Jonathan Katz

Long Island, New York native Jonathan took up piano at six and French horn at nine. He discovered jazz at 11 and played with Frank Foster and other jazz giants in his teens. He studied music at Yale University and the Eastman School of Music. After studying Japanese at Sophia University, he moved to Tokyo in 1991. Jonathan has worked with famed jazz artists Ray Brown, Kenny Burrell, Lew Tabackin, Tom Harrell and Eddie Henderson, with the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic and other leading Japanese orchestras, and with enka superstar Itsuki Hiroshi. He has released one solo piano CD and 3 trio CDs, and has toured and recorded as a core member in several other groups, including world-jazz group CANDELA, jazz quartet NYTC, and Latin jazz quintet MAMBO INN. In 2008, Jonathan assembled Tokyo Big Band, a 19-piece ensemble of top Tokyo-based musicians who perform his over 70 compositions and original renditions of Japanese traditional songs. Jonathan is also pianist in the Disney World Beat big band. He has received numerous composing and arranging commissions, including from the Taipei Jazz Orchestra, classical violinist Narimichi Kawabata, and concert pianist Yuko Mifune, and was the bandleader and arranger for bossa nova singer Lisa Ono’s nonet (2019) and quintet (2020). Jonathan is also an avid music educator who has given clinics and guest performances at universities and high schools in Japan, the US and Taiwan, and teaches private lessons as well as clinics in composition, arranging, and big band.