coba (accordionist) profile

With his extremely unique, pop, accordion music, "coba" has revolutionized the image of the instrument.

In 1995, the Icelandic singer Bjork had seen his concert performance in London and was instantly attracted to his music. Immediately after the performance, he was asked to join her in world tour. coba thus performed in Bjork's world concert tour for 3 years, covering over 60 countries; more than 3 million audience worldwide enjoyed the collaboration of Bjork and coba 's innovative accordion sound. The tour also was an opportunity for coba to collaborate with many other internationally successful artists, including Goldie, 808 State, Underworld, Plaid and Howie B. He has been collaborating with Plaid and Howie B on many occasions since then.

Currently, coba produces music for more than 10 regular nationwide TV and radio programs. He is also engaged in a variety of activities ranging from producing projects for various other artists to producing film music. He is certainly one of the busiest composers, players and producers in Japan. He released his 29th original album "Boy" from JVC Victor Entertainment in October 2006.

In October 2006 in Italy, he was awarded "Voce d'oro",a prize is given to the most active accordionist in the world.

[coba biography]

Born in 1959, coba had started playing the accordion at the age of 9. At the age of 18 he traveled to Italy to study at the Accordion Department of the Scuola di Musica Luciano Fancelli in Venice from which he graduated at the top of the class.

Footmarks in his career include the following:

April, 1979: Wins first prize at the 2nd All Japan Accordion Contest.

September, 1979: Wins first prize at the Alassio International Accordion competition (held in Alassio, Italy).

October, 1980: Wins first prize at the 30th C.M.A. World Accordion competition (held in Vienna, Austria).

1989: Starts touring Europe.

1991: Solo album Under the Moon in Sicily (EMI) wins Special Prize of Nippon Record Taisho (the Japan Record Grand Awards). Launched an annual national concert tour covering 20 cities.

1994: 6th album Mania coba (EMI) becomes a national hit, selling over two hundred thousand copies.

1995-1997: Participated in Bjork's world tour, attracting over 3 million audiences in more than 60 countries around the world.

1996: Solo album 'ROOTS?' is chosen the best album by 'Nova Magazine' published by the French radio station 'RADIO NOVA'.

2005: Release album Dear Modestman from JVC Victor Entertainment, Inc.

2006: "Voce d'oro", a prize is given to the most active accordionist in the world.

He has just released his brand new album "Boy".

coba has released 29 albums to date, totaling in excess of two million album units, repeatedly renewing the record of sales for instrumental albums in Japan. Besides the annual national tour covering more than 30 cities in Japan, he is actively engaged in the wide range of music projects, including the producing of film, stage, TV, radio, game and advertisement music. In 2001 he had won "THE BEST MUSIC COMPOSER OF THE YEAR" for cinema music in THE ACADEMY AWARDS IN JAPAN. In 2002, he had written the music for movie "POKEMON" as well. coba is one of the most popular instrumental artists in Japan.