Minoru Kikuchi

A few years later, after I graduated Music school in Tokyo, I moved to New York City in March 1984. In a winter of the same year, I attended Jazz workshop know as Jazzmobile in Harlem in NYC. I studied Jazz guitar under Mr. Ted Dumber in advanced class. I also took Rick Stone's jazz guitar advanced class in late 1990's in a same facility. I also learned Jazz improvisations under Mr. John Isely (Saxophonist) at facility called Boys Harbor in East Harlem in mid-1990's. My earlier years as a musician in New York City wasn't necessarily desirable until later on. I use to play on the streets, subway stations and restaurants in NYC. I performed solo guitar, guitar duo, guitar/bass duo while I was searching for band to play with. In late 1980's, I met with a song writer name Rob Darnell through my religious activity and I joined his band called Poetic Notion. I performed with Poetic Notion in NYC for about 7, 8 years. In mid-1990's, I joined Mission Jazz Ensemble led by Vincent Kho, later on Vincent moved to San Francisco and changed his group's name to Humanistic. I also performed with New Jersey base funk rock group called Blue Number Nine in year 1995~2004. I participated their first three CDs and toured in buffalo and Cleveland several time.