Marimba / Vibraphone Virtuoso Taiko Saito Wins Jazzpreis Berlin 2023

Berlin-based marimba and vibraphone virtuoso Taiko Saito has been awarded the Jazzpreis Berlin 2023 from Der Rundfunk Berlin-rbbKultur and the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. The EUR 15,000 prize will be awarded during a concert on July 3 at 8 p.m. in Studio 14 of the rbb, and the concert will be broadcast live on the rbbKultur radio station.

The jury announced its reasons for the award: "Taiko Saitō is not only referred to as a 'magician' in the Berlin jazz scene. She knows how to make a whole world blossom out of tender sounds. Her classical background combines with Japanese traditions and an inner mystical and energetic power. She shows the highest qualities both as a band leader and as a team player. Her compositions are original and substantial, her playing thrives on great freedom. Taiko Saitō has released several albums in different formations, she often performs in many different ways and is an internationally known teacher. Their importance for Berlin jazz is undisputed."

The jury consisted of: Cymin Samawatie (musician, last year's prizewinner), Silke Eberhard (saxophonist), Manuela Krause (journalist), Heinrich Köbberling (drummer), Dirk Hühner (rbb, chair) and Claudia Schurz (Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, without voting rights).

Saito's new solo album Tears of a Cloud, out April 28, 2023 via Trouble in the East Records, is earning critical acclaim including 4-stars in All About Jazz which cites her "uncompromising originality."

Taiko Saito was born in 1976 in Sapporo and studied with marimba virtuoso Keiko Abe and classical marimba and percussion at the Toho School of Music. In 1997 she began to improvise and to write music, and moved to Berlin to study vibraphone and composition with David Friedman at the Universität der Künste Berlin. In 2003 she co-founded Koko, a marimba/vibraphone-piano duo with German jazz piano player Niko Meinhold. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2005 and Live in Bogotá was released in 2014. Together with Rupert Stamm, she also created the jazz mallets duo Patema whose recording was released by Zerozero in 2007. She is a founding member of the Berlin Mallet Group, which also includes her former teacher Friedman. She is a co-founder of Futari, a duo with pianist-composer Satoko Fujii, and also performs with Fujii and drummer Yuko Oshima in Trio San. In addition, Saito has performed and recorded with the Trickster Orchestra and saxophonist Silke Eberhard's Potsa Lotsa XL. As a soloist, Taiko has appeared with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and with Orchestra d´Auvergne in France. As a composer, she won the originality prize in the International Marimba Competition 2004 for "Landscape IV." In 2008 she wrote "Hide and Seek for 9 percussionists," commissioned by the percussion ensemble coup de baguette. In addition to Tears of a Cloud, Saito is also featured on Wald, a trio album with drummer Michael Griener and bassist Jan Roder also coming out in 2023 via Trouble in the East Records. She was awarded Jazzpreis Berlin 2023.