Artist Profile
Kenji Arata
Born in Osaka Prefecture. He learned the organ from the age of 4 and the classical piano from the age of 6. Influenced by Los Incas, Earl Scruggs, Allman Brothers, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, etc., he established his own playing style based on blues, Latin and jazz. Participated in various bands since college, joined Kazuyuki Ozaki & COASTAL CITY in 1979 and started working as a professional artist. In 1984, he formed the salsa band LOS RUMBEROS with Yasuhiro Yoshigaki and Carlos Sugano. Active as a pioneer of Latin jazz in Japan. After joining a music office, he moved to Tokyo and became a support member of the Yokohama Ginbae family (JOHNNY, Daisuke Shima, Takeshi Kururei), as well as artists such as Seiko Matsuda, Noriko Hidaka, Emmanuel Bouya, Tetsuro Oda, and Naomi Akimoto. participate in the recording of After that, he moved his base to Kansai and is still energetically doing many live performances and recordings. In 2022, the first album "SKY" will be released, including the theme song of the poverty relief project "Smile Project" in Bangladesh.