The coolest of cool and the smoothest of smooth, pianist, vocalist, composer, and arranger MIKA combines her love of the sounds of Jazz, Samba, and Bossa Nova learned and shared over the years in Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Paris, India and New York, with the support of her MIKA Samba Jazz Trio and MIKA Group and has been continuing to go global.
Her lineage comes through the likes of genre greats such as Fernando Motta and Amilton Godoy. MIKA’s successful collaborations with artists such as Armando Marcal (Pat Metheny Group), Ricardo Silveira (Herbie Mann), Sergio Barrozo (Elis Regina), Jesse Sadoc (Marcos Valle), Andrei Vasconcellos (Djavan), Jorge Helder (Caetano Veloso) and Rafael Barata (Eliane Elias) have brought audiences new musical palettes to marvel at, from Sao Paulo’s and Rio’s clubs, and all over Japan.
She performed in Japan to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Japan-Brazil immigration.She was also invited as instructer for the international music camp at Brasilia(one of the hight level music camp in brazil) in 2008.
She has been based in NY since 2008 and been performing at local venues such as S.O.B’s ,Kitano, Zinc bar, just to name a few, as well as at some venues in Washington.
Recently she has been performing not only Samba jazz trio, but also Swing Jazz Piano trio.
Her highly acclaimed work includes six albums and her new album “Mika Samba Jazz Trio Vol.1” was released on May 29th 2013 throughout the world.
In 2014,she released an album in USA for the first time, titled “Samba for Johnny”
In January 2015, She released her 8th album “Balanco zone sul” the famous Marcos Valle on guitar and voice,and he praised Mika.
She also toured Japan with Rafael Barata(drums) and Sergio Barrozo(bass) from Rio de Janeiro.
All their concerts were sold out. It was highly unusual, as this music genre is not popular in Japan.
She composed,arranged and recorded 8 of the tracks on the CD album “Kotori Cafe” which was select by JAL for its flight entertainment program.
It will be available from November 2015 – February 2016.
“Balanco zona sul ” has been selected ” Critics choice 2015″ by Mark Holston on JAZZIZ (Winter 2016 issue)