Early years

Keiko Doi's mother Emiko brought her to her first piano lesson in the June following her fifth birthday. Japanese tradition holds that a child who is introduced to lessons at this time will continue in those studies for a long time. The tradition held true for Doi, who studied piano throughout her school years. Though her early training focused on classical music, in junior high school she developed an interest in jazz and began composing her own music. Some of her musical influences at this time included Stevie Wonder, Rachmaninov, Maurice Jarre and Chick Corea.

Recording success

Keiko Matsui released two albums under the MCA label before moving on to White Cat, Countdown, Unity and currently Narada. The 1990s saw Matsui's albums rising in the charts. Sapphire hit number two on Billboard magazine's weekly Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and Dream Walk reached number three. Matsui was rated Billboard's number three Top Contemporary Jazz Artist for 1997 (where she was the only female jazz artist in the top ten), and both Dream Walk and Sapphire appeared in Billboard's Top Ten Indie Contemporary Jazz Albums for the same year.

Charitable causes

Matsui has taken an interest in a variety of charitable causes. Her 1997 mini-CD A Gift of Hope went to support the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, and her music appeared in a Lifetime channel special about breast cancer, "Say It, Fight It, Cure It." Matsui also played at a special ice skating benefit in 1997 to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Keiko Matsui sound

Matsui's music is powerful and introspective, blending both western and eastern musical influences. She has a very spiritual view of composing music, feeling out each composition as though it were, in her words, "coming to me from another space, another dimension," and "catching notes from the silence and then simply placing them together" [2]. Matsui sees music as "the great gifts from the human souls from the past, for the children of the future" [3]. She believes that music has a power to bring people together and change their lives. "We are connected by music," Matsui wrote, "as the Ocean connects the continents" [4].

Solo releases

Guest appearances

• Kazu Matsui – Tribal Mozart (Countdown, 1997)
• Kazu Matsui – Tribal Shubert (Countdown, 1999)
• Bob James – Dancing on the Water (Warner Brothers/WEA, 2000)
• Jason Miles – "Miles to Miles" (Narada, 2005)

Compilation appearances

• Smooth Jazz V98.7 FM – Vol. 3 (label and release date unknown; released by radio station WVMV-FM, Detroit, Michigan)
• All That Jazz III (GRP Records, release date unknown)
• KMJZ Smooth Jazz Sampler Volume 1 (KMJZ, release date unknown)

Videos

• Light Above the Trees (Winstar, 1998)
• The Jazz Channel Presents Keiko Matsui (Image Entertainment, 2001)
• White Owl (Narada, 2003)