Keiko Lee, born in 1965 in Handa, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, began her musical journey with organ lessons at the age of ten. In high school she led a band that played the music of Chick Corea, Weather Report, and Casiopea, and by 21 she had shifted her focus to the piano, launching her career as a jazz pianist in Nagoya clubs where she primarily accompanied singers while singing only occasionally. Around 1994, Grady Tate heard her voice during a chance visit to the Jazz Inn Lovely club and offered his support for her first recording. Lee's debut album Imagine was recorded in New York with the trio of Kenny Barron and was successfully marketed by Sony, introducing a husky voice that fellow musicians praised as able to stand up to their instruments. In 1996 she released Kickin' It with Keiko Lee, featuring a lineup that included Tate, Ron Carter, Lee Konitz, and Renee Rosnes. Subsequent releases followed a steady chronological progression: Beautiful Love (1997), If It's Love (1998), and Day Dreaming (1999), the latter earning a Gold Disk award from Swing Journal the same year. Her 2002 album Sings Super Standards also received a Gold Disk, and the best-of Voices sold 200,000 copies that year, exceptional for a jazz album; in 2003 she won three awards in the magazine's readers' poll, including Album of the Year for Voices. Lee continued to diversify her output with Vitamin K (2003), Live 1995 (2005), and In Essence(2007). Her 2008 releases Delight and Another Side of Keiko Lee were followed by Fragile (2009), and her later projects include Sings the Beatles (2014) and Live at Jazz Inn Lovely (2020). Her discography spans over two decades, including the 2004 album Who's Screamin' and covers such as "Stand By Me". Throughout her career, Lee received consistent recognition from Swing Journal, being named Japan's best jazz singer multiple times after her initial 1997 poll victory. Known for her husky voice and for singing and writing lyrics primarily in English, she has performed regularly outside Japan.
