Featured Artist of the Month: July 2020
For the Love of Jazz
Rie Yamaguchi-Borden, born in Ehime, Japan, has been a part of NYC's vibrant and free-spirited jazz club scene since 1999. She strives to refine her craft as both jazz drummer and vocalist in NYC where like-minded artists congregate night after night, and we had a chance to chat with her and learn more about her latest project!
Q: I like to start at the beginning, so I would love to hear more about where you're from, and when/how you first discovered music?
I came to the US to study ESL at SUNY New Paltz, right after I graduated high school in Ehime, Japan, a rural prefecture. My original intention in coming to America was to pursue Environmental Studies.
However, that intention only lasted for one semester, after which I boldly ran away to NYC without telling my family. It was a complete solo trip that came out of my crazy energy trying to find “ something” in my life.
After a long nightshift at an East village Japanese restaurant, I found Smalls Jazz club, where my future husband, Mitch, was the owner at the time. It was the very first time I ever heard Jazz. After that day, I started to come to Smalls every week. That is my beginning. I was hooked.
Q: What attracted you to jazz and to the drums, in particular, and why are you passionate about jazz music?
For about a year, I never uttered a word about Jazz to anyone. I just went to the club to sit, smoke and leave. One day, Mitch asked me if I could help him clean the club.
Smalls was very bohemian back then. It opened around 8pm, and the jam sessions would go until around 8am the next morning. Throughout my listening years, I was so fascinated with all the jazz musicians that I shared my time with. I started to notice that I was part of a group of intelligent, casual, funny and bodacious individuals. But since I am very shy, it took me about five years to decide to make this music something to live for.
My first love was piano. I apprenticed as a piano tuner. Then, I finally started to take jazz piano lessons from one of the greatest in NYC’s jazz scene, Tardo Hammer. After a few years of trying, I couldn’t progress to the level of improvising (though this pandemic got me back on piano!). So, I taught myself how to sing instead. I had this urge to express myself on stage.
I started to have late night gigs at Smalls when I was 27, and drums came into the picture around the time I was 30.
After watching world-renowned Be-bop legend Jimmy Wormworth play at Smalls one night, I was sold. I wanted to make people feel as excited as I was when I listened to him. It made me crazy not to try. My heart told me to dive into the world of Jazz drumming.
Q: Can you tell us more about your influences and teachers?
For voice, I love Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. I love their delivery of the poetry in songs.
For drums, Art Blakey and Max Roach are my top two. They are both great sidemen and leaders with lots of charisma and recognizable sounds.
Billy Kaye, Cliff Barbaro, Byron Landham, Lamy Istrefi Jr, Jason Tiemann and Charles Goold are my drum teachers and mentors.
I consider all the musicians I saw perform at Smalls, who are the best of the best in the world, to be my teachers, regardless of their instruments.
Q: Do you feel you have a mission or vision as an artist - any particular thing you hope to communicate or provide through your music?
Yes. My mission is to keep playing this music.
Inspiration, once it is given to you, will take you to the place for you to eventually inspire others.
Q: What have been some of the proudest accomplishments, and greatest challenges, of your career thus far?
For me, being able to call myself a Jazz musician is my proudest accomplishment.
All of us musicians are like cats. We survive. Even COVID-19 hasn’t completely broken our hearts. As long as we are alive, we will never stop thinking about playing. It is a pure joy to share music with musicians and listeners. The hardest challenge has been not being able to play with and for others during the shelter in place phase of the pandemic.
Q: Tell us more about any projects you're currently working on?
Gotham Yardbird Sanctuary is a non-profit organization which my husband, Mitch Borden, and I started. Our mission is to create a system that ensures musicians are paid for performances at local restaurants and bars in NYC.
This will create:
1. Paid gigs for musicians
2. No-cover, live jazz experiences for New Yorkers
3. Entertainment for local business free of charge.
Also, we want to create artistic events in interesting spaces in NYC. For example, a free local music festival in a community garden or a drink & draw with live music at a local art gallery or collaborations with dancers, actors and poets at a theater. We want to see all like-minded artists mingle and share their inspirations.
We want NYC, a city of dreams, to keep up her name as a real sanctuary for all artists through the power of Jazz.
Q: What is the best way for readers to experience your work (either online, or in-person)?
The best way is to visit Bodeguita in Bushwick every Sunday from 6-8pm, when I host a live Jazz show in their beautiful rooftop garden. Also, you can find more info and donate to this project on Twitter and LinkedIn.
You can also visit my website here.