JazzReview: What Japanese musicians influenced your style of playing early on in your career? Satoko Fujii: My idol early on was Fumio Itabashi, a Japanese jazz pianist who was in Ray Anderson's band and Elvin Jones's band. I went to jazz clubs in Tokyo to listen to his playing very often. Finally I asked him for lessons. He is my first jazz teacher. My husband, Natsuki, now plays in his band. There are some Japanese musicians I liked, but Itabashi was very special for me. …

At what point in your life did you know that you wanted to become a musician? I was in 7th grade and I asked the person in charge of the community Christmas pageant at the Town Hall if I could sing a solo. I wasn’t content to sing in the chorus. He asked me to sing something right then and there and then he had me sing a solo of O Holy Night in the pageant. I was so scared I shook halfway across the room but I was definitely bitten by the performance bug. What was the first …

What elements of your classical training do you find helps you out, when you're playing the guitar? Matt: As you said I started out with classical training and in fact that was the only kind of guitar training I could get where I was living, when I was starting out playing guitar, when I was about 10 or 11 years old. At the time I didn't really have any particular preference in music; I just liked music in general, and I liked the guitar, so I started out with classical. In general, i …

Where were you born? Perth, Western Australia. One of the most beautiful landscapes with miles of white sandy beach coast line, but also one of the most isolated cities in the world. So fairly restricted in terms of variety of music exposure. Were your parents musical? did you come from a musical background? You could tell my mum was very musical and she certainly listened to and appreciated good music, but being from a very poor family there was no opportunity to s …

According to the All Music Guide, Brian Auger was raised in London, where he took up the keyboards as a child and began to hear jazz by way of the American Armed Forces Network and an older brother's record collection. By his teens, he was playing piano in clubs, and by 1962 he had formed the Brian Auger Trio with bass player Rick Laird and drummer Phil Knorra. In 1964, he won first place in the categories of "New Star" and "Jazz Piano" in a reader's poll in the Melody Maker music paper, but the …