ArtistInfo

Ky

Band, FR
Jazz
A.k.a. Maki Nakano, Yann Pittard + ? Ky x Bala Dée

Ky is a French-Japanese conceptual duo of saxophonist Maki Nakano and guitarist Yann Pittard, founded in 2004 then Nakano and Pittard met at Conservatoire de Paris. Named after a French word 'who' (qui), Ky never knows who is the third player(s), and features a rotating cast of featured musicians, vocalists, dancers, visual artists, sculptors, etc. Ky's repertoire include original and spontaneous compositions, as well as works by Erik Satie, and re-arranged traditional music from all over the world. Since 2005, they played hundreds of concerts from Tokyo and Paris to New York and Istanbul, and released six albums on Japanese labels Ohrai Records, Ottava and openmusic. In 2006, Ky started working with percussionist Thomas Ballarini – they collaborated on Ky's debut album, as well as two releases in 2007 and 2011, and toured three times in Japan in 2007, '09 and '14. Nakano and Pittard met with balafon virtuoso Moussa Hema from Burkina Faso and Bachir Sanogo from Côte d’Ivoire in 2008. After performing at Africolor Festival in France, Nakano traveled to Burkina Faso to develop this collaboration further. Joined by French drummer Gaston Zirko, they established a new Bala Dee (which means 'wood's sound') project, and released Out Of Place album. They toured Japan in 2011–12-13-17-18, and participated in the 2013 TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development). They also performed at Africolor festival 2018 in Paris. Ky worked a few times with bassist-composer Yoram Rosilio and Moroccan painter Redouane Bernaz. Together they held a recording session in Paris in 2009, residence-concert in Essaouira in 2011, and a tour in Morocco in 2012. Nakano and Pittard had been collaborating with Turkish percussionist Gürkan Özkan and fretless guitarist Cenk Erdoğan in Istanbul in 2009–10, and recorded Musique Vagabonde album together. The word Ky has various meanings in Japanese, depending on the way this syllable is written: heart, spirit, originality, intention, mood, tree, conscience, etc. Band members Maki Nakano – alto & baritone saxophones, metal clarinet, vocals Yann Pittard – baritone guitar, oud, percussions, vocals, effects Featured creative artists Eiichi Hayashi (alto saxophone) Satoko Fujii (piano) Stéphane Payen (saxophone) Mitsuru Nasuno (bass) Yuji Tsunemi (oud) Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (drums) Yoram Rosilio (double bass) Rafael Koerner (drums) Hugues Vincent (cello) Shizuru Ohtaka (voice) Mikio Ishida (piano) Paban Das Baul (voice) Tanikawa Kensaku (piano) Stéphane Tsapis (piano) Johan Guidou (drums) Miya (10) (flute) Michi Fujii (trumpet) Natsuki Kido (guitar) Karsten Hochapfel (cello) Gürkan Özkan (tabla, percussion) Cenk Erdoğan (fretless guitar) Thomas Ballarini (percussion) Mustafa Said (oud) Takeshi Takahashi (shamisen) Yukki Yoyo (yoyo) Kazumi Ikenaga (drums) Keiko Takagi (koto) ...

Members

	Yann Pittard oud, voc *1983 FR
	Maki Nakano as, cl, voc JP