Yoko Miwa is a fixture in the Boston jazz scene. She’s a piano professor at Berklee, an internationally acclaimed touring artist, and she’s held down a Friday night residency at the Mad Monkfish in Cambridge for nearly a decade. Ahead of headlining at Scullers Jazz Club on October 3rd, she caught up with Al Davis and Va Lynda Robinson, hosts of GBH Music’s Jazz on 89.7.
Al Davis: Tell us a little bit of history about yourself.
Yoko Miwa: So I’m originally from Japan. I grew up in Japan playing classical piano since I was four years old.
Al Davis Oh wow!
Yoko Miwa: Yeah [Miwa laughs]. The first thing we had was the organ in the house. You had to pump the air with your foot, you know? It was old, but I loved it so much. I was playing all day long, even before taking piano lessons. But also, I was born with perfect pitch. I can hear every note, I hear what I can play. So I started taking piano lessons, probably at four years old. And then I was pretty seriously playing classical piano and I went to classical music college— Osaka Music College in Japan. And around that time, I had a chance to listen to jazz, and I just fell in love with the songs. That was at 19 years old.
Al Davis: Anybody in particular?
Yoko Miwa: Yeah, the song actually was “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
Al Davis: Oh yes, yes!
Yoko Miwa: Yeah, the singer’s version. So I never really listened to jazz, but I found out later my mom loves jazz. She used to listen to Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra... and big bands, she likes those. And she still loves it.
So my mom knew Makoto Ozone’s father, Minoru Ozone. He was a Hammond organ player, but he also played jazz. And he owned the music school, and he owned a jazz club. Minoru asked me to work at his jazz club as a waitress. So I was working as a waitress every weekend for several years so I could listen to his playing. Sometimes some guests would come in, so that was a great experience for me. I learned just listening. And sometimes when there were not many people there, he would ask me to come up to the stage and say, “Come here, Yoko. Play!” [Miwa laughs] So that was an amazing experience. Anyways, so then eventually I got a scholarship from Berklee. So, I went to one of Berklee’s sister schools in Japan. I had to audition for a scholarship to come to Berklee, and I wasn’t going to. But I just took the audition to see how it goes. And then I got the first prize scholarship to Berklee. So that’s why I decided to come here just for one year. [both Miwa and Davis laugh]
Al Davis: I can’t understand what happened after that! [Davis laughs]
Yoko Miwa So since then I’m here, and I started doing gigs. In 2011 I went to Berklee College of Music in the piano department. The chair called me to see if I was interested in teaching there, and I became full-time in 2015. I’ve been lucky to be part of the school and teach amazing students, so it inspires me. And as a trio, we’ve been doing pretty good, you know? We have nine albums so far. And the last album was the “Songs of Joy” which we released during the pandemic. It went up to number one on the jazz chart. That was amazing.
Al Davis: Yeah, you must be really surprised about that.
Yoko Miwa: So the last two albums, “Pathways” and “Keep Talkin’,” were in the top five! Number four, number three. We never went up to number one, so that was a dream come true. It was amazing. And especially... so I’ve been playing at the Mad Monkfish. My trio plays there 7pm to 10pm every Friday. This has been nine years, almost 10 years, I think.
Al Davis: When you say your trio, is it the same musicians or different musicians?
Yoko Miwa: Mostly the same band. Brad Barrett on bass, Scott Goulding on drums. Sometimes we have a different bass player, but mostly the same. And then we started doing late night sets 12am to 1am, just piano and vocals, just duo.
Va Lynda Robinson: I want to return to your key influences like Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Oscar Peterson. It speaks of your versatility. Let’s talk about your versatility.
Yoko Miwa: I love everybody! It’s kind of hard to pick just one, but always Bill Evans is my hero, that hasn’t changed. But of course, I love Oscar Peterson so much too. And Keith Jarret, McCoy Tyner... yeah, I’m still learning McCoy Tyner. But I am still learning from everybody. I like transcribing anybody’s solo. I’ve been telling my students to do the same thing too. I write down every note, what they play. And to me, it’s more fun to analyze what they are playing, like a jazz theory kind of thing. Like, “was Bill [Evans] thinking about this kind of scale? Or was he thinking about this kind of idea going to here to here to here? Oh my gosh, it’s so genius!”
[Miwa laughs] You know, if I understand what he’s thinking, I feel like, wow, I’m kind of getting into their brain to see what he was thinking when he was playing that part. It’s more fun for me. So, I’ve been doing that kind of stuff, you now, analyzing and learning why Bill Evans sounds like this, why Oscar sounds like Oscar, and trying to understand, trying to imitate and do as much practicing of their ideas. And then eventually I try to take that idea into my playing, but I don’t want to be just copying Oscar Peterson or just copying Bill Evans, but I’m hoping it comes out from me as my sound. But, you know, of course I like people to kind of recognize, oh, that was a Bill Evans influence or idea you were playing. So that’s what I’ve been doing a lot.
Va Lynda Robinson: The Jazz Times talks about your jaw-dropping degree of technique. Yoko, how would you describe your technique?
Yoko Miwa: I don’t think my technique is that great, be honest. [Miwa chuckles] I mean, there are lots of pianists that play, like, unbelievable, do you know what I mean? So I’m still working on that. I used to play classical and then I started to play jazz and my mind is all about the phrasing, phrasing the notes. When I was playing classical, I was really focusing on the technique, crazy stuff. I don’t play classical as much as I used to, but I still love playing it or listening to it. These days, I feel like my playing is coming more from my art than my technique. It’s coming from more of a passion, and my feeling is first, then my technique comes second. That’s what I feel like. And sometimes, I can’t play what I want to play. But I feel like, even so, I’m more connected with the audience than before.
The Yoko Miwa Trio headlines Scullers Jazz Club in Boston on October 3, 2025. Their latest album is “Songs of Joy.”
