MAY RECEIVED THE ‘NISSAN PRESENTS JAZZ AWARD 2011’ IN THE CATEGORY ‘MOST TALENTED NEWCOMER TO JAZZ’ FOR HIS FIRST SOLO ALBUM ENTITLED ‘FIRST TRAIN’.
MAY INOUE BIOGRAPHY
At just 27 years old, Japanese guitar sensation, May Inoue already has five solo albums to his name and has recorded alongside Kazumi Watanabe, and played live with Kurt Rosenwinkel. He is a graduate of the prestigious Berklee Music College in the US and has earned various accolades in Japan, not least “Album of the Year” in 2011 for his debut EMI record, “First Train”.
May Inoue with Jason Rebello, Jay Phelps, Davide Mantovani and Kaz Rodriguez – London 2018
May started playing guitar when he was 15 years old and taught himself by copying his favourite guitar players such as Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. However, it was when his father took him along to see Mike Stern in concert in Tokyo that May fell in love with jazz guitar. May was 17 at that time. This story went full circle when in 2018, Mike Stern watched May Inoue play a concert at Ronnie Scott’s in London when The May Inoue Trio opened the show for Mike.
May manages an extremely busy schedule in Japan playing most nights of the year. He has several of his own groups, a solo guitar project, a band project with Stereo Champ, and is a highly in-demand musician performing and recording with other artists.
In November 2018 May played his first concerts in the UK which were produced by Yokohama Calling. Three groups of musicians were specially assembled for May and those collaborations produced very successful concerts and workshops in London and Brighton, UK. The three groups consisted:
Quintet: May Inoue with Jason Rebello, Davide Mantovani, Jay Phelps and Kaz Rodriguez.
Trio: May Inoue with Julian Crampton and Andrew Small (at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, London).
Duo: May Inoue and Julian Burdock in ‘London Conversation’.
Some of these UK concerts were filmed and will become available on our youtube channel. Please subscribe to our youtube channel so that you don’t miss those releases.
May Inoue & Mike Stern at Ronnie Scott’s, London, with Julian Crampton & Andrew Small
May Inoue Albums
May Inoue – First Train – 2011
May Inoue – Waiting For Sunrise – 2013
May Inoue – Stereo Champ – 2017 : Listen here
May Inoue – Solo Guitar – 2018 : Listen here
Mono Light – Stereo Champ – 2018 : Listen here
