Ayumi Tanaka

Ayumi Tanaka is a Japanese pianist, composer, and educator who resides in Norway. She leads the Ayumi Tanaka Trio, plays in experimental jazz quintet Nakama, and is a member of Thomas Strønen's Time Is a Blind Guide. Her sound is a sparse, luminous, and atmospheric blend of Nordic jazz and Japanese classical aesthetics, defined by intentional silence and notes. Memento, her debut trio set with bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, appeared in 2016. She also joined Strønen's group for 2018's Lucus. In 2021 her trio released Subaqueous Silence on ECM, and she appeared with Strønen and Marthe Lea on the label's Bayou. In 2025, she appeared with Time Is a Blind Guide on Off Stillness, and on Bristol Silence by avant composer John Andrew Wilhite. In 2026 she led a trio on Windflower with Strønen and Thomas Morgan. Tanaka was born in 1986 in Wakayama, surrounded by the natural splendor of mountains, trees, and rivers. She began piano lessons at age three at the Yamaha Music School. In 2000 at age 14, she took first prize at Yamaha Junior Electone competition, and currently has a coveted grade 3 license in the Yamaha grade system. Between 2011-2016 she attended the Norwegian Academy of Music in the jazz and improvised music department. Her teachers included pianists Ivar Antonsen and Helge Lien, bassist Anders Jormin, and the late pianist Misha Alperin, whom she cites as her mentor. In addition to playing and composing jazz, Tanaka is an instructor. When not on the road, she teaches math to kids at the Japanese Supplementary school in Oslo. In 2015 she joined bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen in his band Nakama, an experimental jazz quintet. Their debut album, Before the Storm, appeared the same year. She founded the Ayumi Tanaka Trio with Svendsen and Per Oddvar Johansen; Memento, their acclaimed debut, was released in 2016; they recorded with Norwegian improvisational quartet Mongrel on their second album, Thick as Thieves, and issued two more albums with Nakama: Grand Line and Most Intimate. Tanaka capped off 2016 by playing on the album 3 Pianos alongside Christian Wallumrød and Johann Lindvall. The following year Nakama released Worst Generation when she was approached by drummer/composer Thomas Strønen to join his band Time Is a Blind Guide on their globally acclaimed ECM debut, Lucus. Tanaka also joined MMO-Ensemble led by saxophonist Martin Myhre Olsen on their second album, Any Day Now. During the pandemic, Tanaka and her drummer Johansen released the digital album Duets. The pianist joined Strønen and Norwegian reedist Martha Lea on the ECM date Bayou, and released her trio's acclaimed debut for the label titled Subaqueous Silence. In 2022, Nakama released the album New World and toured. Tanaka hit the road with them for most of the year before rejoining Time Is a Blind Guide on tour. The band reappeared with their second studio album Off Stillness in 2025, the same year she joined vanguard jazz and classical composer John Andrew Wilhite's ensemble on Bristol Silence. In August of 2026, Tanaka led a new improvisational trio that included Strønen and bassist Thomas Morgan for the ECM date Windflower. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi