Press
New York Jazz Record March Issue 2024
Anthology 2022
https://giamusic.com/resource/practicing-music-book-10180
Practicing Music
Description:
Successful professional musicians—instrumentalists and vocalists alike—are always busy. Performing, teaching, family, and professional responsibilities keep them on the go around the clock, yet they still find time to practice so that they can maintain technique, prepare for upcoming performances, and thrive as a musician. In this eye-opening essay collection, these world-renowned artists share their insights on practice, from practical tips you can use today to the intangible lessons of living a musical life:
Paul Austerlitz
Chris Bacas
Stefan Bauer
Evangeline Benedetti
Serena Benedetti
Bruce Bonvissuto
John Bruschini
Norman Carey
Jennifer Choi
Peter Erskine
Lars Frandsen
Gordon Gottlieb
Hill Greene
John Isley
Vic Juris
Aline Kiryayeva
Morris “Arnie” Lang
Deb Lyons
Jacqueline Martelle
Shoko Nagai and Satoshi Takeishi
Andy Narell
Isabelle O’Connell
Richard O’Donnell
Victor Rendón
Sonny Rollins
Jay Rosen
Michael Rosen
Terry Silverlight
Andrew White, III
Brian Willson
New York Jazz Record March 2022
Reviews
. Giovanni Russonello - New York Times Ms. Nagai is defined by her dynamics. Dissonance and Sensitivity, With Percussive Oomph
. The New York Jewish Week- Robert Goldblum : “There’s Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble (“St. James Infirmary” as a klez/bluegrassy dirge with an Asian flute) and then there’s Shoko Nagai’s “Omatsuri Mambo.” The regular accordionist with the klezmer revival group Isle of Klezbos, Nagai is an avant-gardist who moves between the worlds of jazz and Jewish music. Her Tokala band, according to her site, “explores the ancient connection between Japan and the Middle East via The Silk Road, where cultural exchange happened and left an imprint which became an integral part of Japanese culture.” Fittingly, “Omatsuri Mambo” is cross-cultural music on steroids; there’s a klezmer feel that merges with a snake-charmer Middle Eastern vibe that becomes a slow blues — with a Cuban beat holding it together and Nagai’s Japanese singing riding on top. “
Time Out NY : "Shoko Nagai, one of New York’s most individualistic and intense performers on the avant-garde side of jazz – dazzles with her glimmering, darkly necromantic and blues-tinged piano."
Jewish Daily Forward - Eileen Reynolds: "A veteran of the downtown jazz scene, pianist and accordionist Shoko Nagai delivered some of the most adventurous improvisatory solos of the night and helped fill out the band’s sound with sophisticated riffs from the keyboard and her gentle accordion"
New York Music Daily : "Shoko Nagai was the star... playing creepy, surreal, crashingly and virtuosically intense piano and accordion. Nagai kicks it off, brushing and rustling inside the piano in a fair approximation of George Crumb, before she goes deep into the murk."
New York Music Daily : "A cinematic mini-epic that shifts from a wistful sway to more dramatically orchestrated permutations, through ominous chromatic vamping, more vivid necromantic piano from Nagai."
University of California Los Angels UCLA mythologies by Dr. Jeremiah Lockwood Nov. 2021