Miho Hazama

This piece is inspired by an imaginary day in the life of my favorite cartoon animal. I’ve always been a big fan of chipmunk characters from Disney, but I had never seen real squirrels or chipmunks until I came to the United States. I still remember how excited I felt when I saw wild chipmunks for the first time. As they have very rhythmical steps and sharp movements, they made me think of a basic groove for this piece. I wanted to utilize rhyme when choosing the title to mirror the “rhyming” musical ideas throughout the composition.

(Producer’s note: It’s a testament to both Miho’s compositional prowess and the players’ virtuosic execution that I feel it is worth noting that this piece, including the “solos” in the middle section, is through-composed.)

Grammy-nominated composer, Miho Hazama is one of the most promising and talented composers/arrangers of her generation. Lauded in Downbeat as one of “25 for the Future”, Miho developed her signature jazz chamber orchestra “m_unit” and expertly showcased the abilities of guest artists such as Joshua Redman, Lionel Loueke and Gil Goldstein, to name a few.

Composition is her true calling, and in addition to her effort with m_unit, she has created works for many different musical contexts. Most notably, she has composed for Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Ashley Bouder Project Ballet Company, Yamaha Symphonic Band, to name a few. Miho became a composer in residence of Siena Wind Orchestra in 2017, and she is a composer of the year 2019 of Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa.

In 2019, Miho took up a post as the chief conductor of Danish Radio Big Band (DR Big Band) after Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely, to name a few. Miho released the first album featuring DR Big Band “Imaginary Visions” in 2021. Miho also became the permanent guest conductor of Metropole Orkest in 2020. Besides them, Miho has worked as a conductor with WDR Big Band, Clasijazz Orchestra and Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, to name a few. She is the Associate Artistic Director of the New York Jazzharmonic.

As an arranger, Miho has worked for many ensembles for concerts, recordings, television and film, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Vince Mendoza, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Shiro Sagisu and many more.