Monday Michiru | Profile

With her soulful voice and deep understanding of jazz from both vocal and instrumental perspectives, Monday Michiru has been one of the most visible acid jazz, soul-jazz, and nu-jazz artists in Japan since the early 1990s. Born in Tokyo in 1963 to jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and jazz saxman Charlie Mariano, and raised in the United States, she exhibited interest and talent in the arts from an early age, studying modern dance, ballet, and flute from elementary school. After winning several flute competitions, she attended the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan on a scholarship, where she continued her flute studies, also taking up voice. After graduating, she continued her vocal training, but her music career was interrupted when she was scouted by Japanese director Shinji Somai to appear in his movie Hikaru Onna, and she relocated from the United States to Japan for the filming. The film was a critical success, and Monday was awarded honorable mention for best actress and best new actress awards from the Yokohama Film Festival and Kinema Junpo, one of Japan's oldest movie publications. Her success prompted her to put music on hold and focus on her acting career, which also included theatre and television, and she further broadened her scope of activity by hosting several of her own radio programs on J-Wave and FM Tokyo, modeling, and appearing as a television personality. In addition, she also worked as a journalist, writi... Read More

With her soulful voice and deep understanding of jazz from both vocal and instrumental perspectives, Monday Michiru has been one of the most visible acid jazz, soul-jazz, and nu-jazz artists in Japan since the early 1990s. Born in Tokyo in 1963 to jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and jazz saxman Charlie Mariano, and raised in the United States, she exhibited interest and talent in the arts from an early age, studying modern dance, ballet, and flute from elementary school. After winning several flute competitions, she attended the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan on a scholarship, where she continued her flute studies, also taking up voice. After graduating, she continued her vocal training, but her music career was interrupted when she was scouted by Japanese director Shinji Somai to appear in his movie Hikaru Onna, and she relocated from the United States to Japan for the filming. The film was a critical success, and Monday was awarded honorable mention for best actress and best new actress awards from the Yokohama Film Festival and Kinema Junpo, one of Japan's oldest movie publications. Her success prompted her to put music on hold and focus on her acting career, which also included theatre and television, and she further broadened her scope of activity by hosting several of her own radio programs on J-Wave and FM Tokyo, modeling, and appearing as a television personality. In addition, she also worked as a journalist, writing a column in Tokyo Journal and publishing as a freelancer. In 1991, she directed her attention back to music, appearing at Tokyo clubs and releasing her debut album Mangetsu as Japan's acid jazz scene was beginning to flourish. Established by 1993 as a big-time player on the acid jazz scene, she began to release steadily, collaborating with the likes of Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso), DJ Krush, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Basement Jaxx, and United Future Organization. 1994's Maiden Japan expanded on the acid jazz themes, her distinctive and nuanced vocal performance elevating the release above the standard producer-driven fare that dominated the clubs. Her next release, Jazz Brat, was even more fully realized, with increasingly insightful lyrics, explorations into Latin and straight jazz, and another strong vocal performance. 1996's Delicious Poison saw her drifting further away from the acid jazz formula, with a significant portion of the music being performed on acoustic instrements. The more Latin-influenced Optimista, released in 1999, followed in the acoustic vein and sold over 100,000 units in Japan. Four Seasons, released in 2000, was a watershed, a concept album based on the four seasons and spanning two disks. Mining jazz vein even more deeply, she turns in perhaps her most stellar vocal performance on this release. In late 2000, she took a break from music to have a child with her husband, jazz trumpeter Alex Sipiagin. In 2003, she returned to music with Episodes in Color.  Collapse