Biography
Jimi Nakagawa is a performer, educator and composer based in San Francisco Bay Area.
Jimi started playing drums in high school in Tokyo, Japan. He performed with local bands and collaborated with a popular musical theater group as a drummer before coming to the US.
In 1981, Jimi came to San Francisco to follow his passion for music and started performing in local bands soon after his arrival.
In 1987, Jimi joined the San Francisco Taiko Dojo and became a performing member.
In 1999, Jimi and three other members founded a San Francisco Bay Area based taiko group, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble.
Jimi left the ensemble in 2010 to pursue his career as a solo artist.
In addition to studying taiko under Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Jimi studied and performed with Sukeroku Daiko Hozonkai and Master Kenjiro Maru of the Wakayama style festival music in Japan. He was also given a grant to study “tsuzumi (a Japanese hand drum)” with Master Saburo Mochizuki and received master license and stage name, Bukyo Mochizuki.
Furthermore, he has studied jazz with celebrated drummer, Robert Kaufman, a former professor at the Berklee College of Music.
Jimi has performed in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Zellerbach Hall, and collaborated with Peter Erskine, Nguyen Le, Frank Martine, Van Anh Vo, Aaron Germain, Sheldon Brown, Robert Moses and Robert Moses Kin, Dr. Anthony Brown and the Asian American Orchestra, Steven Kent, Habib Kahn, Mary Fetting, Ali Ryerson, Charles Loos to name a few.
Jimi’s refined but driving stick-work has been featured in film, “Rising Sun”; his compositions were featured on the soundtracks for Steven Okazaki’s film, “Mifune the last samurai.”
Since 1999, Jimi has been teaching taiko and Japanese traditional music. His taiko school, OH-IN Taiko, offers a range of classes for adults and children and variety of workshops open to the public in San Francisco Bay Area, California.