Japanese jazz pianist Miki Yamanaka, born and raised in Kyoto and Kobe Japan, now resides in New York City with her drummer husband Jimmy McBride. Her upcoming album, Shades of Rainbows is set to drop on September 8. Excitement explodes in Miki during this hour-long interview with this jubilant pianist who is a mainstay at New York’s prime jazz clubs for emerging talent, Small’s and Mezzrow, both found in the West Village in Greenwich Village in the lower west side of Manhattan. Miki’s been a New York resident since 2012 when she began her graduate work at Queens College in Jazz Performance. Her street education occurred in New York City jazz clubs and concert halls before the COVID pandemic, performing with the likes of Antonio Hart, Peter Bernstein, Nicole Glover, Joe Farnsworth, Tivon Pennicott, Roxy Coss, Mark Turner and Fred Hersch. But all of that came to a grounding halt in March 2020 as COVID wiped the streets clean, leaving all jazz musicians jobless and at home with nobody to play with. This required inventiveness. Taking the cue from friend and fellow jazz pianist Emmet Cohen, Miki began to assemble ensembles in hers and Jimmy’s Harlem apartment and stream her show “Miki’s Mood” on the internet. Perhaps not as successful as “Live at Emmet’s Place” it became a place where Miki, Jimmy and friends could play and jam once more and make a little money.  In 2015 she was one of three pianists selected to participate in “Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead”, an intensive composition residency at the Kennedy Center. She earned her Master of Music degree from Queens College, receiving the Sir Roland Hanna Award. Recently, Miki was one of ten new talent identified by The Academy (Grammy) as top emerging jazz talent.  Shades of Rainbows is Miki’s third release, her first for Vancouver-based record company, Cellar Music. Her first two recordings, Miki and Stairway to the Stars can be found on the Outside in Music label. You can find this episode on all of the major podcast streaming providers. Support live jazz. Support women in jazz. Subscribe to be one of the first to receive SJS podcasts, news and information. Photo by Martina DaSilva. Thanks for listening. Steve Braunginn