Kimiko Kasai is a Japanese jazz singer who was born in Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

 on December 15, 1945.

She went to Tokyo in 1964, and became a featured member of pianist Yuzuru Sera's group. She is referred to by her nickname of "Kemeco", also a song on one of her earliest recorded works, "The Modern Playing Mate" by Yuzuru Sera Trio Introducing Kimiko Kasai from 1968 (and recently reissued on compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 in Japan).

Her first album as a solo artist was entitled "Just Friends" in 1970. After that time, she recorded many albums in collaboration with some of the most renowned musicians in the jazz field, such as Billy Higgins

Billy Higgins

Billy Higgins was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958...

, Mal Waldron

Mal Waldron

Malcolm Earl Waldron was an American jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.Like his contemporaries, Waldron's roots lie chiefly in the hard bop and post-bop genres of the New York club scene of the 1950s; but with time, he gravitated more towards free jazz and composition...

, Gil Evans

Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...

, Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

, Oliver Nelson

Oliver Nelson

Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...

, and Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

. She recorded many jazz albums, though her later albums were more a mix of jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

, smooth jazz

Smooth jazz

Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....

, pop, and West Coast AOR. She recorded mostly in English, though she recorded several albums in Japanese ("Umbrella", "Tokyo Special", and “Perigo A Noite”). Many of her early jazz recordings remain in print in Japan, being re-released with modern day technologies (i.e., compact disc, SACD, blu-spec disc).

In her personal life, Kimiko has been married to drummer Hiroshi Murakami, as well as to Richard Rudolph

Richard Rudolph

Richard "Dick" Rudolph is an American composer, guitarist, musician, songwriter, and producer. He was the husband of late soul singer icon Minnie Riperton, and he co-wrote many of her songs including her hits "Lovin' You" and "Memory Lane" . He produced Teena Marie's second album, Lady T...

, the former husband of the late Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton

Minnie Julia Riperton was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You". She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph from 1972 until her death in the summer of 1979. They had two children - music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya...

. Mr. Rudolph is famous as the composer of "Loving You", as well as producing recordings by Minnie Riperton, Teena Marie

Teena Marie

Mary Christine Brockert, better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer...

 and Kimiko herself.

Kimiko recorded for Columbia Records/Sony from approximately 1971-1985. She released one synth-pop

Synthpop

Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...

 album “Perigo A Noite” on Eastworld/Toshiba in 1987, and her last recording to date was a self-titled pop and R&B/new jack swing flavored release on Kitty Records/Polydor in 1990.

Kimiko lives in Los Angeles, and is a jewelry designer of some note, with her own website dedicated to her new venture.

Discography

1968 The Modern Playing Mate: Yuzuru Sera Trio introducing Kimiko Kasai

1970 Just Friends

1971 One for Lady: Kimiko Kasai & Mal Waldron

1971 Yellow Carcass in the Blue

1972 Satin Doll: Kimiko Kasai with Gil Evans

1972 Umbrella: Works of Haruomi Hosono

1973 What’s New

1974 In Person (with Oliver Nelson)

1974 Kimiko Is Here: With Cedar Walton

Cedar Walton

Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior is an American hard bop jazz pianist.-Biography:Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas...

Trio

1975 This Is My Love

1976 We Can Fall in Love

1977 Tokyo Special

1978 Round and Round

1979 Butterfly: Kimiko Kasai & Herbie Hancock

1982 Kimiko

1984 Love Talk

1984 New Pastel

1985 Watching You

1985 My One and Only Love

1987 Perigo a Noite

1990 Kimiko