Shinobu Ito (musician)

is a jazz-fusion guitarist who was born in Ōiso, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

Career

Shinobu's original song In Love for Keeps was selected by Billboard's 1st Annual Song Contest in 1988. Shinobu also worked as a translator on Saxophone player Jim Snidero's Jazz Conception Study Guide Series by Jim Snidero (ATN. Inc.) in 1998. Shinobu spent 3 years as an instructor at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music/Jazz Division in Japan, and to do so, he made frequent flights from New York City to Tokyo between 2005 & 2007. During this era, his Latin flavored smooth Jazz group RAMONADA was offered to play as a house group at a newly opened Jazz club in Tokyo called CANDY in April 2006. Since then, RAMONADA subsequently performed at in the club nearly 30 times in 9 months period of time by popular demand with great success. His CD in this era was a classical guitar duo recorded in New York City as Musica para Enamorados, released in August 2006 from the JazzBank label.

Since he came back to New York City in 2009, Shinobu is resuming activities at local venues, theater music scene with fellow musicians also as an instructor and producer. He has published the following 4 CDs since then:

  • LIVE AT CANDY (Costa del Sol, 2013)
  • MIDNIGHT SESSION (Costa del Sol, 2019)
  • LEGENDARY LIVE (Costa del Sol, 2020)
  • MONOCHROME BLUE (Costa del Sol, 2023)

Discography

As a leader of a musical group, Shinobu's discography is as follows:

  • SAILING ROLLING (Nippon Crown 1991)
  • ONE LIFE TO LIVE (JAZZBANK 2001)
  • A TRIBUTE TO BADEN POWELL and ANTONIO LAURO (JAZZBANK 2002)
  • SERENATA. Duo with Seiichi Nakamura (JAZZBANK 2005)
  • MUSICA PARA ENAMORADOS (JAPANESE TITLE: RAMONADA) (JAZZBANK 2006)
  • LIVE AT CANDY (Costa del Sol 2013)
  • MIDNIGHT SESSION (Costa del Sol 2019)
  • LEGENDARY LIVE (Costa del Sol 2020)
  • MONOCHROME BLUE (Costa del Sol 2023)

In addition, as a sideman and producer, he has the following discography:

  • P.S. I LOVE YOU by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto (Toshiba EMI 1980)
  • GOD SON by Eric Wyatt (King Records1997)

Comments