Rina Yamazaki
Rina Yamazaki
Image courtesy of the artist
Rina Yamazaki is a jazz piano player from Japan who is studying at Berklee College of Music.
This year, she recorded her first trio album with Peter Washington on bass and Neal Smith on drums. The recording was featured on WGBO in its Jazz Appreciation Month series. Yamazaki represented Berklee as a cultural ambassador in France, playing in Paris and performing at the Nancy Jazz Festival in October 2017.
She toured Connecticut with Dave Santoro’s trio during summer 2017. This summer, she will perform with Ralph Peterson at the Bern Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland, and continues to tour with the Dave Santoro band.
Before coming to the United States, Yamazaki studied under Makoto Ozone and Sadao Watanabe in Tokyo. During that time, she played in Ozone’s Gem Stone Jazz Orchestra at the Blue Note in Tokyo and made several guest appearances with Ozone while he toured Japan. While in Japan, she also played in master classes with Christian McBride, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Paquito D’Rivera, Gary Burton, and Carl Allen.