Interview: Shoko Numao | Jazz Right Now

A few years ago, Shoko Numao brought a vivid surprise to the scene around Tokyo. In her performances, the use of voice is particularly expressive, while naturally reflecting her unique artistic presence.

Shoko Numao https://shoko-numao.com/

What Is jazz?

She became interested in singing when she was ten years old. Listening to J-Pop, she felt that she wanted to sing forever. She also performed J-Pop songs, accompanying herself on the piano, experimenting through trial and error to imitate the musicians she heard. In junior high school, she joined the choir. The repertoire she sang during that period consisted of choral works based on poems by Shuntaro Tanikawa, Noriko Ibaragi, and Murō Saisei, and she has fond memories of this formative experience. Later, after entering high school, she left the choir and took up the guitar. For some reason, she developed an interest in musicians who sang and played the guitar at the same time.

Only after graduating from high school and entering music school did she begin to wonder, “What is jazz?” Every week she was assigned to perform jazz standard songs, and little by little, she started singing on these compositions. However, until then, she had listened to relatively few jazz recordings and she knew very little about the art form, which made it difficult for her to adjust to the music, as everyone seemed somewhat intimidating.

Two years later, after graduating, Numao started working part-time at a jazz bar in Osaka. She was able to listen to a lot of live performances, and she began to understand increasingly what happens at live shows. Around that time, she also got the opportunity to sing jazz standard songs. At that time, Numao’s trio consisted of a bassist and a guitarist. However, she could not sing jazz like the so-called typical “female jazz vocalists.” And she knew that “jazz” would require that.

This is also why she formed the duo called ephemeron with guitarist Shunpei Ito. Initially, their connection was forged through their shared desire to perform Brazilian music, and their collaboration developed through practices. As a result, their repertoire at the time consisted mainly of bossa nova and música popular brasileira (MPB). These musical styles suited her voice better than jazz and proved easier for her. Consequently, her singing style remained fundamentally unchanged.

Vocals and Instruments as Well

One of her motivations for attending Dublin City University was that her favorite Irish singer was teaching there. She had a keen interest in and admiration for Ireland (Unfortunately, that singer had already left the university by the time she arrived, so she was unable to attend her classes). She enrolled in a language school for the first six months and then studied music for the following two years. She says she will never forget what happened a few days after she arrived in Dublin. It was as if something that had been vague and unclear to her suddenly came into focus. She realized that “vocals are just like instruments.” Until then, even though she wanted to improve, she did not know how or what truly interested her. It was an unexpected turning point: the realization that producing sounds with the voice is the same as playing an instrument. And that is precisely what she wants to do. That explains why she considers it acceptable to adopt the same practices as instrumentalists.

The school is also affiliated with the famous Berklee College of Music, and the classes are basically taught using what we can call the Berklee method. In addition, the Irish teachers were also focused on what they wanted to do and create. For example, the school president was engrossed in Indian rhythms, and rhythm classes were conducted according to Indian music counts rather than “one, two, three, four.” Therefore, it was something that preceded any rigid rules like “this is what jazz should be.”

The vocal classes confirmed Numao’s belief that the voice and instruments constitute a unity. She sang different scales, just like instrumentalists would. In contrast, the Japanese vocal classes she had taken had no real connection between classroom theory and practice. For example, the vocal professor had an authoritarian approach: “If you sing it a thousand times, you will understand,” and “a lack of understanding is explained from not having sung it.” As a result, Numao understood nothing at all. In Ireland, however, this concept was logically integrated into the lessons, and she enjoyed practicing.

The composition class was also interesting. The starting point was “what each person wants to create,” and each person interpreted it in their own way before submitting an assignment. The professors also found the process fascinating. She felt that her vocal skills had improved because of the composition.

However, at that time, there was no way to connect her classroom experience with live performances. This was mainly since the coronavirus pandemic broke out while she was at school and in lockdown, but also because classes took up all her time. Numao even told her classmates, “I will never do a live show again.”

At Koendori Classics with Kanon Aonami (sax), Fumi Endo (p) and Toru Nishijima (b) (Feb 11, 2024)

Returning to Japan

After two and a half years in Ireland, Numao returned to Hyogo Prefecture. Just when she thought she might never perform in public again, contrabassist Masaki Kai invited her to join him. She had known Kai before she left for Ireland, when he was living in Germany. They both returned to Japan around the same time. Ito, the other member of the band ephemeron also contacted her.

This opened new opportunities for her to sing on various stages, including the Bamboo Club in Osaka and the Theater Jazzy in Kobe. She played with ephemeron at Satone in Osaka and Big Apple in Kobe. She also frequently participated in recording sessions at Studio T-Bone in Osaka. In the end, she found herself back in the world of live performance.

Fumi Endo

When she was performing as a guest at Theater Jazzy with Kai, Yuka Yanagihara (piano), and Shinya Fukumori (drums), Fumi Endo (piano) came from Tokyo to see her. She had come to know Endo through Kai during her time in Ireland, and they had listened to each other’s music on the SoundCloud platform but this was the first time they actually met.

Numao subsequently traveled to Tokyo to attend one of Endo’s performances. The concert took the form of a duo with Yoshinori Shiraishi (drums), with Masatake Abe (bass) also in attendance. This encounter gave rise to the formation Uquwa. A few months later, they gave a live performance at Jimbocho Shicho-Shitsu.

Numao’s first live show in Tokyo took place at Apollo in Shimokitazawa. She joined the gig with Kai, Taeko Kurita (piano), and Ryo Noritake (drums) as a guest.

Endo introduced Numao to various venues. She also organized the “Shoko Numao 2 days” project at Ftarri in Suidobashi in August 2022. On the first day, she gave an impromptu duo concert with Yoshimi Ichihara (synthesizer), and on the second day, a solo concert, inviting Endo to join her for the last two songs. The recording of these performances resulted in the compact disc “Live at Ftarri – Lena,” following a suggestion from Yoshiyuki Suzuki, a representative of Ftarri, to release it as a physical album. As a result, she has gained recognition in the Tokyo music scene.

Tokyo

She moved to Tokyo in May 2023. She wanted to perform more often with the friends she had met there.

Back in Japan, she struggled to find her place, but through performing live, she gradually felt more at ease. Her encounters with Endo during this time was particularly significant. She later had the opportunity to play in a concert with Endo, Abe, Kanon Aonami (saxophone), and other musicians, and she was struck by how much her songs could evolve. Sharing the stage with them felt completely natural. It was a completely new experience.

Even though there were many people there, and even though they were not the kind of people who speak loudly, she could hear all the “natural sounds of each person’s talking.” Her own voice, whether singing or speaking, was not very loud either, but it seemed to be audible to everyone, including herself. It was radically different from previous approaches to her creative process, and she discovered that she could express herself in this way.

Songs, Improvisation, and My Own Words

Numao performs both songs and improvised pieces. She is currently exploring how to conceptualize the relationship between the two. She has been composing for a long time, and the methodology of jazz has become fundamental to her. She used to improvise within a jazz chord progression, but after meeting Endo and other musicians, she was surprised to discover that improvisation went beyond chords. She was also surprised to see that everyone would play a passage outside the song before returning to it. Moreover, all of this happened naturally.

Until then, Numao had been a musician who performed composed pieces. Of course, she was quite familiar with free improvisation, which she had even studied in Ireland. However, it was after meeting Endo and other musicians that she began to truly perform on stage. Later, she gradually broadened her musical horizons through the sounds of the people she met during improvisational sessions, and she says she continues to explore this direction; she is still growing.

For Numao, singing in Japanese does not constitute a significant difference. Whether in Japanese or English, she expresses herself as though it were her own language. She sometimes renders the sounds as if they were words, and consequently they are her own words. When she thinks back to her earlier interpretations of jazz standards, she realizes that they did not truly represent her. What matters today, when she sings jazz standards, is to express herself the way she wants. (*1)

ONU with Kouta Yunaka (vo), Kaoru Azuma (vo), Kuniaki Tomura (sax), Shinobu Masumoto (vo) and Utako Yamauchi (vo) at Koendori Classics (February 22, 2025)

New Exploration

It has been about three years since she first appeared on the Tokyo music scene. During this time, she focused on creating things together with other people. It was a period in which she became more aware of her own identity.

She also forged connections she had not previously made. For the album Skywalker, she met sara (piano) at the Gallery Nomart in Osaka, and they improvised together. She was also impressed by the mysterious microphone used by sound designer Yasushi Utsunomiya. The duo with Takeshi Shibuya (piano) was planned and came to fruition in 2025 by the master of Intelsat (Aichi Prefecture). They performed together again in the Kansai region, which resulted in the recording of a program for NHK (“8K Premium Concert Takeshi Shibuya x Shoko Numao,” first broadcast on January 30, 2026). Numao says of Shibuya: “He is just really, really amazing. It makes me cry when I listen to his piano.”

Through her collaborations with different musicians, improvisation has taken on an increasingly important role in the songs she composed a few years ago. The pieces themselves have become richer, gaining depth, and the emotions she conveys in them have intensified. It is fascinating and wonderful, but she sometimes feels that each song has become more challenging and more demanding.

Consequently, she also performs completely free improvisations. Furthermore, in future projects, she is thinking of creating not only “structured” pieces but also motif-based performances. For example, the melody, chords, rhythm, and lyrics of the songs she frequently performs are written down. In her collaborations with Endo and other artists, she has also explored new avenues, as breaking the rhythm and chords. Conversely, motif-based works do not aim to dismantle what already exists, but rather to build and develop from a limited set of rules.

In her recent performance with Kota Yamauchi (guitar) and Natsuko Hara (saxophone), she consciously sought to incorporate that direction into her approach. She enjoys discovering new songs and freeing herself from any preconceptions or stereotypes. She now hopes to expand her collaborations with other artists.