BIOGRAPHY
1991年生まれ。洗足学園高等学校音楽科ジャズピアノ専攻を卒業。
これまでに、世界的プレイヤーであるSteve Gadd & Will Leeとのトリオ、Walt Disney Recordsより全編ディズニー楽曲のカバー・アルバム「My First Disney Jazz」を含む11枚のアルバムをリリース。
JAZZ JAPAN AWARD2013アルバム・オブ・ザ・イヤー、第26回ミュージック・ペンクラブ音楽賞、JAPAN TIMES上半期ベスト・アルバム(ジャズ部門)、CDショップ大賞など受賞多数。
モントルー・ジャズ・フェスティバルや東京JAZZ、アメリカ西海岸ツアーなど国内外を問わずライブ活動を精力的に行う。2016,17年にはQunicy Jones Production主催の単独公演をアメリカ・LAとNYCにて成功させる。2019年東京国際フォーラムホールAで行われた"EAST MEETS WEST"にて、Sam Moore、Mike Stern、Randy Breckerらとの共演を果たす。
その他、テレビ朝日系報道番組「サタデーステーション」「サンデーステーション」のオープニングテーマ、J-Wave「STEP ONE」のオープニングテーマを手がける他、「スプラトゥーン2」、「機動戦士ガンダムサンダーボルト-BANDIT FLOWER-」などのピアノ演奏を担当。
2023年にはブロードウェイミュージカル「エリザベス・アーデンvsヘレナ・ルビンスタイン-WAR PAINT-」の日本初演公演で、音楽監督/キーボードコンダクターを務める。その他、ソングサイクル・ミュージカル「雨が止まない世界なら(2022)」、ミュージカル「ルームメイトと謎解きを(2023)」、朗読劇「はじめての(2023,2024)」、舞台「ブロードキャスト(2024)」等の作曲・音楽監督も務める。
2024年よりアメリカ・LAへ活動拠点を移す。
Ai Kuwabara is a jazz pianist, composer, and music director based in Tokyo and Los Angeles. A musical storyteller who crafts unique worlds through her compositions, Kuwabara was born in Chiba, Japan in 1991. She has released 11 full-length albums, creating works with precise technique and vivid sensibility that have drawn comparisons to Michel Petrucciani, Esbjörn Svensson, and her compatriot Hiromi. Kuwabara debuted nationally in Japan in 2012 with her trio’s “From Here to There,” followed by “The Sixth Sense,” in 2013 which reached Number One on the Tower Records Jazz Chart and was selected by The Japan Times as the best album of the first half of 2013, also winning the Nissan Presents Jazz Japan Award 2013 Album of the Year New Star Prize. After performing her first U.S. tour in 2013 to sold-out crowds in her American debut, she performed with her trio on the main stage of the 12th Tokyo Jazz Festival. As a participant in the Parmigiani Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition in 2015, Kuwabara met Quincy Jones. Soon afterward, Quincy Jones Productions organized her concert in Los Angeles, a project that was so successful that Quincy Jones Productions took it further the following year, presenting shows in Los Angeles and New York. In 2017, Ai released “Somehow, Someday, Somewhere” with Steve Gadd on drums and Will Lee on bass. Quincy Jones said of the album, “Ai’s heart leads her to greatness and it's beautiful to hear and see. This girl has right and left brain on the case!” After touring with Gadd and Lee, Kuwabara released “Ai Kuwabara with Steve Gadd and Will Lee Live at Blue Note Tokyo” as her eighth album in 2019. Other releases include those also from Walt Disney Records and an album with a tie-up with TV Asahi. Kuwabara has recently composed and released a soundtrack for an original Japanese musical called “In a World of Never Ending Rain” and is presently engaged in new recording projects as well as film scoring and musical projects as a music director, conductor, and composer. She is available for bookings in the United States and around the world.
Collaborators : Steve Gadd (Ds), Will Lee (Ba), Sam Moore (Vo), Randy Brecker (Tp), Chris Parker (Ds), Mike Stern (Gt), Monty Alexander (Pf), Sam Wilkes (Ba), Gene Coye (Ds), Christian Euman (Ds), Akira Yamada(Ds), Shai Maestro (Pf), Ben Wendel (Sax), Takuya Kuroda (Tp), etc...
Ai Kuwabara is a jazz pianist, composer, and music director based in Tokyo and Los Angeles. A musical storyteller who crafts unique worlds through her compositions, Kuwabara was born in Chiba, Japan in 1991. She has released 11 full-length albums, creating works with precise technique and vivid sensibility that have drawn comparisons to Michel Petrucciani, Esbjörn Svensson, and her compatriot Hiromi. Kuwabara debuted nationally in Japan in 2012 with her trio’s “From Here to There,” followed by “The Sixth Sense,” in 2013 which reached Number One on the Tower Records Jazz Chart and was selected by The Japan Times as the best album of the first half of 2013, also winning the Nissan Presents Jazz Japan Award 2013 Album of the Year New Star Prize. After performing her first U.S. tour in 2013 to sold-out crowds in her American debut, she performed with her trio on the main stage of the 12th Tokyo Jazz Festival. As a participant in the Parmigiani Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition in 2015, Kuwabara met Quincy Jones. Soon afterward, Quincy Jones Productions organized her concert in Los Angeles, a project that was so successful that Quincy Jones Productions took it further the following year, presenting shows in Los Angeles and New York. In 2017, Ai released “Somehow, Someday, Somewhere” with Steve Gadd on drums and Will Lee on bass. Quincy Jones said of the album, “Ai’s heart leads her to greatness and it's beautiful to hear and see. This girl has right and left brain on the case!” After touring with Gadd and Lee, Kuwabara released “Ai Kuwabara with Steve Gadd and Will Lee Live at Blue Note Tokyo” as her eighth album in 2019. Other releases include those also from Walt Disney Records and an album with a tie-up with TV Asahi. Kuwabara has recently composed and released a soundtrack for an original Japanese musical called “In a World of Never Ending Rain” and is presently engaged in new recording projects as well as film scoring and musical projects as a music director, conductor, and composer. She is available for bookings in the United States and around the world.
Collaborators : Steve Gadd (Ds), Will Lee (Ba), Sam Moore (Vo), Randy Brecker (Tp), Chris Parker (Ds), Mike Stern (Gt), Monty Alexander (Pf), Sam Wilkes (Ba), Gene Coye (Ds), Christian Euman (Ds), Akira Yamada(Ds), Shai Maestro (Pf), Ben Wendel (Sax), Takuya Kuroda (Tp), etc...