Boylston Jazz----
2009年、ジャズの名門バークリー音楽大学（米・ボストン）在学中だった福本純也（日本）、エカ・キム（韓国）を中心に、ルータウラス・ヤヌシャイティス（リトアニア）、東野恵祐（日本）の国際色豊かな4名で結成されたユニークなバンド。バンドテーマは「ブレンディッド・ジャズ」。主軸のラテンジャズと多様なスタイルを掛け合わせた（ブラジル、キューバ、ペルー、クラシック音楽、ポップスなど）斬新な編曲と演奏を共同でおこない、年間に数回のワールドツアーを行っている。国際交流事業のほか、JAZZワークショップ、学校公演、ファミリーJAZZコンサートにも精力的に取り組む。国際的にも大変評価が高く国境のみならず世代・音楽のジャンルを超えて聴衆を虜にしている。
2017年、韓国・日本・リトアニアの3国をまたぐツアー30公演を開催し海外でも喝采を浴びた。
2018年、アジア・東ヨーロッパ 通算200公演達成。
2019年５月、ファン待望の５枚目アルバム「Fantasie-Impromptu 幻想即興曲」をリリース。
2019期、ツアー１０周年を迎える。
2009. 米ボストンにてプロジェクト開始
2010. 日本初公演（東京）
2011. 日本公演（東京）
2012. 日本公演（東京）
2013. 日本公演ツアー（東京、長野）
2013. 初の韓国公演ツアー
2014. 日本公演ツアー（東京、長野）
2014. 韓国ツアー
2014. 初のリトアニア公演ツアー
2015. アジア（韓国・日本）ツアー 8公演
2016. 駐日リトアニア共和国大使館の後援が決定（～2018年現在も継続）
2016. アジア（韓国・日本）ツアー 20公演、
韓国最大級の国際JAZZフェスティバルThe 13th Jarasum International Jazz Festival、ソウル市民ホールなどに出演
2017.6/27-7/3 韓国ツアー2017開催 Sejong Performing Arts Centerなど 5公演
2017.7/7 4th CD Album「むすんでひらいて～Circle of Hearts～」Release
2017.7/7-7/24 日本ツアー2017開催 Sapporo City Jazz 2017「Park Jazz Live Contest2017」ファイナリスト演奏など、15公演
2017.8/18-9/3 リトアニアツアー2018開催 Broma Jazz Festival、Jazz festival Jaunystė' 17、SUGIHARA WEEK、SUGIHARA HOUSE at カウナスなど 10公演
2018.9/21-10/3 日本ツアー2018開催
2018.10/4-10/6 韓国ツアー2018開催
2019.5 5th CD Album「Fantasie-Impromptu 幻想即興曲」Release
2019.10/21-11/6 日本ツアー2019開催
2019.11/8-11/15 韓国ツアー2019開催
The various nationalities of the band members, and their experiences studying together in the international environment at the world-renowned Berklee College of Music, gives their music a very global outlook.Playing both original music and tunes arranged by its members, the band focuses on blending jazz with a wide range of styles, including Brazilian, Cuban and Peruvian folk music, as well as classical and pop music. This creates a new sound that is exciting and fresh, but also familiar and accessible, and they aim to share the joy of this borderless music with their audiences. They are also committed to inspiring and educating young people, and this is reflected in their latest album, which feature children’s songs from around the world.
Borderless Jazz, Blended Jazz, Boylston Jazz!
World Music and “Blended Jazz” band Boylston Jazz is a world into jazz, creating new sounds and sharing the fun a band that incorporates various music from all over the and the pleasure of music with their audiences.
This borderless band has members from Lithuania (Liutauras Janusaitis, sax) and Korea (Ekah Kim, drums) and Japan(Junya Fukumoto, piano) (Keisuke Higashino, bass), all of whom are highly skilled players, composers and arrangers. Not only excellent musicians, their spirit and energy is infectious, and their mix of musical backgrounds and nationalities gives them a very unique sound.
This band has been touring annually in Japan, South Korea, and Lithuania since 2010, including an appearance at the 13th Jarasum International Jazz Festival, one of Korea’s biggest jazz festivals. And in 2017, the band performed over 30 concerts in Japan and South Korea, Lithuania.
Junya Fukumoto
is a jazz/latin/blues pianist, composer, arranger and producer. In 2003 he graduated from Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, where he was in a composition major and mainly studied classical contemporary music. In 2008, he graduated from Berklee College of Music, where he discovered various music from all over the world including Jazz, Blues, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and so on. After came back to Japan in 2010,he has been performing in some different field like Jazz, Brazilian music, Salsa and etc. In particular his arrangements, which are mixture of various music styles in classical songs or world children songs, are very unique. He has been organizing “Boyltson Jazz Japan Tour”as a Leader since 2010. He is a member of Salsa band “Orquesta Regulus”.
For more information, please visit http://www.junyafukumoto.com
Ekah Kim
has spent many years living and traveling around the world, performing and making music, inspired by different cultures and boundaries. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston, he moved to New York. His deep interest in African rhythms and Latin-American culture lead him to the Latin Jazz project Boylston Jazz. As of 2015, Ekah Kim has toured and performed in about 30 countries, 200 different cities, and he has released 10 albums as a leader and a co-producer.
For more information, please visit Ekahkim.com
Liutauras Janušaitis
Liutauras is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, composer, conductor and educator. He was the first ever Lithuanian musician to graduate from Berklee College of Music, and has toured in Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Great Britain, Baltic States, USA, Canada and Russia in various groups. He also constantly arranges and records for various rock, r&b and pop projects and often takes part in international jazz and contemporary music festival. He is also the main conductor and artistic director of Kaunas City Big Band, and as a producer, his remixes have won several awards at the “Jazzanova” remix contests.
Keisuke Higashino
was born in Osaka, Japan, and started playing guitar and electric bass at a young age. He graduated from Osaka University of Arts as a composition major, and then went on to study at Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2010. He performed at Boston Symphony Hall as a member of the Berklee Video Game Orchestra in 2011, and his versatility and facility have led to him being highly in demand in Japan, touring regularly in various styles of groups including rock, tap-dance, pop, fusion, jazz, and so on.