland, and Scotland.
Since 2022, he has served as a part-time lecturer at Showa University of Music.
